Aeroflot 2019 Round 5: Can anyone stop Sasikiran?

by Sagar Shah - 24/02/2019

Sasikiran is in a fiery mood at the Aeroflot Open 2019. He has played against five grandmasters and scored five wins, three of them being above 2600 Elo! His victims include Klementy Sychev (2545), Rasmus Svane (2599), Aravindh Chithambaram (2601), Maksim Chigaev (2613) and Anton Korobov (2687). With 5.0/5 Sasikiran has a rating performance of 3409 and is already gaining 20 Elo points which takes his rating to 2698 on the live Elo list! He may well break into 2700 once again today, a feat that he had achieved seven years ago in January 2012. His sixth round opponent is the young Iranian talent Amin Tabatabaei. In this report we analyze Sasikiran's win over Korobov from round five of the Aeroflot Open 2019.

Look at those eyes. In it radiate the power of a man who wants to give everything he has! | Photo: David Llada

Sasikiran's phenomenal performance of 3409!

9.Re1!? in the Najdorf is the sixth most popular move in the position. Surely Korobov must not have expected it.

The pawn moving to a5 clamped Black's position on the queenside. Little by little, Black's breathing space was reducing.

Look at how the white pieces are slowly moving within their territory and causing maximum damage! The rook to e2-d2 idea was extremely powerful.

Korobov couldn't take the passivity any more and sacrificed his rook on c3. Well, in many Sicilian positions this works well, but not here. White is well coordinated and Black doesn't have enough compensation.

The move Bg4! sealed the deal. Black is losing more material and hence Korobov resigned

Rank after Round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan		IND	2678	5,0	2	2604
2	62	GM	Kulaots Kaido		EST	2542	4,0	3	2637
3	43	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	U18	IRI	2590	4,0	3	2570
4	30	GM	Chigaev Maksim		RUS	2613	4,0	2	2555
5	28	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.		ARM	2616	4,0	2	2512
6	35	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	U18	ROU	2603	3,5	3	2648
7	29	GM	Zhou Jianchao		CHN	2615	3,5	3	2559
8	53	GM	Fier Alexandr		BRA	2561	3,5	2	2675
9	1	GM	Wei Yi		CHN	2733	3,5	2	2593
10	44	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.		RUS	2589	3,5	2	2554
11	72	IM	Xu Yi		CHN	2520	3,0	3	2621
12	82	IM	Sargsyan Shant	U18	ARM	2488	3,0	3	2595
13	3	GM	Wang Hao		CHN	2714	3,0	3	2590
14	52	GM	Petrosyan Manuel		ARM	2564	3,0	3	2579
15	9	GM	Korobov Anton		UKR	2687	3,0	3	2577
16	13	GM	Sjugirov Sanan		RUS	2663	3,0	3	2558
17	21	GM	Sarana Alexey		RUS	2630	3,0	3	2555
18	15	GM	Anton Guijarro David		ESP	2642	3,0	3	2544
19	23	GM	Paravyan David		RUS	2627	3,0	3	2527
	41	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.		ARM	2595	3,0	3	2527

Overview of Indian performances in A group:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	Pts.	Rk.	Group
11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2678	IND	1	1	1	1	1	5,0	1	Open A
14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2651	IND	½	1	0	½	½	2,5	58	Open A
18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2636	IND	1	½	½	½	½	3,0	38	Open A
38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2601	IND	1	1	0	0	0	2,0	77	Open A
42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2593	IND	1	1	½	½	0	3,0	32	Open A
45	GM	Nihal Sarin	2578	IND	1	1	0	½	½	3,0	29	Open A
47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2575	IND	0	½	1	1	½	3,0	23	Open A
49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2572	IND	½	0	0	1	½	2,0	75	Open A
55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2560	IND	½	0	1	1	½	3,0	27	Open A
57	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2556	IND	0	0	½	1	½	2,0	74	Open A
63	GM	Aryan Chopra	2540	IND	½	½	½	½	0	2,0	78	Open A
65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2538	IND	½	0	1	½	½	2,5	54	Open A
67	GM	Debashis Das	2532	IND	½	1	½	½	½	3,0	30	Open A
68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2532	IND	0	1	0	½	1	2,5	50	Open A
71	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2524	IND	0	0	½	½	½	1,5	94	Open A
74	IM	Gukesh D	2508	IND	0	0	1	½	0	1,5	92	Open A
78	GM	Gagare Shardul	2495	IND	0	0	½	1	½	2,0	72	Open A
79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2494	IND	0	½	0	0	1	1,5	96	Open A
84	IM	Iniyan P	2480	IND	½	½	0	½	½	2,0	65	Open A
87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2471	IND	1	½	0	0	½	2,0	81	Open A
88	IM	Prithu Gupta	2470	IND	0	½	0	½	1	2,0	68	Open A
91	CM	Aditya Mittal	2454	IND	½	0	1	0	½	2,0	82	Open A
93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2448	IND	½	1	½	½	½	3,0	34	Open A
94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2444	IND	½	½	0	½	0	1,5	89	Open A
95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2443	IND	0	0	1	½	½	2,0	85	Open A

