Gujarat GM R08: Ivan Rozum dashes ahead, Saptarshi Roy fights back

by Satanick Mukhuty - 28/09/2019

Top seed Ivan Rozum has taken a full point lead over the rest of the field after defeating FM Manush Shah in the eighth round of the ongoing 2nd Gujarat International Grandmaster Open here in Ahmedabad. Saptarshi Roy too recovered well after his last round's setback to beat IM Denis Eraschenkov with the black pieces. IM Neelash Saha also kept up his good form as he got the better of GM Maxim Lugovskoy and squeezed out a victory after a 76-move long battle. All in all, after the completion of eight rounds, Ivan Rozum sits atop the leaderboard with an unbeaten 7.5/8 points. While Saptarshi Roy, Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder, Himanshu Sharma, and Neelash Saha follow him a point behind with 6.5/8 each.

Saptarshi Roy comes out better in a double-edged melee!

Saptarshi Roy made a strong come back after his seventh round loss to beat IM Denis Eraschenkov in round eight | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy is a player who revels in complex, dynamic positions. In round eight of the 2nd Gujarat International Open he reinforced his reputation by outwitting his strong Russian adversary, IM Denis Eraschenkov, in a highly charged double-edged position. Saptarshi had the black pieces and ended up in a slightly worse position out of the Chigorin variation of queen's pawn opening. But the sharp nature of the game ensured that he had the psychological edge.

Denis Eraschenkov - Saptarshi Roy, Round 8

White is better in this position as Black's attack on the kingside is yet to take off. Denis played the move 26.Bxa6 here, can you find a better alternative?

The position is clearly very sharp. Black is trying to launch an attack on the kingside with Rg6 followed by Qh2 and even Bf3/Bh3 if possible; on the other hand White's forces are focussed on the queenside. The better move here, instead of 26.Bxa6, would have been 26.Qb6 with the strong threat of going Qc7 next. This would have gotten Black in some serious trouble. However, after 26.Bxa6 b5 27. a4 Rg6 in the game, the position retained its double-edged nature but was roughly equal.

With 28...Qh2 Black's forces were too near to the white king. 29.Kf1? was played here but this was a mistake, can you find a better move?

29.Kf1? allowed Black to infiltrate into White's camp effectively with 29...Qxg3 30.R5c2 d4 31.Ne2 Bxe2+ 32.Rxe2 Nd5 33.Qa3 Nxf4 and here White was completely lost. The right move would have been the calm defensive retreat 29.Qc2! Now, after 29...cxb5 30.Bxb5 Bh5 31.Kf1 White manages to hold on. After Qb6 was missed on move 26, Black's attack on the other side of the board quickened, thus on move 29 it became important for White to take a step back and defend with the crucial 29.Qc2! The full game with detailed analysis of these critical points is presented below:

Ivan Rozum beat FM Manush Shah to take a massive lead after round eight and inched forward towards the title prize. In the penultimate round he faces GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder of Chile | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Neelash Saha kept up his good form and beat the Russian Grandmaster Maxim Lugovskoy in round eight to take his score to 6.5/8 | Photo: David Llada

Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Odisha held GM Hesham Abdelrahman to a draw with the black pieces.

Sandipan Chanda started off the event with four consecutive victories but slowed down thereafter. In round eight he drew his fourth game in a row against IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Deepan Chakkravarthy defeated Raset Ziatdinov with black pieces in round eight and now has 6.0/8 points | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round eight

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan	2596	6½	1 - 0	6	FM	Manush Shah	2352	24
2	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2408	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	6
3	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2529	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2374	20
4	17	IM	Eraschenkov Denis	2390	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2480	5
5	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2454	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2408	14
6	19	GM	Manik Mikulas	2375	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Das Sayantan	2434	9
7	25	IM	Neelash Saha	2334	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2422	11
8	16	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2396	5	½ - ½	5½		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2329	26
9	38	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2222	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2539	2
10	34	IM	Abu Sufian Shakil	2255	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Nitin S.	2361	22

Standings after round eight

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	TB1
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2596	Russia	7,5
2	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy		IND	2480	WB	6,5
	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo		CHI	2476	Chile	6,5
	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2408	IT	6,5
	25	IM	Neelash Saha		IND	2334	WB	6,5
6	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2539	ICF	6,0
	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan		IND	2529	WB	6,0
	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy		VIE	2454	Vietnam	6,0
	9	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2434	WB	6,0
	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.		IND	2408	ICF	6,0
	19	GM	Manik Mikulas		SVK	2375	Slovakia	6,0
	20	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy		IND	2374	PSPB	6,0
	24	FM	Manush Shah		IND	2352	Guj	6,0
	26		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan		IND	2329	Odi	6,0
	34	IM	Abu Sufian Shakil		BAN	2255	Bangladesh	6,0

Complete results and standings

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