Gibraltar R09: A crushing 27-move game by Aryan Chopra

by Satanick Mukhuty - 30/01/2020

The Gibraltar Masters goes into the final round today with five players leading the field with 7.0/9 points each and there are quite a few Indians who are still vying for a strong finish at the top. Aryan Chopra, Karthikeyan Murali, Adhiban Baskaran, and Praggnanandhaa R are just half a point behind the leaders with 6.5/9 each and have good chances to bag medals for the country. In this article we discuss Aryan Chopra's brilliant 27-move victory against Alexander Donchenko in detail and also bring you the highlights of other important moments from the last round.

Aryan Chopra played some enterprising bit of chess in the penultimate ninth round of the Gibraltar Masters to defeat the strong German Grandmaster Alexander Donchenko with the white pieces. Aryan unhesitatingly chose an extremely complex line against Alexander's Najdorf and boldly sacrificed a pawn on move 13 to blow open the center. By move 20 itself the position turned tactically quite csharp and the German soon ended up losing his way and making successive mistakes. The 19-year-old Indian, who was flawless in his technique, finished things off neatly thereafter in just 27 moves.

Aryan has managed to remain unbeaten so far in the event and with this victory has taken his score to a commendable 6.5/9 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aryan Chopra - Alexander Donchenko, Round 9

Aryan made his intentions very clear with the move 9.Nd5 in the opening. Grabbing more space in the center and enticing Black to exchange off his good light-squared bishop, he was clearly out for some blood.

...He was not reluctant to give up a pawn on d5 either just to open up the center. He could have gone for 13.Bxb6 but chose 13.Kb1 instead keeping his bishop pair intact.

And soon all of White's pieces were flowing with activity.

18...e4 was a critical point in the game. Perhaps Black should have continued more solidly with 18...dxc4 instead.

And above was the decisive moment. What would you do here if you were in Black shoes?

Well, the position is already very complicated and apparently the only move that keeps things sort of balanced is 21...Qc7 (see annotations below) because after something like 22.Qf2 Nbd7 23.h5 even though White seems to have an initiative, Black has everything under control. But in the game Alexander started going wrong from here and after 21...Qd7 22.cxd5 Rfd8 23.d6 Rac8 24.Qf2 found himself in grave trouble.

Position after 24.Qf2: Suddenly Aryan had an overwhelming initiative.

And unsurprisingly not long after he was breaking through. The German resigned the game in the above position after only 27 moves.

Karthikeyan Murali registered a fine victory against the in-form Zhansaya Abdumalik in the ninth round of the event. In this encounter, the Kazakhstani player found a solid position out of the opening with black pieces but the Indian ultimately managed to outplay her in an even rook pawn ending.

Karthikeyan too is on 6.5/9 and has remained unbeaten so far. He faces the strong English GM Michael Adams in the final round | Photo: John Saunders

Karthikeyan Murali - Zhansaya Abdumalik, Round 9

The above position was reached after White's 47th move Kf2. Black's pawn structure optically looks a bit loose but objectively this should be equal. The best continuation here would have been 47...f5 and after 48.Ke3 h3 49.Rf4 there doesn't seem to be a good way for White to make progress. However, in the game Zhansaya misjudged the position and went for counterplay with 47...Rb6 and this was the critical mistake that decided the fate of the game.

Can you see what the Kazakhstani missed when she went Rb6? It is White to play.

Well, 47...Rb6 was simply a loss of tempo as Karthikeyan simply went 48.Ke3 here threatening to push d3-d4. Black had to prevent this and had to retreat with 48...Re6+ but this was already too late. The game followed 49.Kd2 f5 50.Rg3+ Kf6 51.Rg8 Ke5 52.Rc8 Rg6 and White was in charge as c5 was just too weak. Replay the full game below with analysis and check out how the Indian converted the rest of it.

Photo Gallery

S.l.Narayanan has slowed down a bit with five consecutive draws and is now on 6.0/9 | Photo: Niki Ria

Gukesh D and S.L.Narayanan in action against each other in round 9. The encounter ended in a draw after 36 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Praggnanandhaa R. drew GM Mikhail Kobalia and is on 6.5/9 points | Photo: John Saunders

Raunak Sadhwani scored an emphatic win against Xander Wemmers | Photo: Niki Riga

Divya Deshmukh lost to the Croatian Grandmaster Blazimir Kovacevic | Photo: John Saunders

13-year-old Leon Mendonca has shown tremendous stability at the Gibraltar Masters 2020. Facing 7 opponents above his rating he has scored 5.0/8. But in round 9 he got a walkover as his opponent Vasilios Kotronias failed to show up for the game | Photo: Niki Riga

IM Krishna C.R.G lost to GM Baron Tal | Photo: Niki Riga

Results of ninth round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Wang Hao	2758	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Paravyan David	2629	22
2	13	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2674	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2654	16
3	28	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2607	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2686	11
4	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2602	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	2609	27
5	46	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2566	6	½ - ½	5½	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2704	7
6	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2770	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Can Emre	2600	33
7	4	GM	Topalov Veselin	2738	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Basso Pier Luigi	2600	32
8	30	GM	Pichot Alan	2606	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Navara David	2717	5
9	6	GM	Le Quang Liem	2713	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	39
10	40	GM	Kadric Denis	2585	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Matlakov Maxim	2698	9

Standings after nine rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1
1	16	GM	Esipenko Andrey	RUS	2654		7,0	2819
2	3	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2758		7,0	2813
3	13	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2674		7,0	2794
4	22	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2629		7,0	2783
5	28	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2607		7,0	2714
6	56	GM	Werle Jan	NED	2545		6,5	2758
7	46	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2566	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2739
8	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	FRA	2770		6,5	2720
	4	GM	Topalov Veselin	BUL	2738		6,5	2720
10	48	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2562		6,5	2712
11	27	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2609	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2687
12	5	GM	Navara David	CZE	2717	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2676
13	10	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2694		6,5	2675
14	6	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2713	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2674
15	29	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2606		6,5	2669
16	12	GM	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2679	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2666
	15	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2654	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2666
18	14	GM	Saric Ivan	CRO	2655	ACP Premium 2020	6,5	2655
19	40	GM	Kadric Denis	BIH	2585	ACP Premium 2019	6,5	2635
20	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2602		6,5	2630

Related news:

	Anna Muzychuk's jewel from the final round of Gibraltar 2020 @ 03/02/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	जिब्राल्टर मास्टर्स - आर्यन चोपड़ा रहे सर्वश्रेष्ठ भारतीय @ 31/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	David Paravyan wins Gibraltar Masters 2020 @ 31/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Welcome to Planet Ivanchuk @ 31/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Can Indians make a strong finish in the last two rounds of the Gibraltar Masters 2020 @ 29/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	जिब्राल्टर मास्टर्स - जोरदार संघर्ष के बाद हारे प्रग्गानंधा @ 28/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	प्रग्गानंधा नें फिर किया कारनामा पूर्व फीडे विश्व चैम्पियन टोपालोव को किया पराजित @ 27/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Praggnanandhaa beats the highest rated player of his career - Veselin Topalov (2738) @ 26/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	How not following top level games can make you lose out on important points @ 26/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Gibraltar R03: S.L.Narayanan and Adhiban Baskaran shine @ 24/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Praggnanandhaa's love for chess @ 24/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Gibraltar R02: Adhiban turns his beast mode on @ 23/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	The Gibraltar gala is on @ 22/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Live Games from the Gibraltar Masters 2020 @ 21/01/2020 by ChessBase India (en)
	Indians at the Gibraltar Masters 2019 @ 01/02/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)