Chigorin 05-09: Himal scores a GM norm and completes IM title

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 25/10/2016

The Chigorin Memorial Tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, has had a long tradition. It is named after the founder of the Soviet Chess School Mikhail Chigorin. A list of strong grandmasters competed in the 2016 edition for the prize fund of 18,00,000 rubles ($28000/26000 euros). GM Deep Sengupta had the sole lead with 5.0/5. But he faltered in the second half. Chandigarh's Himal Gusain played a beautiful tournament, to become an international master with a crushing win in the final round.

Chigorin 05-09: Himal scores a GM norm and completes IM title

The Chigorin Memorial Tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia, has had a long tradition. It is named after the founder of the Soviet Chess School Mikhail Chigorin. A list of strong grandmasters competed in the 2016 edition for the prize fund of 18,00,000 rubles ($28000/26000 euros). More than 30 grandmasters were playing in a field of 372 players with 16 of them rated above 2600.

GM Deep Sengupta (2570) won a beautiful game against GM Denis Khismatullin (2617) in the fifth round.

He surprisingly became the sole leader with 5.0/5, but he subsequently lost steam and ended with 6.5/9. But his game against Khismatullin is worth admiring:

It looks as if White may be dominating this position, but actually, Black is better thanks to White's marooned king! But there is only one move that makes sure of that... (Don't forget to see the mate in 4 in the end.)

[Event "M.Chigorin Memorial 2016 "]
[Site "St. Petersburg"]
[Date "2016.10.19"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "Khismatullin, Denis"]
[Black "Sengupta, Deep"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B39"]
[WhiteElo "2617"]
[BlackElo "2570"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2016.10.15"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]

1. c4 g6 2. e4 Bg7 3. d4 c5 4. Nf3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Ng4 8.
Qxg4 Nxd4 9. Qd1 Ne6 10. Qd2 b6 11. Be2 Bb7 12. O-O O-O 13. f3 Bc6 14. b4 d6
15. Rac1 Qd7 16. Rfd1 Qb7 17. Nd5 Rfe8 18. f4 Nc7 19. b5 Bd7 20. a4 Rac8 21. a5
Nxd5 22. exd5 Rc7 23. Rc2 bxa5 24. Ra2 e5 25. Qxa5 Qc8 26. Bxa7 exf4 27. Rc1 f3
28. gxf3 Bh6 29. Rc3 Bh3 $1 (29... Bf4 30. Bb6 Rb7 31. Bf2 Bh3 32. Bd3 Rbe7 33.
Rca3 $11) 30. Bf2 Rce7 (30... Qf5 $1 31. Qa4 Bf4 $19) 31. Bd3 Re1+ 32. Bxe1
Qc5+ 0-1

But the man who stole the show was certainly (IM) Himal Gusain (2428) who scored a GM norm by making 7.0/9 finishing eighth.

Himal had been fluctuating around the 2300-range for some three years until 'something happened' in January 2016. Now he is close to 2450, has become an international master and also has one grandmaster norm.

This spectacular game where he crushed GM Ivan Rozum with a showpiece queen + rook sac is worth watching.

[Event "M.Chigorin Memorial 2016 "]
[Site "St. Petersburg"]
[Date "2016.10.23"]
[Round "9.11"]
[White "Gusain, Himal"]
[Black "Rozum, Ivan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2428"]
[BlackElo "2590"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2016.10.15"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 {Advanced Variation.} Bf5 4. h4 {Not as common as the
main line Nf3.} Qb6 5. g4 Bd7 6. Nc3 e6 {a novel position already. Blacj has
won 6 of the seven games that have reached this position.} 7. Na4 {This is
completely new.} Qa5+ 8. c3 b5 9. Nc5 Bxc5 10. dxc5 b4 11. Qd4 bxc3 12. bxc3
Bc8 13. h5 h6 14. Nf3 Ba6 15. Be3 Ne7 16. a4 O-O 17. Bh3 $1 {The bishop has a
great role to play here as we shall see.} Nd7 18. g5 {Natural pawn lever.} hxg5
19. Nxg5 Kh8 20. h6 g6 21. Kd2 Rab8 22. Rhb1 Rxb1 23. Rxb1 Bc4 24. Rb4 Qc7 {
Attacking e5, but...} 25. Bxe6 Nxe5 (25... fxe6 26. Nxe6 Nf5 (26... Qc8 27.
Nxf8 Qxf8 28. e6+ Kg8 29. exd7 $18) 27. Nxc7 Nxd4 28. Bxd4 $18) 26. Bxf7 {
The best move.} (26. Nxf7+ Rxf7 27. Bxf7 Nf5 28. Qf4 $18) 26... Nf5 27. f4 {
Himal finishes with a queen sacrifice} Nxh6 (27... Nxd4 28. Bxd4 Qxf7 29. Bxe5+
Kg8 30. Nxf7 $18) 28. Rb7 {and a rook sacrifice. Black was smashed to pulp.}
1-0

GM Kirill Alekseenko (2554), who was in India to play the World Juniors recently, won the tournament with 8.0/9.

