Vidit tames Hungarians at the IMSA mind games 2019

by Satanick Mukhuty - 15/05/2019

The IMSA world mind games is an important event in a calendar year. Mainly because chess is one of the many other mind sports played at the festival. Chess gets excellent exposure among other mind games like Go, Bridge, Xiangqi, and Droughts. 16 players in the open section and 16 in the women are fighting it out in rapid and blitz format. Indian representation is made by Vidit Gujrathi in the open and by Humpy and Harika in the women's section. Vidit is on +1 after eight rounds with wins against two Hungarians Rapport and Leko. Humpy has had a dismal event and is on 2.5/8, while Harika too hasn't really fired is on 3.5/8. We bring you a detailed report after day two.

This looks like a very serious chess playing hall, doesn't it?

The players are hunching down and thinking about their moves! They are the best players in the world. Can you identify them?

Look closely! They aren't playing chess! It's draughts!

The International Mind Sports Association World Masters Championship is taking place in Hengshui, China from 13th until 18th of May. It includes 5 sports - bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi - with 17 disciplines in total. 170 players have gathered from 36 countries. 16 players in open and 16 in women are indulging in 11 rounds of rapid and 11 rounds of blitz. From India we have GM Harika Dronavalli and GM Koneru Humpy playing in the Women's section, and GM Vidit Gujrathi in the men's section.

Men's section

Vidit is well known for his rapid and blitz skills and although he is one of the lower seeds in the tournament, the numbers can be quite deceiving | Photo: Sina home

Vidit had great trouble reaching China because of the problems at the Chinese Embassy. He even tweeted to the Minister of External Affairs of India Sushma Swaraj:

@SushmaSwaraj Ma'am, since last three days Consulate of China, Mumbai hasn't accepted my application for a visa.
I fly on Saturday, 11th may for World Mind games. I would be grateful if you can help me obtain a Chinese visa for the chess competition.@MEAQuery
— Vidit Gujrathi (@viditchess) May 8, 2019

Under tremendous time pressure, Vidit did get the visa and proceeded to play the event in China.

Starting rank

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg
1	GM	Wang Hao	8602883	CHN	2795
2	GM	Yu Yangyi	8603820	CHN	2784
3	GM	Andreikin Dmitry	4158814	RUS	2759
4	GM	Korobov Anton	14105730	UKR	2756
5	GM	Dominguez Perez Leinier	3503240	USA	2752
6	GM	Rapport Richard	738590	HUN	2739
7	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	8601445	CHN	2722
8	GM	Gelfand Boris	2805677	ISR	2719
9	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	24130737	RUS	2718
10	GM	Le Quang Liem	12401137	VIE	2706
11	GM	Leko Peter	703303	HUN	2702
12	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	14103320	UKR	2682
13	GM	Mamedov Rauf	13401653	AZE	2667
14	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	5029465	IND	2664
15	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2905540	GEO	2629
16	GM	Jones Gawain C B	409561	ENG	2622

On the first day Vidit had a mixed outing. He began with a win against Richard Rapport followed by draws against Yu Yangyi and Korobov. But in the fourth round he slumped to a defeat against Fedoseev. Let's have a look at both the decisive games.

Fedoseev vs Vidit, Round 4

The right move was 49...Rg8! and the point is very neat. After Kd7 Rg7+ White has to play his king to d6. The natural Kc6 doesn't work because of g1=Q Rxg1 Rxg1 c8=Q Rc1+ and it's a draw! Vidit was unable to find this subtle defence starting with Rg8 and went for Kf2. White played Kd7 Rf7+ Kc6! and the game ended in White's favour.

On day two Vidit started out with a resounding victory against Peter Leko. Starting out with a Catalan, the following position was reached through a strange sequence of moves:

Vidit played 14. Bf4 here which forced a sequence of exchanges: 14...Bb7 15.Bxb8 Bxg2 and now instead of going 16.Rg1, Vidit surprised his opponent with 16.Bd6!? directly, now after 16...Bxh1 17.Bxf8 Kxf8 18. f3.

Black must now play 18...Bg2 and immediately prepare to get his bishop out, but the Hungarian GM failed to notice this and ended up blundering with 18...b5. After 19.Nxc5 Nxc5 20.Ne3 the bishop is trapped. The game continued 20...Ne4 21.fxe4 Bxe4 where Black has only one pawn for an exchange - quite insufficient compensation. Vidit went on to win the game comfortably.

Vidit drew rest of his games, playing solidly to rise to joint third (4.5/8) along with Ruslan Ponomariov, Fedoseev, Yu Yangyi and Dominguez Perez. Anton Korobov emerged as the sole leader today (6.5/8) by winning all of his games. He stands currently a whooping 1.5 points ahead of the entire field.

