Abu Dhabi Masters R4-6 Four Indians in a tie for fourth

by Aditya Pai - 13/08/2018

Scoring two wins and a draw apiece in their last two games, Nihal Sarin and SL Narayanan have made it into the 16 way tie for fourth, after six rounds at the Abu Dhabi Masters. GM Murali Karthikeyan and Aravindh Chithambaram are also in this 16-player-group with a score of 4.5/6. Meanwhile, Anton Korobov and Daniil Dubov emerged as tournament leaders winning their sixth round games. Three rounds still remain to be played and with all players revving up their engine, the spectators have every reason to look forward to some thrills.

Three rounds were played in the two days after the rest day at the Abu Dhabi Masters. At the conclusion of the sixth round, two leaders have emerged: Daniil Dubov and Anton Korobov. Both players have scored 5.5/6 and are half point ahead of their nearest rivals. The Indian charge is led by IM Nihal Sarin who is in a tie for fourth at 4.5/6.

Nihal has caught pace since his third round loss against GM Amin Bassem. The 14-year-old has scored 2.5 points in his next three games. This also includes a draw against the third seed of the tournament, GM Ivan Cheparinov, in round 5.

Nihal’s round four game against Australian International Master, Junta Ikeda was especially noteworthy. Putting behind the previous round loss, Nihal blew the war-horn with 5…b5, drifting the game into a Nimzo-Indian and Benko hybrid. The ensuing position, although sharp, remained equal for the most part but Ikeda began to crack around move 18.

Position after 17...Bf5

The position is about equal here after the active response, 18.Qg5. But white decided to simply protect the e4 knight with 18.Re1. At the surface, this looks rather harmless but white is already lost in this position! Over the next few moves, black just swung his queen over to g6 via d6 and after this, it was just curtains!

IM Nihal Sarin came back with a bang in round 5 with an emphatic win over IM Junta Ikeda | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Another interesting finish was seen in the game between SL Narayanan and Gunay Mammadzada. Gunay had had a great start to the event winning both of her first two games, including a win against GM Abhijeet Gupta in round two. But like Narayanan, she had also lost in the third round and both players must have been eager to come back with a victory.

Narayanan had the better position for the most part of the game that began with a closed Sicilian Defence. With the white pieces, the Indian GM had managed to get into a heavy piece endgame with a pawn’s surplus.

Position after 43.Rbc1

Over the last few moves, Gunay had made some inaccuracies and had allowed Narayanan to generate some initiative and get the better position. But her next move really messed everything. Black played 43…Kb8? here, allowing the sweet tactical shot 44.Qe5+ Ka7 45.Rc8! The game, of course, did not last any longer.

Gunay Mammadzada suffered her second straight loss of the event to GM SL Narayanan

Alongside Nihal Sarin and SL Narayanan, round five saw P Iniyan shine against much higher rated GM Sanan Sjugirov. Nihal Sarin, in the meanwhile, drew against the third seed of the tournament Ivan Cheparinov on board eight and SL Narayanan won his second straight game of the day against IM Oliver Dimakiling.

For Sanan Sjugirov, the Leningrad Dutch went quite badly wrong against P Iniyan. The Russian GM found himself in trouble right out of the opening. Generating a strong initiative on the black king, Iniyan liquidated into a rook and minor piece endgame where he had two extra pawns. Sjugirov did manage to win back one of his pawns but Iniyan had no problems converting.

Iniyan scored a comfortable win over Sanan Sjugirov after the latter stumbled in the opening | Photo: Amruta Mokal

An almost similar scenario was seen in the game between Nihal Sarin and Ivan Cheparinov. In a Sicilian Scheveningen, Nihal chose the aggressive Keres attack and had put Cheparinov on the back foot throughout the game. In the rook and bishop endgame that ensued, Nihal was even winning at some point but the Thrissur lad was unable to make the most of the situation and ended up conceding a draw.

GM Ivan Cheparinov was on the backfoot for the most part of his game against IM Nihal Sarin | Photo: Abu Dhabi Chess Festival on Twitter

SL Narayanan also had an extra pawn in his game against Oliver Dimakiling. However, in this game, Narayanan also had a strong initiative alongside the pawn. Within 26 moves of an English Opening, the game had reached an endgame where Narayanan had an extremely active queen. It took about 25 moves more but Narayanan did manage to catch the white king in a mating net.

SL Narayanan thoroughly dominated IM Oliver Dimakiling in round 5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In the sixth round, Nihal beat another Grandmaster rated almost a hundred points higher rated than him. This time around, Nihal had the white pieces against Romanian GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian and played in the good old classical style. The two discussed the Exchange variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Nihal went for the tried and tested queenside minority attack in the middle game while his opponent sought counterplay on the kingside. Within 30 moves, Nihal had managed to reach an endgame with an extra pawn and converted with ease.

GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian | Photo: Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Twitter

Meanwhile, Anton Korobov stunned the fourth seed of the tournament, GM Wang Hao to take the tournament lead. Quite uncharacteristically, Wang made back to back errors in the middle game and ended up in a lost position within 35 moves. GM Daniil Dubov also caught up with Korobov after scoring an emphatic win with black against GM Levan Pantsulaia. Two leaders will face each other in round seven. Among the Indian players, SL Narayanan, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin and Murali Karthikeyan are in a 16-way tie for the fourth place at 4.5/6.

