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Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 8: Jobava wins again, Karthikeyan slips in the penultimate round

by Satanick Mukhuty - 10/08/2019

In the penultimate round of the 26th Abu Dhabi Chess Masters 2019 Karthikeyan Murali ended up losing to GM Yakubboev Nodirbek. It was a highly complex game in King's Indian defense where the Indian Grandmaster made a series of inexplicable errors handing over his winning advantage to the Uzbek player. Karthikeyan has thus slipped to the 11th place on the rank-list with 5.5/8. On the other hand, the in-form leader Baadur Jobava resumed his stellar run as he registered yet another victory against the polish Grandmaster Mateusz Bartel. In this report we bring you analysis, photos, and more.

Jobava back to winning!

After drawing against Ni Hua in the previous round, Baadur Jobava is back with his killing spree as he registered yet another victory in round eight against Mateusz Bartel | Photo: Rupali Mullick

It is interesting to note that around the year of 2012 Baadur Jobava's rating peaked to a massive 2734, only a stint of bad performances recently has brought him down into the 2500s on the Elo scale. However, in this ongoing Abu Dhabi Masters he has proven with his phenomenal domination that that's not his true strength. The Georgian Grandmaster won all his games in the first six rounds and now, after just one draw in the seventh round, is back with the victory rampage! The latest casualty being Bartel Mateusz from Poland. In this game Jobava opened with 1.b3 - the Nimzo-Larsen - and then opted for an unusual double fianchetto set-up. Let's begin by looking at the highlights of this game!

 

Baadur Jobava - Bartel Mateusz, Round 8

Position after 7.Bg2: A fresh game after just seven moves! Black played 7...Be4 here and the light-squared bishops were traded off, things were totally equal at this point.

White's 16.Ba3 was an attempt to put more pressure on d6. The next step was pushing b4-b5 and opening up the b-file.

White's position started to look good around here with pressure building up along the sixth rank.

Black played the move 23...Nd4 ... What would you do here as White?

24.Rxa6 was an imprecision by Jobava, 24.Nxd6 would have been more punishing.

28...f4! was a good move. White had to be wary of f3+ now.

This was a critical moment in the game. 31...e4! would have been the best move here, the point being after 32.Nxd5 f3+ Black has excellent counterplay. In the game however 31...Nxg5 was played and this was a blunder.

Black's counterplay on the kingside just fizzled out and suddenly White's passed a-pawn started to look menacing. Rxf4 Ra8+ Bf8 a6 for instance looks devastating. In the game Qf5 was played which only quickened matters for White, allowing Qh5 followed by Rg6!

With the move 42.f5 Black had to call it a day. There was no way to stop the torrent of pawns!

 Karthikeyan misses footing in King's Indian complexities 

Karthikeyan Murali suffered a loss in the eighth round against Yakubboev Nodirbek of Uzbekistan. It was an intensely complicated game in King's Indian Classical variation where the Indian Grandmaster even had a decisive edge at one point but a series of mistakes towards the end ultimately turned the tables on him | Photo: Rupali Mullick

One of the most anticipated encounters of round eight was Deep Sengupta versus Aravindh Chithambaram. The game ended in a draw after a gruelling 72 moves long battle in the Italian | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Aryan Chopra beat the seventh seed Andrei Volokitin playing the French defense with black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Shyamnikhil P held GM Vaibhav Suri to a draw with the black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Shyamnikhil has been incredibly solid in the tournament. Not losing a single game and holding Grandmasters like Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Bai Jinshi to draws!

Praggnananddhaa R. defeated Venkatesh M.R. with the black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Akash Pc Iyer held GM Iniyan P. to a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of round 8

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
126
GMJobava Baadur 2584 1 - 0 GMBartel Mateusz 2612
13
210
GMSocko Bartosz 2625 ½ - ½ GMNi Hua 2668
2
328
GMYakubboev Nodirbek 2574 1 - 0 GMKarthikeyan Murali 2612
14
418
GMAntipov Mikhail Al. 2599 0 - 15 GMIndjic Aleksandar 2617
11
54
GMMaghsoodloo Parham 26565 1 - 05 GMAleksandrov Aleksej 2571
29
68
GMTer-Sahakyan Samvel 26325 ½ - ½5 GMAbdusattorov Nodirbek 2594
21
722
GMCan Emre 25935 ½ - ½5 GMEsipenko Andrey 2625
9
837
GMSengupta Deep 25465 ½ - ½5 GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2607
15
916
GMZubov Alexander 26075 ½ - ½5 GMPetrosyan Manuel 2592
23
1030
GMYuffa Daniil 25715 ½ - ½5 GMTabatabaei M.Amin 2601
17
111
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 2686 ½ - ½ GMPaichadze Luka 2570
31
1235
GMShevchenko Kirill 2556 0 - 1 GMSalem A.R. Saleh 2668
3
1338
GMSanal Vahap 2535 1 - 0 GMOnischuk Vladimir 2640
6
147
GMVolokitin Andrei 2636 0 - 1 GMAryan Chopra 2553
36
1519
GMBai Jinshi 2599 ½ - ½ GMXu Yi 2531
39
1620
GMPetrov Nikita 2595 ½ - ½ GMSindarov Javokhir 2507
45
1724
GMVaibhav Suri 2591 ½ - ½ IMShyaamnikhil P 2457
53
1840
IMNguyen Anh Khoi 2529 ½ - ½ GMSantos Latasa Jaime 2586
25
1944
GMKuybokarov Temur 2511 ½ - ½ GMIdani Pouya 2581
27
205
GMAkopian Vladimir 26504 1 - 0 CMAronyak Ghosh 2332
87

Standings after round 8

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3 
126
GMJobava BaadurGEO25847,50,0259341,5
228
GMYakubboev NodirbekUZB25746,50,0259239,0
34
GMMaghsoodloo ParhamIRI26566,00,0257543,0
410
GMSocko BartoszPOL26256,00,0256639,5
511
GMIndjic AleksandarSRB26176,00,0255643,0
62
GMNi HuaCHN26686,00,0252541,0
730
GMYuffa DaniilRUS25715,50,0255739,5
83
GMSalem A.R. SalehUAE26685,50,0255643,0
923
GMPetrosyan ManuelARM25925,50,0255141,5
1016
GMZubov AlexanderUKR26075,50,0255137,0
1114
GMKarthikeyan MuraliIND26125,50,0254938,0
1236
GMAryan ChopraIND25535,50,0254736,5
1313
GMBartel MateuszPOL26125,50,0253942,5
1417
GMTabatabaei M.AminIRI26015,50,0253038,0
1537
GMSengupta DeepIND25465,50,0252637,5
1622
GMCan EmreTUR25935,50,0252636,5
1718
GMAntipov Mikhail Al.RUS25995,50,0252237,5
1821
GMAbdusattorov NodirbekUZB25945,50,0251939,0
199
GMEsipenko AndreyRUS26255,50,0251839,0
2015
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.IND26075,50,0250138,5

The final round of the event begins today (10th August) at 11:30 a.m IST. You can follow it live on the official YouTube channel of Abu Dhabi Chess.