5th Sharjah Masters 2022 R1-4: Abhijeet Gupta makes a perfect start

by Shahid Ahmed - 25/05/2022

Abhijeet Gupta has made a fantastic start at 5th Sharjah Masters 2022. He won all four of his games to gain sole lead 4/4. Three out of four wins were against strong 2600+ - Shant Sargsyan, Raunak Sadhwani and Misratdin Iskandarov (AZE). Only three players - Salem Saleh (UAE), Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) and Mustafa Yilmaz (TUR) are trailing by a half point at 3.5/5. A total of 80 players from 30 countries including 59 GMs, 15 IMs, 2 WGMs and a WIM are taking part in this strong field. Total prize fund is US$ 60000, first prize US$ 10000. Round 5 starts today at 3 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. IST). Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

Salem, Bogdan-Daniel and Yilmaz at 3.5/4

14 Indian players are taking part out of total 80 players. Eight Indians are at 2.5/4. Round 5 will witness three All-Indian matches between Raunak-Arjun Erigaisi, Narayanan S L-B Adhiban and Gukesh-Sethuraman. Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Abhimanyu Puranik are the remaining two.

GM Abhijeet Gupta is focused | Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

Round 2: Abhijeet - Shant: 1-0

GM Abhijeet Gupta (2606) scored an important win in the second round against Armenia no.5, GM Shant Sargsyan (2641).

Position after 31...a5

Whatever fighting chances Black had were gone after 31...a5. Find out why. Black soon ran into an unstoppable checkmate threat.

GM Abhijeet Gupta en route his victory over GM Shant Sargsyan | Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

Round 3: Raunak - Abhijeet: 0-1

Abhijeet completed his hat-trick of wins with a win over fellow countryman, GM Raunak Sadhwani (2619).

Position after 30.Nce4

Black has both bishops piercing down the kingside. The queen and knight are ready to join the attack too. 30...Qd7 just gets ready for the attack 31.cxd4 Bxg3 32.Nxg3 Nh4 33.Bxh6 Bxg2 and things fell apart in a hurry for White.

Round 4: Abhijeet - Iskandarov: 1-0

GM Abhijeet Gupta (2606) completely outplayed GM Misratdin Iskandarov (AZE, 2601) in the King's Indian Defence.

Position after 17...Nb6

17...Nb6 just turned things completely in White's favor. 18.Bxc5 dxc5 19.Bd3 Rf4 20.Nxh7 completely destroyed Black's kingside. White won the game in another 14 moves.

Interview with GM Abhijeet Gupta | Video: Sharjah Chess

Abhijeet Gupta is in terrific form | Photo: Sharjah Chess Club

Replay the Live stream

Replay Sharjah Masters Round 4 live commentary by GM Ivan Sokolov | Video: Sharjah Chess

Replay Round 1-4 games

Round 4 results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
4	1	38	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Iskandarov Misratdin	2601	39
4	6	2	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2694	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2619	27
4	7	4	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2675	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2616	29
4	8	24	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2624	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2662	7
4	9	8	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2661	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Aryan Chopra	2609	33
4	10	26	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2621	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Gukesh D	2659	9
4	11	37	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2606	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2652	11
4	12	32	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Sargsyan Shant	2641	15
4	21	28	GM	Adhiban B.	2616	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	Sankalp Gupta	2505	54
4	23	70	WIM	Kamalidenova Meruert	2408	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2608	35
4	25	14	GM	Nihal Sarin	2646	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Gharibyan Mamikon	2487	57
4	36	80	IM	Al Hosani Omran	2191	1	0 - 1	½	IM	Aditya Mittal	2490	55

Details

Round 5 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
5	1	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2690	3½		4	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	38
5	8	27	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2619	2½		2½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2675	4
5	10	7	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2662	2½		2½	GM	Adhiban B.	2616	28
5	11	9	GM	Gukesh D	2659	2½		2½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	32
5	12	29	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2616	2½		2½	GM	Niemann Hans Moke	2656	10
5	13	35	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2608	2½		2½	GM	Moussard Jules	2651	12
5	22	33	GM	Aryan Chopra	2609	2		2	IM	Badelka Olga	2453	62
5	24	72	IM	Buksa Nataliya	2406	2		2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2606	37
5	26	68	FM	Msellek Ilyass	2411	1½		1½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2646	14
5	31	54	GM	Sankalp Gupta	2505	1½		1½	GM	Erdogdu Mert	2407	71
5	32	55	IM	Aditya Mittal	2490	1½		1½	WIM	Kamalidenova Meruert	2408	70

Details

Links

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Tournament details

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