Aeroflot Open Rd 09: Sethuraman finishes joint second!

by Niklesh Jain - 01/03/2018

In the final round of the Aeroflot Open, Indian GM SP Sethuraman managed to defeat GM Victor Bologan from Moldova to clinch second place in the tournament with a score of 6.5/9. This was quite a welcome result for Indian fans especially after Sasikiran and Aravindh's final round losses and draws by Vidit Gujrathi and Murali Karthikeyan. On the top board, tournament leader, Vladislav Kovalev secured a comfortable draw against Gabriel Sargissian and bagged the champion's trophy with a score of 7.0/9. Russian GM Dmitry Gordievsky also scored 6.5/9 and finished third on the tiebreak. Among other Indian players, Sasikiran and Aravindh Chithambaram took the 25th and the 26th spots respectively while Karthikeyan and Vidit Gujrathi finished 29th and 35th on the leaderboard.

Before the players crossed swords for one last time, I was thinking about the importance of the final round in any event. In chess tournaments, especially, it could be extremely exciting and can produce really shocking results. Unlike in the knock-out format, the tournament leader isn't guranteed a second place if he loses while players slightly lower down the leaderboard can jump back to the top all in the course of one round. This is perhaps makes these tournaments so exciting. Nevertheless, there were a few things that were very clear before the final round began. Kovalev, the tournament leader, only needed a draw to secure the title prize. But if he lost, anyone of the 11 players who were a point behind him could have had a shot at the title.

A brief look at the happenings of round 9 | ChessBase India YouTube

Let's begin by looking at the final round games of the top three finishers.

Kovalev vs Sargissian

Kovalev managed to build up a strong position within just 15 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

In an anti-King's Indian Defence system, Kovalev managed to build up a strong position for himself. For Sargissian, getting to agree to a draw was a stroke of fortune in a way while for Kovalev, winning the title prize took precedence over winning the game.

Bologan vs Sethuraman

Victor Bologan's opening errors cost him a full point against SP Sethuraman | Photo: Niklesh Jain

For Indian fans, this was the most important game because Sethuraman had a chance of finishing among the top three if he won. The same condition applied to Bologan as well. In the previous round, Bologan had scored a splendid win Evgeny Najer and must have been bustling with confidence. But with the white pieces in an Italian Opening, the Moldovan GM made a few errors and allowed his opponent put his position under pressure. In the ensuing rook endgame, Bologan lost a pawn and wasn't able to hold his position together for too long.

Final moments of the game | ChessBase India YouTube

Interview with SP Sethuraman | ChessBase India YouTube

Tabatabaei vs Gordievsky

Amin Tabatabaei started and finished with a loss but played extremely well in the other seven games | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Amin Tabatabaei, who had played splendidly after his first-round loss to Eesha Karavade, had to taste a bitter defeat in the final round at the hands of Dmitry Gordievsky. In a Queen's Gambit, the Iranian IM underestimated the danger on his king and this simply spelt doom for him. The position did look equal until a certain point in the game but a few bad moves with his knight by Tabatabaei led to his downfall pretty soon. With this win, Gordievsky caught up with Sethuraman for the second place but due to an inferior tiebreak, finished third.

Vladislav Artemiev drew against his compatriot Igor Lysyj in just 25 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

19-year-old Vladislav Artemiev, who had performed sensationally throughout the event, was unable to win his game against compatriot, Igor Lysyj and finished with a 25-move draw.

The board two encounter between Tigran Petrosian and Anton Korobov also ended in a draw. Both players had performed extremely well throughout the event did not risk too much in their final game which began with a Queen's Indian Defence and lasted 42 moves. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Another important game from the Indian standpoint was the one between Aravindh Chithambaram and Rauf Mamedov. In the game, Mamedov defeated the young Indian GM and made his way into the top 10 on the leaderboard. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

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The game between former FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman and Gata Kamsky was a simple draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sasikiran too did not have a good result in his final round game. He was defeated by the Chinese GM Xu Xiangyu | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Vidit Gujrathi was unable to win his final round game and scored his eighth draw of the tournament. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Vidit Gujrathi, who had finally broken his spell of seven straight draws in the previous round, went back to drawing in the final round. In round 9, he drew against Aleksey Aleksandrov. The tournament was a disaster for the Indian number three. Although he did not lose a single game, his performance of 2581 was way below his 2723 rating. He will be losing around 16 points in Aeroflot.

