Karthikeyan plays the game of his life, beats Firouzja with a queen sac on move 9!

by Satanick Mukhuty - 12/06/2019

Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali pulled off a brilliancy by sacrificing his queen as early as move ninth and flabbergasting his young talented opponent Alireza Firouzja. Vidit recovered from his previous round's upset with an emphatic win with the black pieces over CRG Krishna. Adhiban is slowly and steadily coming into the beast mode with three consecutive wins. Elsewhere in the women's section, a resolute Bhakti continued her streak by clinching yet another victory. Eesha Karavade faltered and found herself in a lost ending against her lower rated rival. It was the 5th round at the Asian Continental open and women's championships, in this report we bring you the highlights of the day's action.

Karthikeyan Murali is the sole leader in the Open Section

Karthikeyan Murali played the game of his life in round five of the Asian Continental 2019 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Murali Karthikeyan produced an absolute cracker of a game against the 2682 rated Iranian genius Alireza Firouzja. The latter with white pieces played an unusual eighth move in the King's Indian. Boy! Was he in for a shock! Let us begin by looking at this masterpiece that the 20 years old Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu created today!

Alireza Firouzja - Murali Karthikeyan, Round 5

Position after 7...Qa5, the c3 knight is pinned and the e4 pawn is en prise. What should White do?

Well, the usual move here is 8.Qd2, breaking the pin, but Alireza became a bit creative here and went 8.Nd2!? The idea is after 8...cxd4 9.Nb3 Qc7 10.Nxd4 White captures on d4 with the knight and achieves a standard Maróczy bind.

This is the position White intended to have but Chess, like life, is full of surprises!

There is a stunning possibility that White has missed... The game went 8...cxd4 9.Nb3 and Black, to everyone's horror, replied with 9...Qxc3+!!?? a queen sacrifice!

This is essentially giving up the queen for just two minor pieces!

10.bxc3 dxe3 11.f3 was played and Black has given up a whole queen for just a knight and a bishop! So what's going on here? After 11...Nh5 12.Qc1 Bh6 13.g4 Nf4 it slowly starts to dawn upon us - White, with his king stuck in the middle of the board, is kind of aimless and uncoordinated; while Black has absolutely no weaknesses, his pieces are poised and ready to spring into action!

Position after 13...Nf4

It is easy for Black to regroup his pieces: the c8 bishop can go to c6 via d7, the b8 knight to e5 also via d7, the h6 bishop can access both h6-c1 and h8-a1 diagonals, and finally, the rooks are ready to get into the c-file. Black spent the next few moves trying to realize the best possible configuration for his pieces. White, in the mean time, found no means to make any real progress!

After 19...Rac8: Black's minor pieces dominate the center of the board!

After 26...Bc6: Bishops, knights, rooks - all well coordinated!

But you can improve your pieces only so much, after a while you have to make a break. Karthikeyan's timing in that too was impeccable. In the above position White played 27.Bg2 and Black lashed out with 27...f5!

27...f5! The right time to open up!

The game continued 28.gxf6 (e.p) Bxf6 29.Rf1 Bxc3 and the following position was on the board:

Black's pieces are all over...What should White play here?

30.Qxc5 Nxc5 31.Rxf8+ Kxf8 32.Kxc3 was played - Alireza, out of desperation, decided to return the queen and liquidate, but even this wasn't of any avail!

Position after 32.Kxc3

After 32...Ne5 33.a5 Nxe4+ 34.Bxe4 Bxe4 Black's extra pawns are simply too much for White.

After 34...Bxe4: Black has four pawns+Bishop against White's rook

However, the game continued until White decided after the 52nd move to call it a day!

White resigned after 52...Kf3

After this brilliant show, Karthikeyan has emerged as the sole leader in the open section of the tournament with an impressive score of 4.5/5!

