Mumbai Mayor Cup | IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni pulls off a stunner against GM Adam Tukhaev
Mumbai’s IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni has pulled an upset victory over GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine in an eighth round match of the 11th Mumbai Mayor’s Cup International Open Chess Tournament on Saturday. Along with Kulkarni, IM Visakh NR also scored an unexpected victory over GM Ivan Rozum of Russia.
The ongoing 11th Mumbai Mayor’s Cup International Open Chess Tournament has proven quite a battleground for the Indian Chess players. Two Indian International Masters have scored an upset victory over two Grand Masters. The first of the two victories came in the match between IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni and GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine. Kulkarni stunned the Ukrainian in the eighth round of the match, with some impressive moves and caused an upset in the tournament.  Â
In the second victory in Rs 35-lakh prize
Playing with black, Kulkarni (ELO 2323) opted for French defense classical variation. On the 22nd move, he won an extra pawn which he had to forego when Tukhaev (ELO 2557) exchanged his knight for a bishop. After the queens were exchanged, Kulkarni attacked the base pawn which was difficult to protect and Tukhaev sacrificed his bishop for 2 pawns. Since the Indian had one extra piece on board, Tukhaev had no chance of survival and accepted his defeat in 42 moves, boosting Kulkarni’s tally to 5.5.
The game between GM Ivan (ELO 2581) and IM Visakh (ELO 2447) was converted to Reti opening after starting with English opening. Although Rozum got an extra pawn it gave an open file to Visakh and a powerful attack with his rook on the 7th rank to pin a knight. Facing a continuous attack on his knight, Ivan had no option but to offer his rook for the knight. With a rook versus knight, Ivan tried his best to draw but Visakh’s resilience and focus helped him snatch victory in 56 moves.