R Praggnanandhaa, with his final round draw against GM Wen Yang had to give his GM norm a miss | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Top three finishers of Group A: (L to R) SP Sethuraman, Vladislav Kovalev & Dmitry Gordievsky | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Top three finishers of Group B | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Standings Group A

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	16	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	BLR	2641	7,0	4	2580	2791	10	16,8
2	15	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2646	6,5	5	2573	2734	10	10,6
3	19	GM	Gordievsky Dmitry	RUS	2630	6,5	5	2558	2725	10	11,4
4	54	GM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2545	6,0	4	2654	2780	10	28,5
5	40	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	ARM	2589	6,0	4	2645	2757	10	20,4
6	6	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	RUS	2697	6,0	4	2606	2732	10	3,9
7	24	GM	Lysyj Igor	RUS	2618	6,0	4	2594	2719	10	12,1
8	10	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2677	6,0	4	2573	2699	10	2,5
	12	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2664	6,0	4	2573	2702	10	4,5
10	4	GM	Mamedov Rauf	AZE	2709	6,0	4	2555	2676	10	-3,7
11	32	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2603	5,5	5	2572	2655	10	6,6
12	9	GM	Kamsky Gata	USA	2677	5,5	5	2568	2645	10	-3,6
13	29	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2609	5,5	5	2557	2646	10	4,7
14	27	GM	Khalifman Alexander	RUS	2614	5,5	4	2658	2727	10	14,1
15	33	GM	Bologan Victor	MDA	2600	5,5	4	2635	2707	10	13,2
16	5	GM	Matlakov Maxim	RUS	2709	5,5	4	2599	2639	10	-7,4
17	46	IM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2577	5,5	4	2578	2653	10	9,7
18	18	GM	Mareco Sandro	ARG	2632	5,5	4	2524	2606	10	-2,8
19	20	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	RUS	2629	5,5	4	2520	2591	10	-4,1
20	26	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2614	5,5	4	2499	2590	10	-2,3
21	71	IM	Hakobyan Aram	ARM	2497	5,0	5	2613	2655	10	19,1
22	3	GM	Andreikin Dmitry	RUS	2712	5,0	5	2586	2628	10	-10,4
23	7	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2684	5,0	5	2563	2605	10	-9,9
24	13	GM	Piorun Kacper	POL	2659	5,0	5	2557	2597	10	-7,7
25	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2671	5,0	5	2552	2596	10	-9,4

Standings (Group B)

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg
1	IM	Moiseenko Vadim	4123700	RUS	2547
2	GM	Mozharov Mikhail	4189825	RUS	2539
3	IM	Moskalenko Alexander	4155351	RUS	2533
4		Sviridov Valery	4120680	RUS	2515
5	GM	Kunte Abhijit	5002265	IND	2499
6	IM	Jarmula Lukasz	1160664	POL	2498
7	GM	Gasanov Eldar	14104466	UKR	2490
8	IM	Harutyunian Tigran K.	13303635	ARM	2488
9	IM	Flom Gabriel	621650	FRA	2485
10	GM	Potapov Pavel	4169786	RUS	2479
11	GM	Rogozenco Dorian	1210319	ROU	2479
12	GM	Papin Vasily	4143183	RUS	2476
13	GM	Vorotnikov Vladislav V	4103009	RUS	2472
14	IM	Zakhartsov Vladimir	4145097	RUS	2472
15	GM	Hayrapetyan Hovik	13302639	ARM	2471
16	GM	Kotanjian Tigran	13301250	ARM	2466
17	IM	Seliverstov Vladimir	4192036	RUS	2464
18	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	24126454	RUS	2459
19	IM	Asadli Vugar	13405764	AZE	2449
20	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	5078776	IND	2443
21	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	14200236	UZB	2439
22	GM	Baghdasaryan Vahe	13303139	ARM	2436
23		Li Yankai	8609357	CHN	2434
24	GM	Balashov Yuri S	4100263	RUS	2431
25		Dai Changren	8608156	CHN	2430

About the Author

FIDE Instructor Niklesh Kumar Jain Jain is an international chess player who has participated in tournaments in almost in 20 different countries, winning the international tournament in Sri Lanka in 2010. He also worked for a television network as an anchor and news writer for two years, and reported in Hindi during World Chess Championship 2013 and 2014. Niklesh loves to write about tournaments and do interviews with chess champions. He has ambitions to become a grandmaster, but at the same time loves to train young talent. He strongly believes chess should be the part of every school curriculum, to face the challenges of the 21st century.