A great start
GM Narayanan S L had a topsy-turvy encounter against FM Seyed Kian Poormosavi (IRI). Both of them had their fair share of winning chances, neither of them seized it and the game eventually ended in a draw.
Poormosavi - Narayanan: 0-1
GM Narayanan S L was in quite a bit of trouble against FM Seyed Kian Poormosavi (IRI).
27.Rd4 leads to an interesting variation where Black promotes a queen 27...e3 28.h4 e2 29.hxg5 e1=Q+ 30.Qxe1 Rxe1 31.Kf2. The text 27.h4 is also good, provided after 27...Qf6 the follow through transposes to the previous variation 28.Rd4. White missed his opportunity and went 28.g5 Qe5 29.f6 e3 and worsened his position 30.Kh2. Soon Narayanan missed a completely winning opportunity, probably due to time scramble.
The e2-pawn is on the verge of being promoted. Can you find the winning continuation for Black after 32.Be4 ? The game eventually petered out to a draw.
Gukesh - Prraneeth: 1-0
CM Prraneeth Vuppala stirred up a lot of trouble for GM D Gukesh.
White having a passive position forced his hand to go for a b4-break. The game continued 22...axb4 23.axb4 Nxb4 24.Rxb4 Bxd3 25.Qd1 Bxf1 26.Bxf1 Qd5 27.Bxb5 and now Black made the mistake of exchanging pieces 27...Ne4. Black should not exchange any more pieces than required for two reasons, a) Black is down in material and b) White's pieces are fighting for good squares, exchanging further only helps Black. 28.Nxe4 Qxe4 29.Bb2 and White eventually overcame adverse position to win the game.
Suyog - Arjun: 0-1
GM Arjun Erigaisi showed very fine technique in the endgame against FM Suyog Wagh.
Mariam - Abhimanyu: 0-1
WFM Mariam Mkrtchyan (ARM) made an interesting exchange sacrifice against GM Abhimanyu Puranik.
White made an interesting exchange sacrifice 15.Bxe5 Bxd1 16.Bxc7 Bc2. Now the sacrifice could have been justified if White played 17.Nd5. After 17...Nxd5 18.exd5 White is doing fine. The isolated center passed pawn is a good compensation for White. The game continued 17.Bxb6 axb6 and Black won the game eventually.
For more Round 1 photos, please click here.
Highlights
Here are a few interesting finishes of Round 1.
Replay Round 1 games
The tournament is taking place at Yerevan in Armenia from 14th to 22nd October 2021. Time control is 90'/40 + 30' + 30" per move. Round 1-4 and 6-8 starts at 2 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. IST). Round 5 and the final round will start at 11:00 a.m. local time (12:30 p.m. IST).
Round 1 results
| Bo. | No. | Name | Gr | Typ | FED | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Gr | Typ | FED | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 65 | FM | Poormosavi Seyed Kian | IRI | 2255 | 0 | ½ - ½ | 0 | GM | Narayanan S.L. | IND | 2647 | 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | GM | Gukesh D | IND | 2640 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | CM | Prraneeth Vuppala | IND | 2253 | 66 | ||||||
| 3 | 67 | FM | Wagh Suyog | IND | 2246 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2634 | 3 | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | GEO | 2570 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | WIM | Aakanksha Hagawane | IND | 2238 | 68 | ||||||
| 5 | 69 | WFM | Mkrtchyan Mariam | ARM | 2234 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | IND | 2568 | 5 | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | GM | Paichadze Luka | GEO | 2566 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Apanasenok Alexander | RUS | 2227 | 70 | |||||||
| 7 | 71 | CM | Navumenka Mikhei | BLR | 2221 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L | ARM | 2562 | 7 | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | GM | Goganov Aleksey | RUS | 2557 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | FM | Dilanyan Grigor | ARM | 2214 | 72 | ||||||
| 9 | 73 | Nikookar Mahdi | IRI | 2214 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Sychev Klementy | RUS | 2555 | 9 | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | GM | Pultinevicius Paulius | LTU | 2552 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Godbole Atharva | IND | 2201 | 74 | |||||||
| 11 | 75 | Mkrtchyan Sargis R | ARM | 2199 | 0 | ½ - ½ | 0 | GM | Chanda Sandipan | IND | 2543 | 11 | |||||||
| 12 | 12 | GM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2529 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | IM | Mohota Nisha | IND | 2195 | 76 | ||||||
| 13 | 77 | WFM | Bommini Mounika Akshaya | IND | 2194 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Harsha Bharathakoti | IND | 2517 | 13 | ||||||
| 14 | 14 | GM | Hayrapetyan Hovik | ARM | 2500 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | WIM | Sharma Isha | IND | 2191 | 78 | ||||||
| 15 | 79 | Chaqryan Erik | ARM | 2181 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | IM | Nikitenko Mihail | BLR | 2499 | 15 |
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Gr | Typ | FED | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Gr | Typ | FED | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 38 | WGM | Vaishali R | IND | 2419 | 1 | 1 | GM | Gukesh D | IND | 2640 | 2 | |||||||
| 2 | 3 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2634 | 1 | 1 | WGM | Sargsyan Anna M | ARM | 2402 | 40 | |||||||
| 3 | 39 | IM | Daneshvar Bardiya | IRI | 2403 | 1 | 1 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | GEO | 2570 | 4 | |||||||
| 4 | 5 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | IND | 2568 | 1 | 1 | IM | Krishna Teja, N | IND | 2385 | 42 | |||||||
| 5 | 43 | IM | Padmini Rout | IND | 2380 | 1 | 1 | GM | Paichadze Luka | GEO | 2566 | 6 | |||||||
| 6 | 7 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L | ARM | 2562 | 1 | 1 | IM | Moksh Amit Doshi | IND | 2379 | 44 | |||||||
| 7 | 46 | IM | Mullick Raahil | IND | 2368 | 1 | 1 | GM | Goganov Aleksey | RUS | 2557 | 8 | |||||||
| 8 | 9 | GM | Sychev Klementy | RUS | 2555 | 1 | 1 | FM | Barseghyan Armen Ar | ARM | 2356 | 48 | |||||||
| 9 | 47 | IM | Sidhant Mohapatra | IND | 2367 | 1 | 1 | GM | Pultinevicius Paulius | LTU | 2552 | 10 | |||||||
| 10 | 50 | GM | Baghdasaryan Vahe | ARM | 2334 | 1 | 1 | GM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2529 | 12 | |||||||
| 11 | 13 | GM | Harsha Bharathakoti | IND | 2517 | 1 | 1 | WIM | Vantika Agrawal | IND | 2322 | 52 | |||||||
| 12 | 51 | FM | Hakemi Arman | IRI | 2323 | 1 | 1 | GM | Hayrapetyan Hovik | ARM | 2500 | 14 | |||||||
| 13 | 15 | IM | Nikitenko Mihail | BLR | 2499 | 1 | 1 | FM | Atakhan Abtin | IRI | 2319 | 54 | |||||||
| 14 | 55 | IM | Nadanian Ashot | ARM | 2317 | 1 | 1 | GM | Quparadze Giga | GEO | 2495 | 16 | |||||||
| 15 | 17 | GM | Mikaelyan Arman | ARM | 2487 | 1 | 1 | IM | Sharma Dinesh K | IND | 2289 | 58 |
