Aditya Mittal scores a GM-norm
Six out of top ten boards ended decisively which definitely shows how competitive the tournament is getting. IM Bharath Subramaniyam H and FM Aditya S Samant drew with GM Alexandr Fier (BRA) and GM Gudmundur Kjartansson (ISL). WIM Isha Sharma defeated IM Marta Garcia Martin (ESP).
Abdusattorov - Safarli: 1-0
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) got a better position out of the opening against Eltaj Safarli (AZE). The latter could not make a comeback for the rest of the game.
Jaime - Aditya Mittal: 0.5-0.5
IM Aditya Mittal continues his good form as he played solid against GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) to draw the game. The better part of the game featured a double rook ending, Aditya defended his position well despite being down by a pawn.
Nikita - Arjun Erigaisi: 0.5-0.5
Arjun Erigaisi erred early in the opening which was not punished by his opponent Nikita Meshkovs (LAT).
Black should have done 8...0-0 here. Instead, 8...b6 opens a can of worms as 9.Nd4 forces Black to give up a pawn to hold the position from falling apart. Find out how. The game continued 9.Nfd2 Rb8 and Black did not give any more chances for the remainder of the game.
Karthikeyan - Marcin: 1-0
Karthikeyan Murali defeated Marcin Krzyzanowski (POL) which could have gone either player's way.
Replay Round 8 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 8 results
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | 2646 | 5½ | 1 - 0 | 5½ | GM | Safarli Eltaj | 2579 | 11 | ||
| 2 | 3 | GM | Santos Latasa Jaime | 2633 | 5½ | ½ - ½ | 5½ | IM | Aditya Mittal | 2459 | 43 | ||
| 3 | 14 | GM | Meshkovs Nikita | 2557 | 5½ | ½ - ½ | 5½ | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | 2627 | 5 | ||
| 4 | 27 | IM | Muradli Mahammad | 2501 | 5½ | ½ - ½ | 5 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2604 | 8 | ||
| 5 | 21 | GM | Vetoshko Volodymyr | 2525 | 5 | ½ - ½ | 5 | GM | Ponomariov Ruslan | 2633 | 2 | ||
| 6 | 4 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2630 | 5 | 1 - 0 | 5 | GM | Krzyzanowski Marcin | 2510 | 25 | ||
| 7 | 75 | IM | Suarez Uriel Adrian | 2343 | 5 | 0 - 1 | 5 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2620 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 12 | GM | Yuffa Daniil | 2567 | 5 | 1 - 0 | 5 | IM | Pantzar Milton | 2441 | 53 | ||
| 9 | 17 | IM | Sosa Tomas | 2542 | 5 | 1 - 0 | 5 | IM | Das Sayantan | 2436 | 54 | ||
| 10 | 29 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman | 2491 | 5 | 0 - 1 | 5 | GM | Van Foreest Lucas | 2532 | 20 | ||
| 11 | 36 | IM | Garriga Cazorla Pere | 2477 | 5 | 1 - 0 | 4½ | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2606 | 7 | ||
| 12 | 9 | GM | Fedorchuk Sergey A. | 2594 | 4½ | 1 - 0 | 4½ | IM | Vrolijk Liam | 2470 | 38 | ||
| 13 | 10 | GM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | 2592 | 4½ | 1 - 0 | 4½ | IM | Das Arghyadip | 2453 | 46 | ||
| 14 | 35 | IM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2479 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Fier Alexandr | 2563 | 13 | ||
| 15 | 39 | IM | Kacharava Nikolozi | 2469 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Stocek Jiri | 2557 | 15 |
Round 9 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 3 | GM | Santos Latasa Jaime | 2633 | 6 | 6½ | GM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | 2646 | 1 | |||
| 2 | 17 | IM | Sosa Tomas | 2542 | 6 | 6 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2630 | 4 | |||
| 3 | 5 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | 2627 | 6 | 6 | IM | Muradli Mahammad | 2501 | 27 | |||
| 4 | 6 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2620 | 6 | 6 | IM | Garriga Cazorla Pere | 2477 | 36 | |||
| 5 | 43 | IM | Aditya Mittal | 2459 | 6 | 6 | GM | Yuffa Daniil | 2567 | 12 | |||
| 6 | 20 | GM | Van Foreest Lucas | 2532 | 6 | 6 | GM | Meshkovs Nikita | 2557 | 14 | |||
| 7 | 2 | GM | Ponomariov Ruslan | 2633 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Arjun Kalyan | 2537 | 19 | |||
| 8 | 8 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2604 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Vetoshko Volodymyr | 2525 | 21 | |||
| 9 | 11 | GM | Safarli Eltaj | 2579 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Fedorchuk Sergey A. | 2594 | 9 | |||
| 10 | 24 | GM | Visakh N R | 2515 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | 2592 | 10 | |||
| 11 | 33 | IM | Beerdsen Thomas | 2484 | 5½ | 5 | GM | Iniyan P | 2554 | 16 | |||
| 12 | 13 | GM | Fier Alexandr | 2563 | 5 | 5 | IM | Sankalp Gupta | 2468 | 41 | |||
| 13 | 15 | GM | Stocek Jiri | 2557 | 5 | 5 | IM | Minzer Claudio Javier | 2442 | 52 | |||
| 14 | 18 | GM | Suleymanli Aydin | 2541 | 5 | 5 | IM | Suarez Uriel Adrian | 2343 | 75 | |||
| 15 | 40 | IM | Quintiliano Pinto Renato R. | 2469 | 5 | 5 | GM | Narciso Dublan Marc | 2519 | 23 |