[Event "M.Chigorin Memorial 2016 "]
[Site "St. Petersburg"]
[Date "2016.10.23"]
[Round "9.1"]
[White "Alekseenko, Kirill"]
[Black "Lu, Shanglei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2554"]
[BlackElo "2615"]
[PlyCount "123"]
[EventDate "2016.10.15"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nb3 Nbd7 7. a4 b6 8. g4
h6 9. Bg2 Ne5 10. h3 g5 11. f4 gxf4 12. Bxf4 e6 13. Qe2 Bb7 14. O-O Nfd7 15.
Rad1 Be7 16. Nd4 h5 17. gxh5 Qc7 18. Nf3 Nc4 19. Bc1 Rxh5 20. Rd4 Na5 21. Kh1
Nc6 22. Rc4 O-O-O 23. Nd4 Rc5 24. Rxc5 dxc5 25. Nxc6 Qxc6 26. Rxf7 Bf6 27. Bf4
c4 28. Qh5 Rh8 29. Qg6 Bd4 30. Rh7 Rd8 31. Bg5 Ne5 32. Qf6 Re8 33. Rh8 Qd7 34.
Bf4 Nf3 35. Rxe8+ Qxe8 36. Qh6 Ne1 37. Qh7 e5 38. Bg3 Nxc2 39. Nd5 Kb8 40. Qc7+
Ka7 41. Qxc4 Ne3 42. Nxe3 Bxe3 43. Kh2 Bd4 44. b3 Qg6 45. Qc7 Qg5 46. h4 Bg1+
47. Kh3 Qf6 48. h5 $1 Qe6+ 49. Kh4 Qf6+ (49... Qxb3 50. Qxe5) 50. Kg4 Qe6+ 51.
Kg5 $1 {Accurate} (51. Kf3 $4 Qf5+ $1 52. Ke2 Qg4+ $19) (51. Kh4 Qf6+ $11)
51... Bd4 52. Qg7 Bc5 (52... Qxb3 53. Kh4 Qc2 54. Bf3 $16) 53. Bxe5 Ka8 54. h6
Bc8 55. Kf4 Qxb3 56. Bd4 Bb4 57. Be3 Bc3 58. Qc7 Bb7 59. h7 Qb2 60. Qd8+ Ka7
61. a5 Be5+ 62. Kf5 1-0

The playing arena

GM S.L. Narayanan (2536) could muster up only 6.5/9.

79th seed FM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2395) also scored 7.0/9. The 12-year-old performed at almost 2700 for his GM norm and finished sixth!

Think outside the box!

You have to CREATE a tactic here. What is the only move that White has to gain an advantage using a tactical plan.

[Event "M.Chigorin Memorial 2016 "]
[Site "St. Petersburg"]
[Date "2016.10.21"]
[Round "7.18"]
[White "Stupak, Kirill"]
[Black "Abdusattorov, Nodirbek"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E20"]
[WhiteElo "2564"]
[BlackElo "2395"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2016.10.15"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Bb4+ 5. Nc3 O-O 6. Nf3 dxc4 7. O-O Nc6 8. e3
Rb8 9. Qe2 b5 10. Rd1 Be7 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Nd7 13. Bc6 a6 {Stupak chose
to play:} 14. f4 {which is not quite accurate.} ({Computer finds a move like}
14. Rd2 $3 {with a tactical threat. Black must play} b4 ({Just to show what
the threat is:} 14... h6 15. Bxd7 Bxd7 16. Qd1 {wins the bishop.}) ({Note that
-- if} 14... Qe8 {Black walks into yet another pin!} 15. Qd1 Rb6 16. Bxd7 Bxd7
17. Rxd7 Bd6 18. exd6 Qxd7 19. dxc7 Qxc7 20. Qe2 $14) 15. Ne4 c3 16. Rd4 (16.
bxc3 bxc3 17. Nxc3 Bb4 $11) 16... Rb6 17. Bxd7 Bxd7 18. Qd1 f5 19. exf6 Bd6 20.
bxc3 $16) 14... Rb6 15. Qg2 $2 (15. Bg2 Bb7 16. a4 $15) 15... b4 16. Na4 Rxc6
$1 {Cute and accurate.} 17. Qxc6 Nxe5 18. Rxd8 Nxc6 19. Rd1 $17 {Materially
equal. But Black is ahead in development.} e5 20. e4 Bg4 21. Rd5 Be6 22. Rd1
Bg4 23. Rd5 Be6 24. Rd1 Nd4 25. fxe5 Nf3+ 26. Kg2 Nxe5 27. Bf4 f6 28. Be3 Nd3
29. b3 f5 30. bxc4 fxe4 31. Rd2 Bxc4 32. Rad1 Bb5 33. Nb2 c5 34. Rc2 Nxb2 35.
Rxb2 Bd3 36. a3 a5 37. axb4 axb4 {And White decided to call it a day. A
dominating performance by the youngster.} 0-1

Related:

Chigorin Memorial Report 01-04

Complete Indian Overview here.

Final Standings

Games in PGN

Alina Bivol, Sergey and Boris Sorokhtin Oskina