Biel MTO 2021 R6: Karthikeyan stays at the top 5.5/6

by Shahid Ahmed - 02/08/2021

Twelfth seed Karthikeyan Murali maintained his sole lead by scoring a victory over Sethuraman in the sixth round of 54th Biel International Chess Festival MTO 2021. Eljanov is the only player who is a half point behind him 5.0/6. They will face each other in a crucial game in the seventh round. IM Harshit Raja scored a fine victory over GM Abhimanyu Puranik. GM Raunak Sadhwani held GM Maksim Chigaev to a marathon draw. Yesterday was a rest day for the GMT. The fifth round of GMT and seventh round of MTO will start at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Nihal has reduced the gap between him and Kamsky by winning the GMT Blitz on 31st July. He will face Keymer today against whom Nihal has a 3-1 score in this event. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Ganguly in pursuit

Karthikeyan scored a nice victory over compatriot Sethuraman in the sixth round to maintain his sole lead 5.5/6. GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR) is the only one who is a half point 5.0/6 behind him. Five players are behind the Ukrainian at 4.5/6. They are - Banusz, Ganguly, Erdos, Tang and Kantor.

Karthikeyan is still in the sole lead | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Karthikeyan - Sethuraman: 1-0

Karthikeyan's relentless attack was capped off with a nice combination, but before that, his opponent Sethuraman could have done tactics of his own and saved the position.

Position after 35.Qc3

White's kingside is a little vulnerable. How can Black take advantage of that? The game continued 35...Qb6 36.Qb3 Kf8. Find out the finish for White.

Ganguly - Banusz: 0.5-0.5

Banusz had a substantial advantage in both middlegame and endgame but he was unable to convert it.

Position after 46.Rh7

Black is completely winning in the above position. Find out the best plan for Black.

Raunak - Chigaev: 0.5-0.5

Raunak Sadhwani had a marathon draw with Maksim Chigaev. The 15-year-old had to defend a rook vs rook and knight endgame for 50-moves.

Puranik - Harshit: 0-1

In a battle between two good friends from the same city, IM Harshit Raja prevailed. However, GM Abhimanyu Puranik had his opportunity to bring things back to balance.

Position after 21...Rxd5

White can do a pretty nice combination to restore equilibrium. Find out how.

Harshit can become India's next GM in this very event | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from Round 6

GM Karthikeyan Murali defeated GM Sethuraman SP

GM Raunak Sadhwani drew with GM Maksim Chigaev (RUS)

GM Andrew Tang (USA) defeated GM Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR)

GM Visakh N R defeated IM Tal Haimovich (ISR)

IM Sai Agni Jeevitesh lost to WGM Vaishali R

IM Noaman Omar (UAE) defeated CM Luc Zimmermann (NED)

Replay Round 6 games

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	4½	1 - 0	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4
2	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	4	1 - 0	4	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	11
3	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	6
4	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
5	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	7
6	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
7	10	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
8	24	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	13
9	15	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	28
10	27	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	3
11	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
12	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	3	½ - ½	3	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	30
13	31	IM	Gschnitzer Adrian	2420	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
14	34	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	23
15	25	GM	NR Visakh	2516	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Haimovich Tal	2388	35

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	5		5½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
2	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	4½		4½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
3	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	4½		4½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
4	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	4		4½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24
5	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4		4	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20
6	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	4		4	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
7	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	4		4	GM	NR Visakh	2516	25
8	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	4		4	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	15
9	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	4		4	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17
10	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	4		3½	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	3
11	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	3½		3½	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	27
12	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	3½		3½	IM	Unuk Laura	2407	32
13	33	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	3½		3½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
14	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	3½		3½	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
15	19	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	3½		3½	FM	Tahay Alexis	2349	39

Details

Links

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