Vaibhav halts the Akash juggernaut

by Satanick Mukhuty - 17/12/2019

The 23-year-old Akash G, who has been in brilliant form lately at the ongoing National Senior Championship, was finally given his first taste of defeat by Delhi's Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri. Vaibhav registered a powerful win against Akash in the eighth round of the event and emerged as the sole leader with an impressive score of 7.0/8. While the latter has slipped down the leaderboard following his loss to share the second place along with Aravindh Chithambaram and Sandipan Chanda. In this illustrated report on round eight we bring you the detailed analysis of Vaibhav's encounter against Akash and also photos from the venue.

Vaibhav Suri made quite a slow start at the National Senior Championship 2019, barely drawing his game against a much lower rated opponent in the very first round of the event. But as they say, it is the slow and steady who wins the race. After eight rounds Vaibhav has now emerged as the sole leader beating the in-form Akash G.

Vaibhav in action against Akash in the eighth round of the event | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Playing the White side of a Sicilian Moscow, the 21-year-old Grandmaster started off convincingly seizing more space out of the opening. The balance really started to tilt in his favour around move 28 when he managed to break open the kingside with the move f2-f4. The game was finally brought to a spectacular combinative finish when Akash committed the decisive blunder only six moves after that.

Vaibhav Suri - Akash G, Round 8

Vaibhav avoided the popular 6.Bxd7+ line and chose 6.Be2 instead keeping his bishop pair on the board.

And 9.c4 came next establishing the typical Maróczy Bind. The difference was that White's light-squared bishop which usually is exchanged off on d7 was now inside the pawn chain.

Perhaps in the above position 9...Nc5 10.Nc3 Bd7 would have been a bit more active. Note that White doesn't really gain anything by driving the knight away from c5 with 11.b4 as after 11...Na4 12.Nxa4 Bxa4 Black gets his bishop on a nice square and stops the very important Rd1. In the game however, Akash went 9...0-0 10.Nc3 b6 11.Rd1 Bb7 which gave Black a solid but a somewhat passive structure.

After 11...Bb7 White's position was freer but Black too was solid.

The side which has more space always finds it easier to get their pieces developed on the ideal squares. This is what Vaibhav managed to do pretty well. In the above position you can see how nicely all of White's pieces are stanced. They are ready to spring to life once the pawn structure liquidates.

...And as White got in f2-f4 the bishop along the a1-h8 diagonal suddenly started making a lot of sense. The major pieces were also prepared to flow in through the f-file.

With 34.Rf4 already ideas of Rxf6 sacrifice were in the air. Black made the critical mistake of playing 34...Qc8 here. Can you come up with a better defensive plan?

Apparently the only move that sort of holds the position together is 34...Be8! The point is now Black can block the g-file if need be with Bg6 and slow down White's onslaught. 34...Qc8 on the other hand failed immediately as after 35.Rcf1 Qd8 Vaibhav straightaway went in with 36.Rxf6!!

36.Rxf6 was definitely the move of the game! Check out the brilliant finish in the annotation below.

Photo Gallery

Aravindh Chithambaram (left) is just half a point behind Vaibhav with 6.5/8 points. In the eighth round he drew against Lalith Babu M R | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

IM Nitin S held Deepan Chakkravarthy in the eighth round with the white pieces | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Deep Sengupta beat Ratnakaran K and is now on 5.5/8 points | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Neelotpal Das defeated Sikkim's Rahul Gurung | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Laxman Rajaram, who has also scored 5.5/8 so far, beat Manigandan S S of Tamil Nadu with black pieces | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Shyamnikhil P beat Navalgund Niranjan with black pieces | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

13-year-old Harshad S held Grandmaster Tejas Bakre to a draw | Photo: IA Dharmendra Kumar

Results of round eight

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2597	6	1 - 0	6½	IM	Akash G	2431	21
2	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2605	6	½ - ½	5½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2556	5
3	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2611	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Anurag Mhamal	2490	11
4	12	IM	Vignesh N R	2475	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2555	6
5	88		Grahesh Y	2029	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2545	7
6	36	IM	Nitin S.	2329	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2535	8
7	9	GM	Visakh N R	2516	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2304	41
8	48	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2269	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2493	10
9	16	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2455	5	1 - 0	5		Subhayan Kundu	2222	53
10	52	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2231	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2455	17

Standings after round eight

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	TB1
1	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2597	Delhi	7,0
2	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2605	Tamil Nadu	6,5
	7	GM	Chanda Sandipan	IND	2545	West Bengal	6,5
	21	IM	Akash G	IND	2431	Tamil Nadu	6,5
5	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2611	PSPB	6,0
	5	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2556	PSPB	6,0
	6	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	IND	2555	West Bengal	6,0
	10	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2493	Tamil Nadu	6,0
	11	GM	Anurag Mhamal	IND	2490	Goa	6,0
	12	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2475	RSPB	6,0
	16	IM	Ravi Teja S.	IND	2455	RSPB	6,0
	17	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2455	RSPB	6,0
	22	GM	Neelotpal Das	IND	2430	PSPB	6,0
	31	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	IND	2367	PSPB	6,0

Complete results and standings

Related news:

	In conversation with the National Senior Champion 2019 @ 06/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Ravi on the rise - Ravi Teja S on his performance at the Indian Championship 2019 @ 28/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Aravindh Chithambaram wins the National Senior Championship second time in a row @ 19/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	The National Senior Championship climaxes in an epic slugfest @ 18/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Akash soars, Aravindh pulls off a brilliancy @ 12/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	National Senior Championship R02+03: Nine players lead with perfect score @ 12/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Shaky first day for Abhijeet and Vaibhav @ 11/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Who will win the National Championship 2019? @ 10/12/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)