2nd elllobregat Open R7: Top seed Abdusattorov is back in the title fray

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/12/2021

IM Aditya Mittal made a great save against GM Arjun Erigaisi in a completely lost position in the seventh round of 2nd elllobregat Open 2021. Top seed of the tournament, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) beat IM Thomas Beerdssen (NED) to join six other leaders 5.5/7. They are - Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP), Arjun Erigaisi, Eltaj Safarli (AZE), Nikita Meshkovs (LAT), Muradli Mahammad (AZE) and Aditya Mittal. In the penultimate round, Aditya will face Jaime, Arjun Erigaisi will be up against Nikita and Abhimanyu Puranik 5.0/7 will be facing Muradli. Round 8 starts today at 9:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Arjun Erigaisi and Aditya Mittal in a seven-way lead

Only three games ended decisively among the top ten boards and Black won in all of them. IM Sayantan Das defeated GM Harsha Bharathakoti. IM Arghyadip Das, IM Sidhant Mohapatra and CM Prraneeth Vuppala drew with GM Jiri Stocek (CZE), GM Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP) and IM Nico Zwirs (NED) respectively.

Top seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov is back at the top | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Arjun Erigaisi - Aditya Mittal: 0.5-0.5

GM Arjun Erigaisi got himself a pleasant position in the middlegame, despite his opponent IM Aditya Mittal having a bishop pair.

Position after 18...Bb4

19.Nb3 Qa4 20.fxe4 dxc4 21.d5 Bxg4 22.Qxc4 Qb5 23.Rc1 Be2 24.Qxc6 Rhe8 25.Nf3 Qxc6 26.Rxc6 Bd3+ 27.Ka1 Bxe4 and Black managed to free up the position which gave him a slight edge due to both bishop getting activated in the open position. Arjun eventually liquidated into a completely winning rook endgame.

Position after 64.a7+

The one thing that you should not do when you have two connected passed pawns in a rook ending is, push the rook pawn to the seventh rank without having a sure way to win as this results in a draw because Black has a lot of stalemate tricks and it becomes excruciatingly difficult to move the knight-pawn, in this case b-pawn to the desired square which can fetch you a full point. Arjun probably made this mistake under time scramble. Aditya capitalized on his opponent's mistake and the game ended in a draw in the next few moves.

Karthikeyan - Nikita: 0.5-0.5

Karthikeyan got himself a good position, however he was unable to capitalize on it against Nikita Meshkovs (LAT).

Position after 26.h4

It is evident from the above diagram that White is in full control. After 26...Qg3, White needed to go 27.fxg6 hxg6 28.h5 and things could have turned out better than the game continuation. In the game both bishop and queen got exchanged in consecutive moves, White still had a better position which practically is not easy to convert into win.

Karthikeyan is now at 5.0/7 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Sethuraman - Karthik: 0.5-0.5

Sethuraman had a fantastic position against Karthik Venkataraman.

Position after 24...g6

24...g6 creates dark square weakness for Black on the kingside. 25.Ng4 is an interesting way for White to exploit that. Find out why it is a good idea. The game continued 25.Be2 Ne4 and Black managed to defend the position.

Sethuraman and Karthik, both are now 5.0/7 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

GM Abhimanyu Puranik - GM Sankalp Gupta: 1-0 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

GM Jiri Stocek (CZE) - IM Arghyadip Das (pictured): 0.5-0.5

IM Sayantan Das (pictured) - GM Harsha Bharathakoti: 1-0 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

IM Sidhant Mohapatra - GM Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

CM Prraneeth Vuppala (pictured) - IM Nicoz Zwirs (NED): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Replay Round 7 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 7 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	11	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2579	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	3
2	5	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	43
3	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	4½	½ - ½	5	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	14
4	33	IM	Beerdsen Thomas	2484	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	1
5	6	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2491	29
6	20	GM	Van Foreest Lucas	2532	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	12
7	13	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Muradli Mahammad	2501	27
8	53	IM	Pantzar Milton	2441	4½	½ - ½	4	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey A.	2594	9
9	48	IM	Vignesh N R	2450	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	2
10	7	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2606	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Kacharava Nikolozi	2469	39
11	8	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2468	41
12	50	IM	Ayats Llobera Gerard	2448	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2592	10
13	15	GM	Stocek Jiri	2557	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Das Arghyadip	2453	46
14	74	IM	Valenzuela Gomez Fernando	2344	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Sosa Tomas	2542	17
15	86	FM	Samant Aditya S	2297	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Vetoshko Volodymyr	2525	21

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2646	5½		5½	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2579	11
2	3	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2633	5½		5½	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	43
3	14	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2557	5½		5½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2627	5
4	27	IM	Muradli Mahammad	2501	5½		5	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	8
5	21	GM	Vetoshko Volodymyr	2525	5		5	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2633	2
6	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	5		5	GM	Krzyzanowski Marcin	2510	25
7	75	IM	Suarez Uriel Adrian	2343	5		5	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2620	6
8	12	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2567	5		5	IM	Pantzar Milton	2441	53
9	17	IM	Sosa Tomas	2542	5		5	IM	Das Sayantan	2436	54
10	29	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2491	5		5	GM	Van Foreest Lucas	2532	20
11	36	IM	Garriga Cazorla Pere	2477	5		4½	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2606	7
12	9	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey A.	2594	4½		4½	IM	Vrolijk Liam	2470	38
13	10	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2592	4½		4½	IM	Das Arghyadip	2453	46
14	35	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2479	4½		4½	GM	Fier Alexandr	2563	13
15	39	IM	Kacharava Nikolozi	2469	4½		4½	GM	Stocek Jiri	2557	15

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 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 R4: Aditya Mittal gains sole lead @ 04/12/2021 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)