IM Sagar Shah analyses Karthikeyan's brilliancy

Watch out, Adhiban is slowly and steadily getting into the beast mode with three consecutive wins! | Photo: David Llada

Elsewhere, Adhiban Baskaran registered his third consecutive victory against Karthik Venkataraman and stands on 4.0/5 alongside compatriots Sethuraman S.P. , who drew his game today against Lu Shanglei. Lalith Babu M. R. won against S.L.Narayanan. After yesterday's loss to Praggnanandhaa, it was interesting to see the top-seed Vidit Gujrathi make a come back by beating IM Krishna C.R.G, Vidit is in a tough spot and will have to win almost every game from now on to qualify for this year's World Cup. Let us check the key moment from his game today:

Krishna C.R.G. - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Round 5

Black has just played 20...Qa4, what should White play?

In the above position arising out of a Modern defense White could have just gone 21.Bxe7, after 21...Bd7 22.Ra5 Qxc4 the position is roughly equal. But in the game 21.f4? was played and this is a mistake, falls prey to a tactic.

White has erred with 21.f4 ... Can you see why?

Black went 21...e6 and after 22.Qe4 Nxc4 the rook on b5 is trapped!

Position after 22...Nxc4

White resigned the game soon enough on the 27th move.

Results of round 5:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Firouzja Alireza	2682	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2593	16
2	9	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	3½	½ - ½	3	GM	Lu Shanglei	2624	8
3	4	GM	Adhiban B.	2676	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2499	34
4	7	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2625	3	1 - 0	3	FM	Zou Chen	2415	50
5	11	GM	Nihal Sarin	2606	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Zeng Chongsheng	2561	20
6	19	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2571	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2603	12
7	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2537	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2598	14
8	32	GM	Liu Yan	2504	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Xu Xiangyu	2583	18
9	30	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2511	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Le Quang Liem	2694	2
10	5	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2665	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Wan Yunguo	2531	26
11	23	GM	Xu Yinglun	2548	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2639	6
12	65		Sankalp Gupta	2359	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	10
13	31	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2511	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	22
14	15	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	2	1 - 0	2½	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2436	47
15	37	IM	Krishna C R G	2481	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2707	1
16	13	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2599	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Bersamina Paulo	2446	44
17	17	IM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2587	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Vignesh N R	2459	41
18	21	GM	Sengupta Deep	2559	2	1 - 0	2		Zhao Yuanhe	2444	45
19	46	IM	Raja Harshit	2437	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2526	27
20	48	GM	Laylo Darwin	2433	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2526	28

Standings after round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	16	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2593	4,5	2578	13,5	15,5	0,0	5	4,5	2,82	1,68	10	16,8
2	9	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2613	4,0	2556	12,5	14,5	0,0	5	4	3,04	0,96	10	9,6
3	4	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2676	4,0	2491	10,0	11,5	0,0	5	4	3,80	0,20	10	2,0
4	7	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2625	4,0	2478	10,5	12,5	0,0	5	4	3,54	0,46	10	4,6
5	19	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2571	4,0	2452	11,0	13,0	0,0	5	4	3,36	0,64	10	6,4
6	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2537	3,5	2670	13,5	15,0	0,0	5	3,5	2,02	1,48	10	14,8
7	32	GM	Liu Yan	CHN	2504	3,5	2635	14,0	15,5	0,0	5	3,5	2,08	1,42	10	14,2
8	3	GM	Firouzja Alireza	IRI	2682	3,5	2567	14,5	16,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,38	0,12	10	1,2
9	14	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2598	3,5	2543	11,5	13,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,04	0,46	10	4,6
10	10	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2606	3,5	2539	11,0	13,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,17	0,33	10	3,3
11	8	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2624	3,5	2524	12,0	14,0	0,0	5	3,5	3,31	0,19	10	1,9
12	2	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2694	3,5	2519	11,0	12,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,72	-0,22	10	-2,2
13	11	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2606	3,5	2499	12,5	15,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,33	0,17	10	1,7
14	20	GM	Zeng Chongsheng	CHN	2561	3,5	2478	10,0	11,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,16	0,34	10	3,4
15	18	GM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2583	3,5	2470	10,5	12,5	0,0	5	3,5	3,35	0,15	10	1,5
16	23	GM	Xu Yinglun	CHN	2548	3,0	2609	12,0	14,5	0,0	5	3	2,39	0,61	10	6,1
17	50	FM	Zou Chen	CHN	2415	3,0	2600	14,5	17,5	0,0	5	3	1,34	1,66	10	16,6
18	31	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2511	3,0	2597	13,5	14,5	0,0	5	3	2,29	0,71	10	7,1
19	34	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2499	3,0	2559	13,0	14,5	0,0	5	3	2,53	0,47	10	4,7
20	26	GM	Wan Yunguo	CHN	2531	3,0	2532	11,5	14,0	0,0	5	3	2,76	0,24	10	2,4