All Games

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Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	10	GM	Korobov Anton	2664	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Wang Hao	2711	4
2	26	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2587	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Dubov Daniil	2691	6
3	13	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	4	½ - ½	4½	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2636	16
4	19	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2617	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Rapport Richard	2719	2
5	5	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2707	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2680	8
6	29	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2574	4	½ - ½	3½	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2655	12
7	1	GM	Le Quang Liem	2727	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Fier Alexandr	2561	32
8	3	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2718	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Firouzja Alireza	2561	33
9	7	GM	Amin Bassem	2684	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2536	38
10	34	IM	Nihal Sarin	2556	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2645	14
11	15	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2636	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2517	41
12	17	GM	Adly Ahmed	2634	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Erigaisi Arjun	2517	42
13	43	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2514	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2619	18
14	21	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	2610	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Kuybokarov Temur	2499	44
15	45	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	2495	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2609	22
16	23	GM	Andersen Mads	2601	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2485	48
17	25	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2590	3½	1 - 0	3½	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2488	46
18	27	GM	Jojua Davit	2583	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Iniyan P	2464	49
19	47	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2487	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2581	28
20	35	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2539	3	1 - 0	3½	IM	Nguyen Anh Khoi	2454	52

Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	RUS	2691	5,5	0,0	2587	24,5	6	5,5	4,08	1,42	10	14,2
2	10	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2664	5,5	0,0	2557	23,0	6	5,5	4,07	1,43	10	14,3
3	16	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2636	5,0	0,0	2523	19,5	6	5	4,06	0,94	10	9,4
4	2	GM	Rapport Richard	HUN	2719	4,5	0,0	2610	24,0	6	4,5	4,12	0,38	10	3,8
5	13	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	UKR	2654	4,5	0,0	2604	23,0	6	4,5	3,70	0,80	10	8,0
6	4	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2711	4,5	0,0	2603	25,5	6	4,5	4,11	0,39	10	3,9
7	5	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	RUS	2707	4,5	0,0	2595	23,5	6	4,5	4,13	0,37	10	3,7
8	26	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2587	4,5	0,0	2573	21,5	6	4,5	3,43	1,07	10	10,7
9	34	IM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2556	4,5	0,0	2564	19,0	6	4,5	3,29	1,21	10	12,1
10	8	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2680	4,5	0,0	2559	23,0	6	4,5	4,18	0,32	10	3,2
11	19	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	ITA	2617	4,5	0,0	2557	22,5	6	4,5	3,76	0,74	10	7,4
12	3	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	GEO	2718	4,5	0,0	2554	23,0	6	4,5	4,47	0,03	10	0,3
13	28	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2581	4,5	0,0	2553	21,0	6	4,5	3,55	0,95	10	9,5
14	15	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2636	4,5	0,0	2539	21,5	6	4,5	4,02	0,48	10	4,8
15	29	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2574	4,5	0,0	2516	20,0	6	4,5	3,74	0,76	10	7,6
16	23	GM	Andersen Mads	DEN	2601	4,5	0,0	2506	20,5	6	4,5	3,99	0,51	10	5,1
17	1	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2727	4,5	0,0	2433	19,0	6	4,5	5,09	-0,59	10	-5,9
18	22	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2609	4,5	0,0	2400	20,0	6	4,5	4,68	-0,18	10	-1,8
19	25	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2590	4,5	0,0	2359	16,5	6	4,5	4,79	-0,29	10	-2,9
20	7	GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2684	4,0	0,0	2580	24,5	6	4	4,07	-0,07	10	-0,7

Round 7 pairing

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	2691	5½		5½	GM	Korobov Anton	2664	10
2	16	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2636	5		4½	GM	Le Quang Liem	2727	1
3	2	GM	Rapport Richard	2719	4½		4½	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2590	25
4	19	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2617	4½		4½	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2718	3
5	4	GM	Wang Hao	2711	4½		4½	GM	Andersen Mads	2601	23
6	22	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2609	4½		4½	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2707	5
7	8	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2680	4½		4½	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2587	26
8	28	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2581	4½		4½	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	13
9	29	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2574	4½		4½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2636	15
10	18	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2619	4		4½	IM	Nihal Sarin	2556	34
11	42	IM	Erigaisi Arjun	2517	4		4	GM	Amin Bassem	2684	7
12	12	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2655	4		4	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2514	43
13	38	GM	Aryan Chopra	2536	4		4	GM	Adly Ahmed	2634	17
14	20	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2614	4		4	GM	Kadric Denis	2537	37
15	49	IM	Iniyan P	2464	4		4	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	2610	21
16	54	IM	Nitin S.	2449	4		4	GM	Jojua Davit	2583	27
17	44	IM	Kuybokarov Temur	2499	4		4	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2570	31
18	70	GM	Raetsky Alexander	2380	4		4	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2539	35
19	36	GM	Debashis Das	2539	4		4		Aaryan Varshney	2261	109
20	110	FM	Pranav Anand	2260	4		3½	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	2677	9

About the Author

Aditya Pai is an ardent chess fan, avid reader, and a film lover. He holds a Master's in English Literature and used to work as an advertising copywriter before joining the ChessBase India team.

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