S.L.Narayanan's scintillating win over Anton Guijarro

by Sagar Shah - 08/04/2017

91 out of the 214 participants at the Dubai Open 2017 are Indians. IM Santos Latasa Jaime from Spain is the leader with 4.0/4, but four Indians are right on his heels with 3.5/4. They include S.L. Narayanan, Vidit Gujrathi, Abhijeet Gupta and Vignesh N.R. Narayanan's win over Anton Guijarro was pretty spectacular and we have annotated the game quite extensively. A pictorial report from UAE.

S.L.Narayanan, Vidit Gujrathi, Abhijeet Gupta and Vignesh N.R. lead the Indian charge with 3.5/4

S.L.Narayanan is on 3.5/4, but played some sublime chess to defeat the in form Anton Guijarro David

[Event "19th Dubai Open 2017"]
[Site "Dubai UAE"]
[Date "2017.04.06"]
[Round "4.8"]
[White "Sunilduth Lyna, Narayanan"]
[Black "Anton Guijarro, David"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E15"]
[WhiteElo "2551"]
[BlackElo "2679"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2017.04.03"]

{S.L.Narayanan is one of the brightest talents of Indian chess along with
Aravindh Chithambaram and Karthikeyan Murali. In this game he is able to beat
the talented Spanish opponent Anton Guijarro with absolute ease.} 1. d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Qc2 $5 {This line is very popular. Of course it
is related to a pawn sacrifice, but can lead to highly unclear and exciting
play.} c5 6. d5 $1 (6. e4 {used to be played in the good old days before the
gambit was found.}) 6... exd5 7. cxd5 Bb7 8. Bg2 Nxd5 9. O-O {For the pawn,
White has a lead in development.} Nc6 10. Rd1 Be7 11. Qa4 (11. Rxd5 $2 Nb4 $19)
11... Nf6 12. Nh4 g6 13. Bh6 {This is all logical stuff and has been played
before. The knight was threatening to jump to f5, so Black played g6. And now
the bishop enters h6 in order to stop 0-0.} Bf8 14. Bg5 $5 {A logical move,
getting rid of the defender of the d5 square.} (14. Bxf8 Kxf8 15. Nc3 Kg7 $13 {
Has been played many times. The two main moves in this position are Rd6 and
Qf4.}) 14... h6 {This is the most ambitious choice, but the queen will be
lured to f6 and then the knight jumping to d5 will win a tempo. But Anton is
fine with all of that and so are the engines.} 15. Bxf6 Qxf6 16. Nc3 Be7 $6 (
16... O-O-O $5 {Might be tried the next time this line is played, but I
already have a feeling that this might be quite dangerous for Black.} 17. Rd3
g5 18. Nf3 Kb8 19. Rad1 $44) 17. Nd5 (17. Rd3 $5 {was also a good choice.} O-O
18. Rxd7 $18) 17... Qd6 18. e3 $1 {Prophylaxis against Nd4.} Nd8 19. Rd2 Kf8
20. Rad1 $18 {Something went horribly wrong for Anton. In just 20 moves he has
a completely lost position.} Bxh4 21. Qxh4 g5 22. Qc4 Qe5 23. Nxb6 $5 {An
interesting tactic.} (23. f4 gxf4 24. exf4 Qg7 25. Nc7 Bxg2 26. Kxg2 Rc8 27.
Rxd7 $18 {Just ends the game without any discussions.}) 23... axb6 24. Bxb7
Nxb7 25. Rxd7 Nd8 26. Rxd8+ Kg7 (26... Rxd8 27. Rxd8+ Ke7 $1 (27... Kg7 28.
Rxh8 Kxh8 29. Qxf7 $18) 28. Rxh8 Qxh8 29. b4 $16 {And although White is
clearly better, winning or not is not entirely clear.}) 27. R8d7 $1 Rhf8 28.
R1d6 Qxb2 29. Qe4 {Qg6 cannot be stopped. An emphatic victory for the Indian
youngster.} 1-0

In case you would like to learn the 5.Qc2 gambit line employed by S.L.Narayanan, you should definitely check out the DVD by Simon Williams. It is available in the ChessBase India shop for just Rs. 999. You can also read about GM Swapnil Dhopade's views on this line from here.

The Spaniard had absolutely no clue about what struck him!

Vidit has been quite solid at the event and is on 3.5/4. He opened with 1.e4 in his third round encounter with R. Praggnanandhaa, was in trouble, but eventually managed to win the game.