Standings after round 4 in B group:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	3	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav		UKR	2536	4,0	2	2417
2	41	IM	Schekachikhin Maksim		RUS	2402	3,5	2	2527
3	17	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		IND	2488	3,5	2	2375
4	25	IM	Drygalov Sergey		RUS	2450	3,5	2	2346
5	29	IM	Muradli Mahammad	U18	AZE	2444	3,5	2	2331
6	33	GM	Danielian Elina		ARM	2427	3,5	2	2265
7	39	FM	Davtyan Artur	U18	ARM	2413	3,0	3	2372
8	7	GM	Lintchevski Daniil		RUS	2517	3,0	3	2349
9	79		Koustav Chatterjee	U18	IND	2332	3,0	2	2477
10	5	IM	Harutyunian Tigran K.		ARM	2532	3,0	2	2404
11	9	GM	Levin Evgeny A.		RUS	2512	3,0	2	2387
12	38	IM	Samsonkin Artiom		CAN	2419	3,0	2	2385
13	4	IM	Li Di		CHN	2534	3,0	2	2378
14	48	FM	Ofitserian Boris		RUS	2395	3,0	2	2368
15	12	GM	Gasanov Eldar		UKR	2500	3,0	2	2364
16	10	GM	Shyam Sundar M.		IND	2512	3,0	2	2357
17	27	IM	Asadli Vugar	U18	AZE	2449	3,0	2	2349
18	31	IM	Ulko Jaroslav		RUS	2439	3,0	2	2337
19	20	IM	Belyakov Bogdan		RUS	2464	3,0	2	2335
20	35		Bazeev German		RUS	2423	3,0	2	2334
21	32	GM	Hayrapetyan Hovik		ARM	2434	3,0	2	2320
22	53		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2387	3,0	2	2314

Overview of Indian performances in B group:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	Pts.	Rk.	Group
10	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2512	IND	1	0	1	1	3,0	16	Open B
17	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2488	IND	1	1	½	1	3,5	3	Open B
46	IM	Nitin S.	2395	IND	½	1	½	0	2,0	64	Open B
51	IM	Krishna Teja N	2391	IND	½	½	1	0	2,0	73	Open B
53		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2387	IND	½	1	1	½	3,0	22	Open B
60	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2376	IND	½	0	0	1	1,5	101	Open B
72		Sankalp Gupta	2345	IND	0	½	½	1	2,0	71	Open B
79		Koustav Chatterjee	2332	IND	1	1	½	½	3,0	9	Open B
82	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2324	IND	½	½	½	0	1,5	80	Open B
85	FM	Dixit Nikhil	2318	IND	0	½	½	½	1,5	98	Open B
86	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2317	IND	½	½	0	0	1,0	109	Open B
88	IM	Padmini Rout	2315	IND	½	½	0	1	2,0	53	Open B
92		Ajay Karthikeyan	2298	IND	½	0	1	0	1,5	81	Open B
98	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2268	IND	0	½	½	1	2,0	76	Open B
109		Bhambure Shantanu	2220	IND	½	0	1	0	1,5	87	Open B
110	FM	Srihari L R	2211	IND	½	0	1	½	2,0	59	Open B
114	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2185	IND	0	½	0	1	1,5	77	Open B
121		Jaeel Atharva	2145	IND	½	0	½	½	1,5	94	Open B
122	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	0	1	0	0	1,0	114	Open B
123	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2127	IND	0	0	½	1	1,5	96	Open B
124	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2126	IND	½	1	1	0	2,5	30	Open B
125		Rakshitta Ravi	2105	IND	0	0	½	0	0,5	123	Open B
126	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2026	IND	0	0	0	½	0,5	118	Open B

Overview of Indian performances in C group:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts.	Rk.	Group
13		Pranavananda V	2234	IND	1	0	1	1	1		4,0	6	Open C
34	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	1	0	1	½	0	0	2,5	51	Open C
40	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2076	IND	1	0	1	0	1		3,0	40	Open C
48		Priyanka K	2033	IND	1	0	1	0	1		3,0	41	Open C
51		Sanskriti Goyal	2006	IND	0	1	1	0	0		2,0	71	Open C
59	WCM	Isha Sharma	1935	IND	0	1	1	1	½		3,5	13	Open C
60		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1913	IND	0	1	0	1	½		2,5	49	Open C
69		Varsha Ramesh	1831	IND	0	1	0	0	1		2,0	74	Open C
74		Sunyuktha C M N	1804	IND	0	1	1	½	0		2,5	46	Open C

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