Newly minted IM, Bhakti Kulkarni leads women's Section

Bhakti Kulkarni continues her winning ways as she leads the tournament with 4.5/5 | Photo: David Llada

The newly crowned International Master of India Bhakti Kulkarni squeezed out yet another win to emerge as the sole leader in Women's category. The following ending seems perfectly equal:

Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz - Bhakti Kulkarni, Round 5

Position after 46.Ke3

But it is said that when you have the resolve, things go your way, Bhakti's opponent Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz made an unforced error and the former seized the opportunity with both hands. Black played 46...Bd4+ and White carelessly moved 47.Ke4, this puts the king in a compromising position. After 47...Rd1 there is no good way of preventing f5+ followed by Rxd3 ... The simple 48.Nc5 for instance, runs into 48...f5+ 49.Kd5 Bxc5+. The game went 48.g4 f5+ 49.gxf5+ gxf5 50.Kxf5 Rxd3 and White soon resigned.

Eesha Karavade suffered a bitter upset in the hands of lower rated Dauletova Gulmira.

Dauletova Gulmira versus Eesha Karavade, Round 5

Position after 22.Bxa4: White is threatening to take on c6 ... How should Black proceed?

22...Bb6+ 23.Kh1 was played but then Black made a dubious choice with 23...Nb8?! Much better would have been 23...Rfc8 24.Rfd1 Nf8

Position after 23...Nb8

The game continued 24.Rfd1 axb4 25.axb4 Rd8 26.Rxd8 Bxd8 and then came 27.b5 - a testing move!

Position after 27.b5 - Would you play 27...cxb5?

In the game, Black indeed went 27...cxb5 and this was a mistake. The point is after 28.Bxb5 Rxa1 29.Bxa1 the b8 knight is trapped.

The b8 knight is trapped, nor does the black king have a good way to join on the queenside

Fast forward a few more moves and White has created a strong passer:

Position after 34.Bd8

The game was resigned soon on move 41.

Results of round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	2458	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Sukandar Irine Kharisma	2378	4
2	15	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	2259	3	0 - 1	3½	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2380	3
3	7	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	2370	2½	0 - 1	3		Li Xueyi	2305	12
4	17	WIM	Dauletova Gulmira	2252	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Karavade Eesha	2370	6
5	8	WGM	Zhai Mo	2358	2½	½ - ½	2½	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2245	18
6	9	WGM	Vaishali R	2338	2½	½ - ½	2½	WIM	Gu Tianlu	2183	23
7	13	WGM	Hoang Thi Bao Tram	2293	2½	0 - 1	2½	WGM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	2337	10
8	2	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2420	2	1 - 0	2½		Ren Xiaoyi	2255	16
9	5	WFM	Munkhzul Turmunkh	2371	2	1 - 0	2	WGM	Swati Ghate	2220	21
10	24	WFM	Mendoza Shania Mae	2171	2	½ - ½	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2314	11
11	14	WFM	Li Yunshan	2264	2	½ - ½	2	WIM	San Diego Marie Antoinette	2080	29
12	31	WIM	Galas Bernadette	2073	1½	½ - ½	1½	IM	Mohota Nisha	2236	19
13	22	WIM	Wang Doudou	2188	1½	1 - 0	1½	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2090	28
14	30	WFM	Mahdian Anousha	2078	1½	0 - 1	1½	WIM	Pham Bich Ngoc	2167	25
15	32	WFM	Tan Li Ting	2066	1½	1 - 0	1½	WIM	Mordido Kylen Joy	2133	27
16	20		Zhang Xiao	2234	1	1 - 0	1		Yan Tianqi	2036	33
17	34		Xia Ri Feng	1991	1	1 - 0	1	WGM	Frayna Janelle Mae	2157	26
18	35	WIM	Hamid Rani	1929	0	0 - 1	½	WCM	Kojima Natsumi	1711	36