[Event "19th Dubai Open 2017"]
[Site "Dubai UAE"]
[Date "2017.04.05"]
[Round "3.6"]
[White "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Black "Praggnanandhaa, R."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C78"]
[WhiteElo "2670"]
[BlackElo "2447"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "85"]
[EventDate "2017.04.03"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bb7 7. d3 Be7 8. Re1
O-O 9. a4 d6 10. Nbd2 Na5 11. Ba2 b4 12. d4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Re8 14. c3 c5 15.
cxb4 cxb4 16. N4f3 h6 17. Nh4 Bf8 18. Ng6 Rc8 19. Nxf8 Kxf8 20. Bb1 Qb6 21. Bd3
Kg8 22. h3 Re6 23. Nf3 Bxe4 {Vidit sacrificed a pawn and Pragga bravely
accepts it.} 24. Be3 Qb7 25. Nd4 Ree8 (25... Re5 $1 $15) 26. Nf5 Bxg2 27. Nxd6
Qa8 28. Nxc8 Bxh3 $1 29. f3 Rxc8 (29... Bxc8 {would have been good
compensation for Black.}) 30. Qe2 Re8 31. Qf2 Qd5 32. Rad1 Qh5 33. Qg3 Nc6 34.
Bxa6 Ne5 35. Be2 Re6 36. Kf2 Qf5 37. Qf4 Qg6 38. Rg1 Nfg4+ 39. Ke1 Rf6 40. Rxg4
Bxg4 41. Qxe5 Bf5 42. Kf2 Bh3 43. Rg1 {An interesting game, where Vidit
managed to show some very good defensive skills.} 1-0

Abhijeet Gupta who did a show with us before leaving for the Dubai Open seems to be in excellent form! He is on 3.5/4.

With draws against Rakhmanov and Bok, Tania is playing great chess and is on 3.0/4

2.5/4 for IM Padmini Rout

Bhakti Kulkarni is also on 2.5/4

Youngster Pranav V. created the sensation of the event by beating GM Salem Saleh (2652) in the first round!

Another huge Indian talent Gukesh D. is on 2.0/4

Reigning National Junior Champion Kumar Gaurav is on 2.0/4...

...while his brother Saurabh Anand is on 2.5/4

It's good to see S. Harini back in action after a long time. 1.5/4 is not a great start...

...but her husband P. Karthikeyan is doing pretty well on 3.0/4

Leon Mendonca must be looking to make a comeback after a slow start with 1.5/4

The Dubai chess and culture club has one of the best playing halls in the world

Rank after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	31	IM	Santos Latasa Jaime	ESP	2565	4,0	0,0	8,0	5,0
2	32	GM	Fier Alexandr	BRA	2562	3,5	0,0	9,0	5,5
3	2	GM	Areshchenko Alexander	UKR	2686	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	6	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	VEN	2671	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	8	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2670	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	11	GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2663	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	28	GM	Can Emre	TUR	2578	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	34	GM	Pichot Alan	ARG	2556	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	35	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	IND	2551	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
	44	IM	Salomon Johan	NOR	2487	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0
11	3	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2680	3,5	0,0	8,0	5,0
12	22	GM	Adly Ahmed	EGY	2597	3,5	0,0	8,0	4,5
	25	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2589	3,5	0,0	8,0	4,5
	27	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2586	3,5	0,0	8,0	4,5
15	18	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2614	3,5	0,0	7,5	4,0
16	9	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2666	3,5	0,0	7,0	4,5
	14	GM	Oleksiyenko Mykhaylo	UKR	2643	3,5	0,0	7,0	4,5
	21	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	GEO	2602	3,5	0,0	7,0	4,5
19	56	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2411	3,5	0,0	7,0	3,5
20	17	GM	Zhigalko Sergei	BLR	2639	3,5	0,0	6,5	4,0
	19	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2607	3,5	0,0	6,5	4,0

Round 1 video recap

Round 2 video recap

Round 3 video recap

Overview of Indian performers! (91 of them!)

