Abu Dhabi Masters: Nihal Sarin is India's latest GM!

by Aditya Pai - 15/08/2018

The penultimate round of the Abu Dhabi Masters witnessed a major turnaround on the top of the leaderboard. GM Anton Korobov managed to bring down the ever creative Hungarian GM Richard Rapport in a Queen's Indian Defence. But this was thoroughly overshadowed by a rather tepid game. IM Nihal Sarin had held IM Teymur Kuybokarov to an easy 21 move draw. But this was more important because, with this draw, the 14-year-old Sarin had scored his final GM norm and had become the country's 53rd Grandmaster! Another player on the hunt for a GM norm is the Telangana based IM Arjun Erigaisi. With a score of 5.0/8, Erigaisi needs a win in his final round game to clinch the norm.

Nihal scores his final norm with a round to spare!

From the tournament’s perspective, the big news from the penultimate round of the 25th Abu Dhabi Masters was Anton Korobov’s win over Richard Rapport. Korobov had taken sole lead in the tournament having defeated the artistic Hungarian.

For an Indian fan, though, none of this mattered. 14-year-old Nihal Sarin had given the country another reason to celebrate alongside its 71st year of independence – he had completed his third and final grandmaster norm with a round to spare and had become India’s 53rd Grandmaster!

In round eight, Nihal held IM Teymur Kuybokarov to an easy 21 move draw to seal his Grandmaster norm. Nihal had the white pieces in the game and opened with a Reti Opening. The game was rather tepid but this was understandable considering that Nihal’s GM title was on the line. Players reached an equal position out of the opening and, by the 21st move, shook hands to sign peace.

All hail to the young new GM! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Korobov’s victory over Rapport also had an indirect influence over Nihal’s final GM norm as. after his loss, Rapport was paired against Nihal in the final round. Rapport’s high rating was sure to hike Nihal’s rating performance and this meant even a loss would not take his norm away. In fact, all Nihal needed was an opponent with a rating of 2482 or higher in the final round and he would have had his norm with a round to spare.

In their game, Korobov and Rapport discussed a Queen’s Indian Defence. Korobov had the white pieces and was pushing all through the game. He had given up a pawn on his 27th turn in order to break into black’s queenside. He even switched wings with his 32.g4 to find something concrete. But while he had the better position, it wasn’t clear how he was to convert it. And then, on his 49th turn, Rapport cracked.

Position after 49...g5

White is better here but there’s still a lot of work to be done. After Rapport’s 49…g5, however, white just got a winning position. Play continued 50.Rxd6 Rxd6 51.Nxd6 Kxd6 52.fxg5 hxg5 53.hxg5 and it was curtains.

Korobov defeated Richard Rapport to take sole lead in the tournament | Photo: Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Twitter

Arjun Erigaisi is another prospective norm scorer from India. Scoring 5 points in his first eight rounds, Arjun is heading strongly towards a GM norm with a rating performance of 2603 so far. For his final round game, he is pitted against IM Krishna Teja N and is in a must-win situation. In the previous round, Arjun held the Russian GM Sanan Sjugirov to a draw with the black pieces.

The two discussed a Sicilian Najdorf in which Erigaisi came up with a novelty on his 14th turn. This, however, did very little to unbalance the game which remained fairly balanced all the way through. Sjugirov had an outside passed pawn in the rook endgame that ensued but Erigaisi kept things under control by placing his rook behind this passer. After 55 moves of play, peace was signed by mutual agreement.