Ranking after round 5:

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	3	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2380	4,5	2314	12,5	14,5	0,0	5	4,5	3,06	1,44	20	28,8
2	12		Li Xueyi	CHN	2305	4,0	2358	11,5	13,0	0,0	5	4	2,51	1,49	20	29,8
3	4	IM	Sukandar Irine Kharisma	INA	2378	4,0	2335	12,5	15,0	0,0	5	4	2,99	1,01	10	10,1
4	1	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	KAZ	2458	4,0	2330	14,5	16,5	0,0	5	4	3,46	0,54	10	5,4
5	10	WGM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	VIE	2337	3,5	2322	11,5	13,0	0,0	5	3,5	2,89	0,61	10	6,1
6	17	WIM	Dauletova Gulmira	KAZ	2252	3,5	2300	10,5	10,5	0,0	5	3,5	2,61	0,89	20	17,8
7	15	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	UZB	2259	3,0	2387	14,0	15,0	0,0	5	3	2,10	0,90	20	18,0
8	18	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	IND	2245	3,0	2335	13,0	14,5	0,0	5	3	2,43	0,57	20	11,4
9	8	WGM	Zhai Mo	CHN	2358	3,0	2297	13,0	14,0	0,0	5	3	3,08	-0,08	10	-0,8
10	5	WFM	Munkhzul Turmunkh	MGL	2371	3,0	2282	13,0	15,0	0,0	5	3	3,23	-0,23	20	-4,6
11	2	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	MGL	2420	3,0	2230	9,5	10,5	0,0	5	3	3,80	-0,80	10	-8,0
12	23	WIM	Gu Tianlu	CHN	2183	3,0	2215	10,5	12,0	0,0	5	3	2,50	0,50	20	10,0
13	9	WGM	Vaishali R	IND	2338	3,0	2213	10,5	12,0	0,0	5	3	3,44	-0,44	20	-8,8
14	16		Ren Xiaoyi	CHN	2255	2,5	2397	12,5	14,5	0,0	4	1,5	1,25	0,25	20	5,0
15	24	WFM	Mendoza Shania Mae	PHI	2171	2,5	2296	10,5	11,5	0,0	5	2,5	2,04	0,46	20	9,2
16	29	WIM	San Diego Marie Antoinette	PHI	2080	2,5	2296	10,0	12,0	0,0	5	2,5	1,30	1,20	20	24,0
17	13	WGM	Hoang Thi Bao Tram	VIE	2293	2,5	2294	12,5	14,0	0,0	5	2,5	2,75	-0,25	10	-2,5
18	14	WFM	Li Yunshan	CHN	2264	2,5	2269	12,5	15,0	0,0	5	2,5	2,72	-0,22	40	-8,8
19	7	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	VIE	2370	2,5	2266	12,5	14,5	0,0	5	2,5	3,40	-0,90	10	-9,0
20	6	IM	Karavade Eesha	IND	2370	2,5	2260	11,5	13,5	0,0	5	2,5	3,36	-0,86	10	-8,6

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