2nd elllobregat Open R4: Aditya Mittal gains sole lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/12/2021

IM Aditya Mittal beat GM Helgi Ass Gretarsson (ISL) to take sole lead 4.0/4 at the conclusion of the fourth round of 2nd elllobregat Open 2021. Six players including four Indians are at a half point behind 3.5/4. They are - Arjun Erigaisi, Sethuraman, Visakh N R, Sankalp Gupta, Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) and Nikita Meshkovs (LAT). Aditya will face top seed Abdusattorov, Visakh vs Arjun Erigaisi, Sethuraman vs Nikita Meshkovs and Sankalp will go against the former world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) in Round 5 which starts today at 9:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sayantan Das overcomes Abhimanyu Puranik

Unlike the previous round, four out of top six games ended decisively. IM Sayantan Das scored the biggest victory of the round as he beat GM Abhimanyu Puranik. Untitled Shantanu Bhambure held Chilean GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder.

IM Aditya Mittal has taken sole lead 4.0/4 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

GM Sankalp Gupta drew his game with... | Photo: Rupali Mullick

...GM Visakh N R, both are now at 3.5/4 each

Gretarsson - Aditya Mittal: 0-1

GM Helgi Gretarsson (ISL) decided to give up an exchange to decrease the wrath of IM Aditya Mittal's bishop pair.

Position after 25.Bg4

While 25.Bg4 was need of the hour for White, Black took the exchange as there were no better choice and returned it at the right time. 25...Bxg2+ 26.Kxg2 g5 27.f5 Rc8 28.Bd1 Re5 shows Aditya's understanding of active play. The material advantage of being exchange up might not be enough which he figured out easily.

Position after 32.Bc3+

Black has to return the exchange via 32...Rxc3, otherwise the f-pawn will become menacing and may cause serious trouble for Black. 33.bxc3 g4 34.Kh1 Re2 35.Rg1 h5 36.Rg2 Bf2 was a very pretty finish.

Final position after 36...Bf2

White trapped his own rook at g2 and there is no good way to get out of it without suffering a heavy material loss.

Arjun Erigaisi - Julen Luis: 1-0

GM Julen Luis Arizmendi Martinez (ESP) went wrong early in the opening which cost him his castling rights.

Position after 11...Na5

11...g5 12.bxc6 gxh4 was probably a better alternative for Black. Anyway 11...Na5 12.Bxe7 Kxe7 caused Black to displace his king. It cost Black valuable time to castle artificially and connect the rooks. White utilized his opportunity and converted it into a win comfortably.

Arjun Erigaisi is at 3.5/4 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Muradli - Sethuraman: 0-1

To get a glimpse of GM Sethuraman's positional understanding, take a look at the following position

Position after 22...d3

Black sacrifices a pawn to not only open the a7-g1 diagonal but also to clear the d-file. The game rapidly reached into an endgame - 22...d3 23.Rxd3 Qc5+ 24.Nd4 Bxa4 25.Kh1 Rxd4 26.Qxa8 Bxc6 27.Qxc6 Qxc6 28.Rxd4. Sethuraman declined threefold repetition and showed beautiful technique to win with queen and bishop against a double rook and bishop endgame.

GM Sethuraman S P moves to 3.5/4

IM Sayantan Das (pictured) continues his great form as he beat GM Abhimanyu Puranik

Shantanu Bhambure (pictured) - GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder: 0.5-0.5

2nd elllobregat Open 2021 | Photo: El Llobregat Open

Replay Round 4 games

The tournament is taking place at Hotel Playafels, at Castelldefels, Barcelona in Spain from 30th November to 8th December 2021. Every day game starts at 9:30 p.m. IST, except the last round, which starts at 2:30 p.m. IST. Time control is 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes/end + 30 seconds increment per move starting from move 1.

Round 4 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	41	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2468	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Visakh N R	2515	24
2	37	GM	Gretarsson Helgi Ass	2476	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	43
3	1	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Asis Gargatagli Hipolito	2502	26
4	2	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Krzyzanowski Marcin	2510	25
5	5	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis	2491	28
6	27	IM	Muradli Mahammad	2501	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	6
7	9	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey A.	2594	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	2491	30
8	12	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Garriga Cazorla Pere	2477	36
9	33	IM	Beerdsen Thomas	2484	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	13
10	14	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Gines Esteo Pedro Antonio	2413	60
11	23	GM	Narciso Dublan Marc	2519	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Vrolijk Liam	2470	38
12	3	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	2	1 - 0	2½	FM	Samant Aditya S	2297	86
13	51	GM	Kjartansson Gudmundur	2443	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	4
14	7	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2606	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Pantzar Milton	2441	53
15	54	IM	Das Sayantan	2436	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	8

Details

Round 5 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	43	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	4		3½	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	1
2	24	GM	Visakh N R	2515	3½		3½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	5
3	6	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	3½		3½	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	14
4	41	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2468	3½		3	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	2
5	30	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	2491	3		3	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	3
6	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	3		3	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2489	31
7	33	IM	Beerdsen Thomas	2484	3		3	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey A.	2594	9
8	11	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2579	3		3	IM	Kacharava Nikolozi	2469	39
9	38	IM	Vrolijk Liam	2470	3		3	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	12
10	13	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	3		3	GM	Gretarsson Helgi Ass	2476	37
11	36	IM	Garriga Cazorla Pere	2477	3		3	IM	Sosa Tomas	2542	17
12	20	GM	Van Foreest Lucas	2532	3		3	GM	Movsziszian Karen	2457	45
13	46	IM	Das Arghyadip	2453	3		3	GM	Vetoshko Volodymyr	2525	21
14	48	IM	Vignesh N R	2450	3		3	GM	Narciso Dublan Marc	2519	23
15	25	GM	Krzyzanowski Marcin	2510	3		3	IM	Das Sayantan	2436	54

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Details

Related news:

	Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins 2nd elllobregat Open in Playoffs, Karthikeyan Murali finishes second @ 09/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R8: Abdusattorov surges ahead @ 08/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R7: Top seed Abdusattorov is back in the title fray @ 07/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R6: Arjun Erigaisi and Aditya Mittal in a five-way lead @ 06/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R5: Aditya Mittal still at the top @ 05/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R3: Visakh, Sankalp and Aditya Mittal in a four-way lead @ 03/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R2: The Das defence @ 02/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd elllobregat Open R1: Aditya Samant stuns Vitaliy Bernadskiy @ 01/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)