Arjun Erigaisi is also heading strongly towards a GM norm

All Games

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Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	10	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2664	7,0	0,0	2600	41,0	8	7	4,95	2,05	10	20,5
2	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	RUS	2691	6,5	0,0	2605	43,0	8	6,5	5,20	1,30	10	13,0
3	16	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2636	6,5	0,0	2576	38,0	8	6,5	4,86	1,64	10	16,4
4	8	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2680	6,5	0,0	2574	42,0	8	6,5	5,37	1,13	10	11,3
5	3	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	GEO	2718	6,5	0,0	2571	40,0	8	6,5	5,76	0,74	10	7,4
6	28	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2581	6,0	0,0	2590	41,0	8	6	4,27	1,73	10	17,3
7	35	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2539	6,0	0,0	2464	38,0	8	6	5,03	0,97	10	9,7
8	36	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2539	6,0	0,0	2447	33,0	8	6	5,12	0,88	10	8,8
9	2	GM	Rapport Richard	HUN	2719	5,5	0,0	2615	40,0	8	5,5	5,37	0,13	10	1,3
10	4	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2711	5,5	0,0	2600	42,0	8	5,5	5,44	0,06	10	0,6
11	5	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	RUS	2707	5,5	0,0	2592	40,5	8	5,5	5,46	0,04	10	0,4
12	7	GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2684	5,5	0,0	2568	41,0	8	5,5	5,46	0,04	10	0,4
13	15	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2636	5,5	0,0	2564	38,0	8	5,5	5,05	0,45	10	4,5
14	34	IM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2556	5,5	0,0	2563	37,0	8	5,5	4,28	1,22	10	12,2
15	26	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2587	5,5	0,0	2557	40,5	8	5,5	4,59	0,91	10	9,1
16	44	IM	Kuybokarov Temur	UZB	2499	5,5	0,0	2552	37,0	8	5,5	3,88	1,62	10	16,2
17	37	GM	Kadric Denis	BIH	2537	5,5	0,0	2512	37,0	8	5,5	4,55	0,95	10	9,5
18	52	IM	Nguyen Anh Khoi	VIE	2454	5,5	0,0	2508	37,5	8	5,5	3,83	1,67	10	16,7
19	22	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2609	5,5	0,0	2489	37,5	8	5,5	5,40	0,10	10	1,0
20	54	IM	Nitin S.	IND	2449	5,5	0,0	2480	33,0	8	5,5	4,06	1,44	10	14,4

Round 8 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	16	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2636	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	2691	6
2	10	GM	Korobov Anton	2664	6	1 - 0	5½	GM	Rapport Richard	2719	2
3	3	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2718	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2609	22
4	15	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2636	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2680	8
5	4	GM	Wang Hao	2711	5	½ - ½	5½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2581	28
6	35	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2539	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2655	12
7	23	GM	Andersen Mads	2601	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Debashis Das	2539	36
8	34	IM	Nihal Sarin	2556	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Kuybokarov Temur	2499	44
9	1	GM	Le Quang Liem	2727	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2536	38
10	5	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2707	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Firouzja Alireza	2561	33
11	7	GM	Amin Bassem	2684	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Fier Alexandr	2561	32
12	9	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	2677	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Erigaisi Arjun	2517	42
13	11	GM	Short Nigel D	2659	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2488	46
14	13	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Iniyan P	2464	49
15	17	GM	Adly Ahmed	2634	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Nguyen Anh Khoi	2454	52
16	37	GM	Kadric Denis	2537	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2619	18
17	51	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2454	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2617	19
18	54	IM	Nitin S.	2449	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2614	20
19	21	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	2610	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Akash G	2410	62
20	25	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2590	4½	0 - 1	4½	WGM	Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegim	2350	78

Round 9 pairing

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2680	6½		7	GM	Korobov Anton	2664	10
2	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	2691	6½		6½	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2718	3
3	28	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2581	6		6½	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2636	16
4	36	GM	Debashis Das	2539	6		6	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2539	35
5	27	GM	Jojua Davit	2583	5½		5½	GM	Le Quang Liem	2727	1
6	2	GM	Rapport Richard	2719	5½		5½	IM	Nihal Sarin	2556	34
7	44	IM	Kuybokarov Temur	2499	5½		5½	GM	Wang Hao	2711	4
8	52	IM	Nguyen Anh Khoi	2454	5½		5½	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2707	5
9	62	IM	Akash G	2410	5½		5½	GM	Amin Bassem	2684	7
10	78	WGM	Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegim	2350	5½		5½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2636	15
11	22	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2609	5½		5½	GM	Kadric Denis	2537	37
12	26	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2587	5½		5½	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2454	51
13	12	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2655	5		5½	IM	Nitin S.	2449	54
14	43	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2514	5		5	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	2677	9
15	49	IM	Iniyan P	2464	5		5	GM	Short Nigel D	2659	11
16	46	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2488	5		5	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	13
17	65	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	2401	5		5	GM	Andersen Mads	2601	23
18	29	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2574	5		5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2487	47
19	30	GM	Istratescu Andrei	2573	5		5	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2424	60
20	66		Muthaiah Al	2391	5		5	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2570	31

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About the Author

Aditya Pai is an ardent chess fan, avid reader, and a film lover. He holds a Master's in English Literature and used to work as an advertising copywriter before joining the ChessBase India team.

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