Player overview for IND

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.
8	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2670	IND	1	1	1	½						3,5	5
19	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2607	IND	1	1	½	1						3,5	21
30	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2571	IND	1	½	1	0						2,5	59
35	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2551	IND	1	1	½	1						3,5	9
38	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2507	IND	1	½	½	1						3,0	29
41	GM	Debashis Das	2501	IND	1	½	1	½						3,0	27
42	IM	Stany G.A.	2495	IND	1	½	1	0						2,5	50
45	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2483	IND	1	1	0	½						2,5	45
47	GM	Grover Sahaj	2473	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,0	203
49	IM	Visakh N R	2464	IND	½	½	1	1						3,0	30
50	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2454	IND	½	1	½	1						3,0	31
51	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	2447	IND	1	1	0	1						3,0	26
53	IM	Nitin S.	2432	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	53
55	IM	Tania Sachdev	2429	IND	1	1	½	½						3,0	28
56	IM	Vignesh N R	2411	IND	1	1	½	1						3,5	19
57	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2410	IND	1	1	0	½						2,5	57
59	GM	Laxman R.R.	2403	IND	1	0	½	1						2,5	62
60	IM	Padmini Rout	2400	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	54
61		Iniyan P	2399	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	82
64	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2383	IND	1	0	½	1						2,5	73
66	IM	Roy Prantik	2372	IND	1	0	0	1						2,0	116
70	IM	Siva Mahadevan	2363	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	78
71	FM	Thakur Akash	2363	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	86
76		Sidhant Mohapatra	2341	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	63
77		Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	2337	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	105
78		Kulkarni Rakesh	2325	IND	1	0	0	½						1,5	139
79	IM	Rajesh V A V	2324	IND	1	½	0	0						1,5	130
81	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2316	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	110
84		Raahul V S	2306	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	99
85		Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2305	IND	1	½	½	½						2,5	47
87	CM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2286	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	79
88		Saurabh Anand	2284	IND	1	0	½	1						2,5	66
89	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2281	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	83
91		Arjun Kalyan	2280	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	80
94		Sankalp Gupta	2265	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	64
96	CM	Gukesh D	2260	IND	1	1	0	0						2,0	94
100		Ashwath R.	2242	IND	1	½	½	0						2,0	96
101		Dodeja Pawan	2235	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	68
102		Arjun K	2232	IND	1	0	½	1						2,5	91
104		Jayakumaar S	2229	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	84
105		Prithu Gupta	2226	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	81
106		Jaiswal Puneet	2219	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	74
107	FM	Sadhwani Raunak	2218	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	87
111	AGM	Nishant Malhotra	2197	IND	0	1	1	1						3,0	33
112	CM	Aditya Mittal	2183	IND	0	1	½	1						2,5	92
115		Kumar Gaurav	2172	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	103
117	WFM	Srija Seshadri	2166	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	117
118		Yohan J.	2164	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	114
119		Harini S.	2150	IND	0	½	0	1						1,5	159
121		Pranav V	2149	IND	1	0	0	½						1,5	129
123	FM	Dutta Joydeep	2145	IND	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1,0	165
126		Vantika Agrawal	2130	IND	0	1	1	0						2,0	100
130	WFM	Cholleti Sahajasri	2120	IND	0	1	½	0						1,5	133
131	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2110	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	146
132		Baivab Mishra	2105	IND	0	½	1	½						2,0	126
133	WFM	Salonika Saina	2098	IND	0	0	1	½						1,5	154
136		Priyanka Nutakki	2084	IND	0	1	1	½						2,5	65
138		Pranav Anand	2083	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	147
139		Jeet Jain	2078	IND	0	1	½	1						2,5	56
140	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2077	IND	0	0	½	1						1,5	163
141	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	2077	IND	0	½	½	½						1,5	161
142	WFM	Tarini Goyal	2077	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	118
151		Panesar Vedant	2036	IND	0	1	0	½						1,5	145
152		Nayak Rajesh	2034	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	123
154		Priyanka K	2030	IND	0	1	½	0						1,5	149
159		Dushyant Sharma	2013	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	115
164		Doshi Moksh Amitbhai	1974	IND	0	0	1	½						1,5	138
167		Panda Sambit	1959	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	155
168		Vijay Anand M.	1956	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	121
169		Siddharth Sabharishankar	1950	IND	½	½	0	0						1,0	167
171		Nair Sanjeev	1938	IND	0	0	1	0						1,0	177
173	AGM	Srihari L R	1922	IND	0	0	1	½						1,5	160
174		Saksham Rautela	1908	IND	1	0	½	0						1,5	136
176		Saranya Y	1890	IND	0	0	1	0						1,0	186
177		Tejaswini Reddy S.	1889	IND	0	0	½	0						0,5	198
178		Shourya Jain	1879	IND	1	0	0	½						1,5	143
179	WCM	Isha Sharma	1878	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	124
182		Makhija Aashna	1858	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	151
187		Sarvesh Kumar A	1827	IND	0	½	0	0						0,5	199
188		Pankaj Sindhu	1819	IND	0	1	0	½						1,5	157
189		Thrish Karthik	1817	IND	0	1	0	0						1,0	178
190		Srimathi R	1810	IND	0	½	0	1						1,5	164
192		Jeel Shah	1764	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,0	209
196		Narendran Gouthaman	1757	IND	1	0	0	½						1,5	135
202		Narendran V	1716	IND	0	0	0	1						1,0	193
203	CM	Mullick Raahil	1710	IND	1	0	0	1						2,0	109
204		Krithigga K	1708	IND	½	0	½	½						1,5	158
210		Jijo Joy	1589	IND	0	0	0	1						1,0	190
212		Aditya Varun Gampa	1552	IND	0	1	½	0						1,5	137
213		Singh Gurmeher	1433	IND	0	0	0	0						0,0	213
214		Mohammed Fawwaaz	1386	IND	1	0	½	0						1,5	131