Chennai 2018 Round 9: Can Timur Gareyev stop Ivan Rozum?

by Sagar Shah - 24/01/2018

Ivan Rozum is on fire at the 10th Chennai International 2018. He beat GM R.R. Laxman and moved to the sole lead and is ahead of the entire field by one full point! It seems as if the Russian will win this event. But things are not so simple. First of all, he has the black pieces against top seed Timur Gareyev and secondly his tiebreak is not so great. In the ninth round there were quite a few draws on top ten boards, but there were a few upsets with Marcos Llaneza getting the better of Adam Horvath and Sidhant Mohapatra beating GM Tran Tuan Minh. Report from Chennai.

Ivan Rozum 8.0/9 has one point lead over the field

Round 9 began with AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan and FIDE Vice President D.V. Sundar visiting the playing hall

Ivan Rozum arrived to the round a few minutes late. He and Laxman were the joint leaders of the tournament with 7.0/8. It was clear that the one who would win this, would have the best chance to become the Champion.

Rozum gets ready for the battle

It was surprising to see Laxman who usually plays pretty fast take a lot of time after the move Nf3 Nf6 g3 were played. And then he went for the Grunfeld setup which is not a part of his usual repertoire!

Rozum played a very nice game with the white pieces and scored a full point. Perhaps, he could have been more accurate at some points, but in general he never really let the advantage slip and Laxman didn't find the best defensive resources:

With this win, Rozum extended his lead to a full point over the field. All he needs to do is just draw his final round game. But he faces the top seed of the event Timur Gareyev with the black pieces. This is not going to be an easy game for the Russian. Also, his first tiebreak (buchholz) is not the best. So he cannot afford to lose.

Marat Dzuhmaev got a completely winning position out of the opening against Visakh N.R. but wasn't able to convert it into a win. It is interesting to see such trends where Indian youngsters are defending tough positions against International GMs. It used to be the other way around before!

Undefeated and playing super solid chess is Arjun Erigaisi who drew against Yuri Solodovnichenko

After two losses in rounds five and six, Timur Gareyev has struck back and won three rounds in a row. He is on 7.0/9 and a chance to decide the tournament. Here's his game against Attila Czebe:

S.Nitin held his own against Adam Tukhaev in the Najdorf

Deepan Chakkravarthy came to the board with a new hairstyle and some interesting opening choices. He drew his game against GM Vitaly Sivuk

Al Muthaiah (white) was in a must-win scenario to score his IM norm. But Karthik Venkatraman gave him no chances. Black won.

Tiviakov showed his class to completely outplay IM Ravi Hegde

Suat Atalik came to the board with some inspiring ideas, but Raghunandan responded well and the game was drawn

IM Marcos Llaneza won his game against GM Adam Horvath

In a position that was completely winning for white Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury agreed to a draw against GM Roeland Pruijssers

Siddhant Mohapatra was able to beat GM Tran Tuan Minh after the latter blundered big time in the opening:

....g6 is a bad move by Tran Tuan Minh. Do you see how White can take advantage of it?

Results of round 9:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	7	1 - 0	7	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	19
2	17	IM	Visakh N R	2457	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	18
3	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	6½	½ - ½	6	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
4	16	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	1
5	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Nitin S.	2422	20
6	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	14
7	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	7
8	8	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2402	23
9	31	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	9
10	12	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	21
11	34		Muthaiah Al	2291	6	0 - 1	6	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	13
12	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	5½	1 - 0	6	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	69
13	38		Pranav V	2275	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	10
14	68		Harshavardhan G B	2107	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2490	11
15	93	CM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	1998	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	15
16	22		Arjun Kalyan	2407	5½	½ - ½	5½		Ram S. Krishnan	2223	44
17	24	IM	Ameir Moheb	2394	5½	½ - ½	5½	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	59
18	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	5½	1 - 0	5½		Nguyen Phuoc Tam	2068	79
19	30		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	5½	0 - 1	5½		Dixit Nikhil	2139	64
20	33	IM	Kandil Adham	2294	5½	½ - ½	5½		Barath Kalyan M	2022	88

Rank after round 9:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	2	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	RUS	8,0	0,0	46,5	49,0	44,75	7,0
2	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2476	AP	7,0	0,0	52,5	57,0	42,25	6,0
3	19	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2434	ICF	7,0	0,0	49,0	53,0	38,50	6,0
4	17	IM	Visakh N R		IND	2457	TN	7,0	0,0	48,0	51,5	38,75	5,0
5	1	GM	Gareyev Timur		USA	2605	USA	7,0	0,0	47,5	52,5	39,00	7,0
6	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat		UZB	2434	UZB	7,0	0,0	46,5	51,0	39,25	6,0
7	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra		IND	2382	ODI	7,0	0,0	46,5	51,0	38,75	6,0
8	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2386	TEL	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,5	39,00	5,0
9	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos		ESP	2421	ESP	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,0	36,75	6,0
10	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2570	UKR	6,5	0,0	51,5	56,0	38,00	5,0
11	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2475	ICF	6,5	0,0	51,0	55,0	38,00	5,0
12	64		Dixit Nikhil		IND	2139	MAH	6,5	0,0	49,5	54,0	35,75	6,0
13	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	NED	6,5	0,0	48,5	53,5	36,75	5,0
14	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2536	NED	6,5	0,0	48,0	52,5	36,50	4,0
15	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2550	UKR	6,5	0,0	47,0	51,5	35,25	5,0
16	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.		IND	2372	KER	6,5	0,0	46,0	50,5	35,25	5,0
17	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri		UKR	2571	UKR	6,5	0,0	45,5	50,0	34,25	5,0
18	23	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari		IND	2402	KAR	6,5	0,0	45,0	49,5	34,50	5,0
19	20	IM	Nitin S.		IND	2422	TN	6,5	0,0	45,0	48,5	34,50	4,0
20	35	IM	Deshmukh Anup		IND	2285	MAH	6,5	0,0	44,0	48,5	33,25	6,0

Pairings for round 10:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	7		8	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2
2	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	7		7	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	25
3	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	7		7	IM	Visakh N R	2457	17
4	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	7		7	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	18
5	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	7		6½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5
6	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	6½		6½	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3
7	15	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	6½		6½	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
8	23	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2402	6½		6½	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6
9	35	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2285	6½		6½	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	8
10	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	6½		6½	IM	Nitin S.	2422	20
11	10	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	6½		6½	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	27
12	11	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2490	6½		6½	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	31
13	64		Dixit Nikhil	2139	6½		6	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	12
14	7	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	6		6		Mithil Ajgaonkar	2219	48
15	52		Tiwari Arjun	2179	6		6	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	16
16	57		Phoobalan P.	2158	6		6		Arjun Kalyan	2407	22
17	58	IM	Ramnathan Balasubramaniam	2157	6		6	IM	Ameir Moheb	2394	24
18	59	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	6		6	IM	Kandil Adham	2294	33
19	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	6		6		Muthaiah Al	2291	34
20	36	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	6		6		Dahale Atul	2102	72