Aeroflot 2019 Round 2: Aravindh tricks his 2681 rated opponent in a pawn endgame

by Sagar Shah - 22/02/2019

The Aeroflot Open 2019 is in its second round and things are already heating up. In the A-group out of 101 players, we only have 6 who are on 100% score with 2.0/2, out of which four are Indians! Sasikiran, Aravindh Chithambaram, S.L. Narayanan and Nihal Sarin are leading the event with 2.0/2, along with Maksim Chigaev and Zhou Jianchao. Indians had an excellent day at the office as Aravindh managed to trick Eltaj Safarli in a pawn endgame, Nihal Sarin beat Indjic, S.L. Narayanan played a crazy game to outplay Alekseenko. Some other upsets were Debashis Das getting the better of David Paravyan and Raunak Sadhwani scoring a win against Srinath Narayanan. We will have a look at all of these games in this report.

Let's begin with the most instructive game of the day!

Aravindh Chithambaram vs Eltaj Safarli, Round 2

Black to play. How would you continue?

Taking the pawn is a natural reaction for any player. However, after ...Kxc6 Kxd4 it is White who will have the opposition because there is a waiting move still left to be played with the g-pawn. That's the reason why it is important to lose the opposition in this position. By that logic you realize that it is not ...Kxc6 but in fact ...Kd6! which is the right move for Black. Now if Aravindh takes the pawn on d4 then Black can capture the pawn on c6 and it is a draw. Of course, after ...Kd6 the battle is not yet over. White can try the tricky Kc4!?. However, even here after ....Kc7!! Black refuses to step on the c6 square before White goes on the d4 square! That's how the game would have ended in a draw. However, Eltaj took the pawn on c6 and after Kxd4, White is just winning! If all of this explanation was a bit complicated to understand, then have a look at the video below:

Sagar Shah explains Aravindh's win over Eltaj Safarli

Nihal Sarin played an excellent game and took full advantage of his opponent's mistake 27...g5 to score the full point against Aleksandar Indjic | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The most exciting game of the day was S.L. Narayanan's win over Kirill Alekseenko. The final position itself shows how exciting the game was! | Photo: Sophie Triay

Alekseenko, who was white, resigned in this position! Two knights and pawns dominate the white queen!

Sasikiran has played two excellent games and is on 2.0/2 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Raunak Sadhwani beat Srinath Narayanan in the second round with some nimble manoeuvres| Photo: Niki Riga

Debashis Das scored a fine win against David Paravyan after the Russian sacrificed a lot of material and had nothing to show for it. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan		IND	2678	2,0	1	0
	29	GM	Zhou Jianchao		CHN	2615	2,0	1	0
	30	GM	Chigaev Maksim		RUS	2613	2,0	1	0
	42	GM	Narayanan.S.L		IND	2593	2,0	1	0
	45	GM	Nihal Sarin	U18	IND	2578	2,0	1	0
6	38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2601	2,0	0	0
7	1	GM	Wei Yi		CHN	2733	1,5	1	0
	2	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir		RUS	2715	1,5	1	0
	3	GM	Wang Hao		CHN	2714	1,5	1	0
	6	GM	Mamedov Rauf		AZE	2703	1,5	1	0
	7	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto		RUS	2692	1,5	1	0
	9	GM	Korobov Anton		UKR	2687	1,5	1	0
	13	GM	Sjugirov Sanan		RUS	2663	1,5	1	0
	14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.		IND	2651	1,5	1	0
	18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar		IND	2636	1,5	1	0
	21	GM	Sarana Alexey		RUS	2630	1,5	1	0

Results of round 2 for Indian players:

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
2	4	38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2601	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2681	10
2	5	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2678	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2599	40
2	6	39	GM	Donchenko Alexander	GER	2600	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2636	18
2	7	19	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2634	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2593	42
2	8	45	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2578	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2630	20
2	12	87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2471	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2616	28
2	20	9	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2687	½	1 - 0	½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2560	55
2	21	13	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2663	½	1 - 0	½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2538	65
2	22	66	GM	Stupak Kirill	BLR	2537	½	0 - 1	½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2651	14
2	23	15	GM	Anton Guijarro David	ESP	2642	½	½ - ½	½	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2540	63
2	26	84	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2480	½	½ - ½	½	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2627	22
2	27	23	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2627	½	0 - 1	½	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2532	67
2	35	49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	IND	2572	½	0 - 1	½	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2448	93
2	36	94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	IND	2444	½	½ - ½	½	IM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2569	50
2	37	74	IM	Gukesh D	IND	2508	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2666	12
2	39	37	GM	Gordievsky Dmitry	RUS	2603	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2495	78
2	40	47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2575	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2494	79
2	43	86	IM	Dai Changren	CHN	2473	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2556	57
2	45	88	IM	Prithu Gupta	IND	2470	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Sychev Klementy	RUS	2545	61
2	46	68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2532	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Kevlishvili Robby	NED	2463	89
2	48	70	IM	Lobanov Sergei	RUS	2526	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2443	95
2	49	33	GM	Idani Pouya	IRI	2604	½	1 - 0	½	CM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2454	91
2	50	92	IM	Warmerdam Max	NED	2450	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2524	71

Pairings of round 3 for Indian players

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
3	1	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2678	2		2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2601	38
3	2	42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2593	2		2	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2615	29
3	3	30	GM	Chigaev Maksim	RUS	2613	2		2	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2578	45
3	11	14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2651	1½		1½	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	ROU	2603	35
3	12	18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2636	1½		1½	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2590	43
3	13	67	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2532	1½		1½	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2630	21
3	15	93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2448	1½		1½	GM	Khismatullin Denis	RUS	2621	25
3	18	4	GM	Dubov Daniil	RUS	2703	1		1½	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2471	87
3	20	8	GM	Nabaty Tamir	ISR	2688	1		1	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2532	68
3	25	63	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2540	1		1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	VEN	2640	17
3	27	20	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2630	1		1	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2480	84
3	36	34	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2604	½		1	IM	Arjun Kalyan	IND	2444	94
3	37	79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2494	½		½	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2627	23
3	38	81	IM	Henderson De La Fuente Lance	ESP	2490	½		½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2575	47
3	39	82	IM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2488	½		½	GM	Narayanan Srinath	IND	2572	49
3	42	55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2560	½		½	IM	Prithu Gupta	IND	2470	88
3	45	65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2538	½		½	FM	Schitco Ivan	MDA	2426	100
3	46	76	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	UZB	2505	0		0	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2556	57
3	47	78	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2495	0		0	GM	Pourramezanali Amirreza	IRI	2529	69
3	48	80	IM	Vokhidov Shamsiddin	UZB	2494	0		0	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2524	71
3	49	91	CM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2454	½		½	IM	Lomasov Semyon	RUS	2559	56
3	50	89	IM	Kevlishvili Robby	NED	2463	0		0	IM	Gukesh D	IND	2508	74
3	51	95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2443	0	0			bye

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