Asian Continental 04+05: Aravindh crosses 2600 by beating Kasimdzhanov

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 16/05/2017

The Indian contingent in China is very much in the race for the World Cup spots. Aravindh Chithambaram may have become the second youngest Indian to breach the 2600 barrier after he defeated former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Report with analysis.

Asian Continental 04+05: Aravindh crosses 2600 by beating Kasimdzhanov

Photos by Lennart Ootes

Indian super-talent GM Aravindh Chithambaram (2588) has already done enough to prove his talent, and he may have become the second-youngest Indian in history to breach the 2600 mark. He is tied for the second place with GM Bai Jinshi (2586) on 4.0/5.

[Event "Asian Continental-ch Open 2017"]
[Site "Chengdu"]
[Date "2017.05.16"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Aravindh, Chithambaram VR"]
[Black "Kasimdzhanov, Rustam"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2588"]
[BlackElo "2698"]
[PlyCount "95"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nd2 e6 6. Ngf3 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bb5
{D02: 1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 sidelines, including 2...Nf6 3 g3 and 2...Nf6 3 Bf4} Bxg3 (
8... a6 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. Qa4 Rb8 11. Qa3 Bxg3 12. hxg3 cxd4 13. cxd4 a5 14. O-O
Qb6 15. b3 Ba6 {1-0 (24) Carlsen,M (2840)-Anand,V (2779) Doha 2016}) 9. hxg3
Qb6 10. Bxc6 {The position is equal.} bxc6 11. Qc2 Rb8 12. b3 $146 ({
Predecessor:} 12. Rb1 cxd4 13. cxd4 Ba6 14. b4 Qb5 15. Qd1 Nd7 {0-1 (34)
Kamsky,G (2670)-Yudin,S (2530) Kazan 2016}) 12... cxd4 13. cxd4 (13. exd4 $11
c5 14. dxc5 Qxc5 15. Ne5) 13... Ba6 $15 14. g4 h6 (14... Rfc8 $1 $17 15. g5 Qb5
) 15. Ne5 Qb5 16. Ndf3 $2 (16. O-O-O Rfc8 $17) (16. Qd1 $1 $11 {and White
stays safe.}) 16... Rfc8 (16... Ne4 $19 {is more deadly. ...c5 is the strong
threat.} 17. Nd7 c5 18. Nxf8 Rc8) 17. g5 $17 Ne4 18. gxh6 gxh6 19. Qd1 {
[#] Threatening Nd2.} Nc3 $1 ({Of course not} 19... f6 $6 20. Nd2 $11) 20. Qc2
{Strongly threatening Ng5.} c5 ({Black should try} 20... Rb7 $17 {Threatens to
win with ...c5.} 21. Ng4 Kg7) 21. Ng5 $1 $11 {Intending Qh7+ and mate.} Ne4 22.
Nxe4 dxe4 23. Qd2 cxd4 24. exd4 Rd8 (24... Rb7 $11) 25. O-O-O $16 Rbc8+ 26. Kb1
Qe2 27. Rxh6 $40 {Black needs to defend precisely.} Bd3+ 28. Nxd3 {White wants
to mate with Qg5+.} Qxd2 29. Rxd2 Rxd4 30. Rh3 e5 ({Better is} 30... Rcd8) 31.
Rc2 Rxc2 32. Kxc2 exd3+ 33. Rxd3 $18 {Endgame KR-KR} Rf4 {[#]} 34. f3 $1 e4 $2
(34... Rf6 35. Rd5 Rg6) 35. Rd4 f5 (35... Rf5 {might work better.} 36. Rxe4 Kf8
) 36. fxe4 fxe4 37. Ra4 Kf7 38. Rxa7+ Ke6 39. Kd2 Rg4 40. Ke3 Ke5 $2 (40... Kf5
41. Ra5+ Ke6) 41. Ra5+ {White is clearly winning.} Kd6 42. Kd4 Rxg2 43. Kxe4
Kc6 44. Kd3 Kb6 45. Ra4 Kb5 46. Kc3 Rg3+ 47. Kb2 Rg2+ 48. Ka3 {Precision:
White = 73%, Black = 28%.} 1-0

Vidit Gujrathi (2687) beat Bangladeshi GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib (2503) in the fourth round but...

...suffered a defeat against GM Wang Hao (2680) in the fifth round.

GM B. Adhiban started with three draws but has stepped up the accelerator with two wins in the fourth and fifth rounds. He is on 3.5/5.

On the same score is GM Deep Sengupta who drew in the fifth round with...

...with GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly.

In the women's section, WIM Vaishali R., IM Padmini Rout, and WGM Soumya Swaminathan are in the race with 3.5/5, a point behind the leader IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen (2331).

Vaishali in particular played an impressive game annotated here by GM Srinath Narayanan:

[Event "16th Asian Continental w"]
[Site "Chengdu CHN"]
[Date "2017.05.14"]
[Round "3.7"]
[White "Vaishali, R."]
[Black "Gong, Qianyun"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C03"]
[WhiteElo "2272"]
[BlackElo "2298"]
[Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Be7 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bd3 c5 7. c3 b6 8. Ne4
Qc7 9. Ng3 Ba6 10. Bg5 Bxg5 11. Nxg5 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 h6 13. Nxe6 $5 fxe6 14. Qg6+
Kf8 $2 {Avaritia, one of the seven deadly sins.} (14... Kd8 {is the right
direction, away from White's heavy artillery.} 15. Qxg7 (15. Qxe6 cxd4 16. cxd4
Qc4 $132) 15... Re8 16. Qxh6 Nc6 17. Rc1 b5 18. O-O Kc8) 15. O-O Nxe5 16. dxe5
Qf7 17. Qc2 {With the weakning of Black's king, White has got returns on her
investment with interest.} Nc6 18. f4 Kg8 19. f5 $1 Rf8 20. Rae1 h5 21. h4 Qe7
22. Qa4 Na5 23. f6 Qf7 24. Nf5 gxf6 (24... exf5 {might've put up better
resistance, but not by much.} 25. e6 Qxf6 26. e7 Kh7 27. exf8=Q Rxf8 28. Qd7
$18) 25. Nd6 Qe7 26. Rxf6 Kh7 27. Qc2+ 1-0

Pairings of the next round for IND

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
6	1	6	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2680	4½		4	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2588	15
6	3	17	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2586	3½		3½	GM	Yu Yangyi	CHN	2743	1
6	4	7	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2672	3½		3½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2585	18
6	5	20	GM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2575	3½		3½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2653	8
6	9	5	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2687	3		3	GM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2525	26
6	10	9	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2633	3		3	IM	Yeoh Li Tian	MAS	2470	35
6	13	25	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2529	3		3	GM	Wen Yang	CHN	2607	14
6	15	21	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2575	3		3	GM	Gomez John Paul	PHI	2474	34
6	28	54	GM	Sriram Jha	IND	2390	2		2	IM	Tran Minh Thang	VIE	2409	51
6	5	4	IM	Padmini Rout	IND	2380	3½		3½		Ren Xiaoyi	CHN	2257	21
6	6	6	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2359	3½		3½	WIM	Vaishali R	IND	2272	17
6	7	2	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	IRI	2450	3		3	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	IND	2160	29
6	8	10	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2318	3		3	IM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2260	19
6	12	18	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	IND	2269	2½		2½		Du Yuxin	CHN	2046	37
6	13	22	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	IND	2252	2½		2½	WFM	Mendoza Shania Mae	PHI	2019	42
6	15	16	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2280	2		2	WFM	Doan Thi Van Anh	VIE	1997	45