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	K	rtg+/-
1	4	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2756	6,5	0,0	31,5	2963	20	40,2
2	10	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2706	5,0	0,0	33,0	2817	20	23,6
3	14	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2664	4,5	0,0	33,5	2773	20	24,6
4	12	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	UKR	2682	4,5	0,0	33,0	2762	20	18,0
5	5	GM	Dominguez Perez Leinier	USA	2752	4,5	0,0	32,0	2745	20	-1,0
6	9	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	RUS	2718	4,5	0,0	31,5	2755	20	8,8
7	2	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2784	4,5	0,0	31,0	2768	20	-2,8
8	8	GM	Gelfand Boris	ISR	2719	4,0	0,0	29,5	2718	20	0,2
9	15	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	GEO	2629	4,0	0,0	28,0	2727	20	21,2
10	6	GM	Rapport Richard	HUN	2739	4,0	0,0	27,0	2683	20	-12,2
11	3	GM	Andreikin Dmitry	RUS	2759	3,5	0,0	30,0	2692	20	-15,6
12	16	GM	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2622	3,5	0,0	25,0	2668	20	9,4
13	13	GM	Mamedov Rauf	AZE	2667	3,0	1,0	26,0	2618	20	-11,4
14	7	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2722	3,0	0,0	26,0	2620	20	-23,6
15	11	GM	Leko Peter	HUN	2702	2,5	0,5	26,5	2566	20	-28,8
16	1	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2795	2,5	0,5	26,0	2559	20	-50,6

After 2.5/4 on day one, Korobov switched gears on day two and moved to 6.5/8 with four wins out of four rounds | Photo: Sina home

Korobov's quick win against Ivan Cheparinov in 28 moves in round 5 itself is noteworthy.

Black has just played 16...c5 but this allows 17.g5 Nh5 18.Bxh7+ and now where should the king move? In the game Black played 18...Kf8, a blunder. Now 19.g6 is crushing - White's queen and bishops are all breathing fire on the black king and as the g-file opens the rook is ready to join the foray with Rg1. The game however continued with 19.bxc5 bxc5 20.Rb1 which kind of theoretically gives Black a chance but a practical game under time pressure is another matter.

Women's Section

Harika with 3.5/8 is in tenth position | Photo: Sina home

Koneru Humpy is on 2.5/8. She lost three out of her four games on day 2 | Photo: Sina home

Rankings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	K	rtg+/-
1	15	GM	Zhao Xue	CHN	2419	5,5	1,5	31,5	2599	20	38,6
2	4	GM	Gunina Valentina	RUS	2491	5,5	1,0	33,0	2618	20	26,8
3	3	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2498	5,5	0,5	31,5	2613	20	24,4
4	12	IM	Bodnaruk Anastasia	RUS	2437	5,0	0,0	29,0	2557	20	25,4
5	5	IM	Abdumalik Zhansaya	KAZ	2490	4,5	0,5	32,5	2515	20	6,0
6	2	GM	Muzychuk Mariya	UKR	2511	4,5	0,5	32,0	2520	20	2,4
7	7	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	GEO	2474	4,0	0,0	32,5	2472	20	-0,8
8	1	GM	Lei Tingjie	CHN	2528	4,0	0,0	29,5	2461	20	-14,4
9	6	GM	Tan Zhongyi	CHN	2482	4,0	0,0	28,0	2458	20	-5,4
10	11	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2440	3,5	0,0	29,5	2418	20	-5,2
11	9	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	BUL	2455	3,5	0,0	29,0	2435	20	-5,0
12	10	GM	Ushenina Anna	UKR	2444	3,5	0,0	28,0	2408	20	-8,2
13	13	GM	Krush Irina	USA	2430	3,5	0,0	27,0	2417	20	-3,4
14	14	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2420	3,5	0,0	26,0	2401	20	-4,8
15	8	GM	Koneru Humpy	IND	2472	2,5	0,0	29,5	2310	20	-34,4
16	16	GM	Khotenashvili Bela	GEO	2406	1,5	0,0	28,5	2192	20	-42,0

In the seventh round Koneru Humpy suffered a shocking defeat in 23 moves against Anastasia Bodnaruk.

Bodnaruk vs Humpy

In the above position 9...Bxe4 10.Bxe4 Nxe4 would have been fine but Humpy's 9...d6?! helped the Russian take the upper-hand. After 10.Re1 e5 11.Nf5 g6 White was clearly better. After this it seemed she simply lost her calm and made a series of mistakes.

After 16. c5 Black could have fought on with 16...0-0 17.c6 Nb6 etc but 16...dxc5 was a blunder. The game was soon finished in a few more moves.

It was all the more devastating for Humpy as she lost three of her four games today and could manage only to draw one. Harika Dronavalli too failed to put up a satisfactory show as she drew her first three games and lost the last one against Tan Zhongyi.

Harika vs Tan Zhongyi

The above shows position after Black's 51...c5, after defending a worse position for about fifty moves Harika lost the game here. She played 52. Qf6? which is a mistake and hands over all the play to Black. For example 52...Qd3+ 53. Kf4 Qh3 54. Qe7 Qh2+ is clearly winning. The game continued 52...Qb6 53. Qf3 c4+ 54. Kf4+ Kb4 55. Qf1 Qd4 which also was enough for a win.

At the end of day 2, jointly leading the women section are Xue Zhao, Valentina Gunima, and Alexandra Kosteniuk.

A chess purse! | Photo: Sina home

The playing hall of the tournament is spacious and well laid out | Photo: Sina home

Making the opening move | Photo: Sina home

It's wonderful to see Boris Gelfand still fighting it out against players half his age | Photo: Sina home

The next big thing in women's chess Zhansaya Abdumalik | Photo: Sina home

About the author

My name is Satanick Mukhuty. I am 26 years old and hold a bachelors degree in mathematics. Chess composition is the most serious passion of mine and I intend to pursue it rest of the life in my own humble capacity. Chess problems aside, I love good music, cinema, poetry and last but not the least, I love cats and am fostering three kittens along with their mom at the moment.

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