Aeroflot 09: solid finish for Indians (2)
The 13th edition of the Aeroflot Open 2016 is being held in Moscow, Russia from the 29th of February to 10th of March 2016. The tournament ended in a close finish at the top with both Boris Gelfand and Evgeny Najer scoring 6.5/9, with the latter taking first place on tiebreak. The Indians were playing in sizable numbers in all three groups and we bring you an illustrated report of Group B and C.
Aeroflot 09: strong finish for Indians (2)
Photos by Amruta Mokal
A bunch of your friends would visit Moscow and you would ask them how do you like the city. You will receive an assortment of reactions. The Russian capital is known to be the capital of the chess world, with God knows how many grandmasters residing in this one city alone.
The 13th edition of the Aeroflot Open 2016 is being held in Moscow, Russia from the 29th of February to 10th of March 2016. The official hotel of the event is Hotel Cosmos and the playing venue is also located at the same place. There are three tournaments that are simultaneously taking place: The A Group (2550 and above), that has only 83 players of which 09 are Indians; the B Group (2300 and above), and the C Group (below 2300).
The tournament ended in a close finish at the top with both Boris Gelfand and Evgeny Najer scoring 6.5/9, with the latter taking first place on tiebreak. The Indians were playing in sizable numbers. In fact, in the A and B groups, the number of Indians in competition was second only the Russians, the host of the event.
In this second part of our report, we bring you highlights of the B and C groups:
Kelkar is black here and his opponent has played 21.Nf3. What would you play? There are a couple of sensible options like ...f6, or even ...a5. In the current position, Black has enough resources to avoid a kingside attack.
Lopez (2543) - Kelkar (2375)
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.09"]
[Round "9.7"]
[White "Arribas Lopez, Angel"]
[Black "Abhishek, Kelkar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2543"]
[BlackElo "2375"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r1bq1rk1/pp1nnppp/1b2p3/1N1pP3/1P1p1P2/P2Q4/2PB2PP/R3KBNR w KQ - 0 12"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
$15) 13. Ng5 {White's attack is crushing. The Knight was needed on the
kingside, but now it is too late.} g6 14. Qh3 h5 15. g4 f6 16. Nf3 h4 17. Nxh4
fxe5 18. f5 Ne7 19. Bh6 Nf6 20. Bxf8 Qxf8 21. g5 Ne4 22. f6 Qf7 23. Nf3 Nc6 24.
Qh6 Qh7 25. Bd3 Qxh6 26. gxh6 Nxf6 27. Rg1 e4 28. Rxg6+ Kf7 29. Rg7+ Kf8 30.
Ng5 exd3 31. Rf7+ Kg8 32. Rxf6 Ne5 33. h7+ Kg7 34. Rf8 1-0
He began the tournament with 0.5/3, suffering some tough losses like in this second round game where he is white and was forced to play 33.Nd2, simply because he lacks moves!
Praggnanandhaa (2339) - Potapov (2486)
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.02"]
[Round "2.22"]
[White "Praggnanandhaa, R."]
[Black "Potapov, Pavel"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2339"]
[BlackElo "2486"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "4r3/ppp2pk1/4q1np/4P3/5p2/2Pr2PR/1P3QKP/4RN2 w - - 0 33"]
[PlyCount "20"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
Nxe5 39. Qxa7 Qe4+ 40. Kf2 Ng4+ 41. Kg1 Qe3+ 42. Qxe3 Nxe3 0-1
The young lad didn't mind -- he just came back stronger, picking pace to score 3.5 points in the next four rounds, including this cute tactic against GM Levon Babujian (2491) of Armenia.
Praggnanandhaa (2339) - Babujian (2491)
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.03.07"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Praggnanandhaa, R."]
[Black "Babujian , Levon"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C54"]
[WhiteElo "2339"]
[BlackElo "2491"]
[Annotator "Praggnanandhaa"]
[PlyCount "67"]
9. Re1 Be6 10. Bc2 Ba7 11. Nbd2 d5 12. exd5 Qxd5 13. Qe2 Rfe8 14. Nf1 Qd7 15.
Be3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Rad8 17. Ng3 b5 18. Qf2 {with the idea of d4} (18. d4 $6 exd4
19. exd4 $2 (19. cxd4 Nb4 20. Bb1 c5 $15 {Black has active pieces}) 19... Bxh3
$17) 18... Qd6 19. d4 b4 $6 20. Ba4 {drawback of b4} exd4 21. Nxd4 Bd7 22. Bxc6
Bxc6 23. Ngf5 Qd7 (23... Qd5 24. c4 Qd7 {now b4 pawn will not be hanging}) 24.
Qg3 Nh5 (24... g6 25. Nxh6+ Kf8 (25... Kg7 26. Rf1 $18) (25... Kh7 26. Qf2 $18)
26. Rf1 $18) 25. Qg4 g6 26. Nxh6+ Kg7 (26... Kh7 27. Nxc6 Qxc6 28. Nxf7 Rd2 29.
cxb4 $18) 27. Nhf5+ Kg8 (27... Kh7 28. cxb4 $18) 28. Rf1 Bd5 29. cxb4 Re4 30.
Qg5 Rde8 31. Nh6+ Kh8 32. Ng4 Kg8 $4 33. Qxh5 Qd6 (33... gxh5 34. Nf6+ {
family fork}) 34. Qxd5 1-0
Praggnanandhaa needed a win in the final round to clinch his second IM-norm. And he did just that after his opponent erroneously picked the c5 pawn with his knight.
Kharchenko (2488) - Praggnanandhaa (2339)
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.09"]
[Round "9.24"]
[White "Kharchenko, Boris"]
[Black "Praggnanandhaa, R."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C56"]
[WhiteElo "2488"]
[BlackElo "2339"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "6k1/5rpp/p5r1/2pb3q/3pN3/4bPB1/PPP3PP/R3QR1K w - - 0 30"]
[PlyCount "6"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
c4 $17) 30... Rxf3 31. Rxf3 Qxf3 32. Qf1 Qxg3 0-1
You can find a crisp video interview of young Praggu with two games analysed by him here.
Rakesh Kulkarni (2357) ended with two consecutive victories to finish at 4.0/9. 
Black has just played ...Bb4. It is very important to decide what precisely to do with the rook. You would be advised to find the only variation that is winning completely!
Rakesh (2357) - Von Meijenfeldt (2295)
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.08"]
[Round "8.42"]
[White "Kulkarni, Rakesh"]
[Black "Von Meijenfeldt, Bart"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "2357"]
[BlackElo "2295"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "rq3rk1/pb1R1ppp/1p2p3/4P3/1bB5/2R2N2/PP2QPPP/6K1 w - - 0 19"]
[PlyCount "17"]
[EventDate "2016.03.01"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
beautiful.} Bxc3 20. Qd3 g6 21. Qh3 h5 22. Nxf7 $1 Qe8 23. Nd6 {is winning} (
23. Qd3 $1 {is even more accurate.}) 23... Qxd7 24. Bxe6+ Kh7 25. Bxd7 Bd4 26.
Bf5 Kg7 27. Qg3 1-0
Overview of the Indian performance in the B group:
Links: