2nd elllobregat Open R6: Arjun Erigaisi and Aditya Mittal in a five-way lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 06/12/2021

IM Aditya Mittal drew with GM Sethuraman S P in the sixth round of 2nd elllobregat Open 2021 to maintain his lead. Arjun Erigaisi beat Marcin Krzyzanowski (POL) to join the leaders at 5.0/6. Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP), Eltaj Safarli (AZE) and Nikita Meshkovs (LAT) are the remaining three players who are at 5.0/6 each. Karthikeyan Murali, Sethuraman and Karthik Venkataraman are the Indians at just a half point behind 4.5/6 each. Arjun Erigaisi and Aditya Mittal will face each other in the seventh round. It starts today at 9:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Karthikeyan, Sethuraman and Karthik in the hunt

The number of decisive games and draws among the top ten boards is exactly 50-50. IM Arghyadip Das, FM Aditya S Samant, IM Sidhant Mohapatra and Sharan Rao drew with former Venezuela no.1 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (ESP), GM Harsha Bharathakoti, GM Helgi Gretarsson (ISL) and IM Lucian-Ioan Filip (ROU) to a draw each respectively.

IM Aditya Mittal now shares the lead with four other players | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Aditya Mittal - Sethuraman: 0.5-0.5

IM Aditya Mittal tried to create something for himself by launching an attack on the kingside 17.g4

Position after 17.g4

17.g4 Be4 18.g5 Bxf3 19.Qxf3 Nd7 suddenly gave Black a slight edge as White overstretched the g-pawn.

Position after 25...Nf3+

Although Black has done a family fork 25...Nf3+, the checkmate threat at g7 prevents him from gaining huge material advantage. Perhaps 26...Rxe1+ 27.Rxe1 Nxh2+ 28.Qxh2 Qxd4 was a better practical continuation for Black as he not only gets a pawn but the king at f1 is more vulnerable to attack than his own. Black almost reached the same position, however the key difference was the pawn moved to g6 which gave White a leverage to make threats across the seventh rank and exchange f6-pawn with c4. The game soon liquidated into a drawn rook ending.

Arjun Erigaisi - Marcin: 1-0

Arjun Erigaisi got an initiative early in the middlegame when he did what needed to be done against Marcin Krzyzanowski (POL).

Position after 15.g4

White defended the c4-pawn tactically after 15.g4 Bc8 16.a5. Now c4-pawn cannot be taken because of Ra4 traps the queen.

Position after 37.h4

Sometimes when we get a good position, we try to quickly convert it into a win. That was not the case with Arjun. He waited patiently, trying to improve his position slowly without making any major pieces. Eventually, his opponent made a break 60...a4. While that almost worked for Black as he managed to get back in the game.

Position after 68.Rc1

68...fxe4 69.Nxe4 Rxc3+ 70.Rxc3 Qg7+ allows Black to save the game. However, he missed this probably due to time trouble and played 68...f4+ which once again gave the upper hand to White who won the game in another ten moves.

Arjun Erigaisi is one of the five leaders 5.0/6 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Karthik Venkataraman drew with Alexandr Fier (BRA) | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Nikita - Sankalp: 1-0

Sankalp got a good opportunity against Nikita Meshkovs (LAT). However, it was not easy to calculate, especially if he was low on time.

Position after 24.Nxe8

White has just taken Black's rook 24.Nxe8. Black should have also done the same 24...Nxd2. It's easier said than done, as White has some threats on g7. 25.Qe5 is met by 25...Kf8 which not only saves the day for Black but also maintains his decisive advantage. 25...Kf8 is a computer move which is not easy to spot for humans. Black got another subtle opportunity after a few moves, however that was also missed and White eventually won the game.

GM Harsha Bharathakoti - FM Aditya S Samant (pictured): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

GM Helgi Gretarsson (ISL) - IM Sidhant Mohapatra (pictured): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Sharan Rao (pictured) - IM Lucian-Ioan Filip (ROU): 0.5-0.5

12th World Champion in the history of chess - Anatoly Karpov observes the games | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

The tournament hall | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Replay Round 6 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 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	43	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	4½	½ - ½	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	6
2	1	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Van Foreest Lucas	2532	20
3	3	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Visakh N R	2515	24
4	5	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Krzyzanowski Marcin	2510	25
5	17	IM	Sosa Tomas	2542	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2579	11
6	12	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Beerdsen Thomas	2484	33
7	29	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2491	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	13
8	14	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2468	41
9	2	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2485	32
10	35	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2479	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	4
11	46	IM	Das Arghyadip	2453	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2606	7
12	75	IM	Suarez Uriel Adrian	2343	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Stocek Jiri	2557	15
13	21	GM	Vetoshko Volodymyr	2525	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Vignesh N R	2450	48
14	23	GM	Narciso Dublan Marc	2519	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Pantzar Milton	2441	53
15	89	CM	Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan	2282	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Asis Gargatagli Hipolito	2502	26

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	11	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2579	5		5	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	3
2	5	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	5		5	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	43
3	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	4½		5	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	14
4	33	IM	Beerdsen Thomas	2484	4½		4½	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	1
5	6	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	4½		4½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2491	29
6	20	GM	Van Foreest Lucas	2532	4½		4½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	12
7	13	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	4½		4½	IM	Muradli Mahammad	2501	27
8	53	IM	Pantzar Milton	2441	4½		4	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey A.	2594	9
9	48	IM	Vignesh N R	2450	4		4	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	2
10	7	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2606	4		4	IM	Kacharava Nikolozi	2469	39
11	8	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	4		4	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2468	41
12	50	IM	Ayats Llobera Gerard	2448	4		4	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2592	10
13	15	GM	Stocek Jiri	2557	4		4	IM	Das Arghyadip	2453	46
14	74	IM	Valenzuela Gomez Fernando	2344	4		4	IM	Sosa Tomas	2542	17
15	86	FM	Samant Aditya S	2297	4		4	GM	Vetoshko Volodymyr	2525	21

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Details

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