Aeroflot 2019 Round 1: Ganguly's play too hot for Pragg

by Sagar Shah - 21/02/2019

The super strong Aeroflot has kicked off in Moscow! 25 Indian players are fighting it out in the A section against some of the best grandmasters in the world. We have the experience of Sasikiran, Sethuraman, Ganguly and the talent of Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh. We also have our youngsters near the age of 20 years - Karthikeyan, Aravindh, S.L. Narayanan, Vaibhav Suri who can beat any opponent on a given day. In round one we narrowed down on two exciting games that we present before you - Surya Sekhar Ganguly getting the better of Praggnanandhaa in the late middlegame and Harika beating Gordievsky with a cute little tactic.

The Cosmos Hotel where the Aeroflot Open 2019 is taking place | Photo: Ruchess.ru

The bright playing hall | Photo: Ruchess.ru

Wei Yi is the top seed of the tournament | Photo: Ruchess.ru

Fedoseev is the defending champion. He would be looking to win and book a spot at the Dortmund Masters once again | Photo: Ruchess.ru

Karthikeyan was playing against 2700+ opponent Kovalev. The game ended in a quick draw. It will be interesting to see if Karthikeyan can repeat his performance from the Gibraltar Masters 2019 where he finished runner-up. Lalith Babu (far end in yellow) lost to Inarkiev | Photo: Ruchess.ru

Delhi youngster Aryan Chopra began positively with a draw against Sanan Sjugirov. World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo suffered a loss as he went down against Kulaots Kaido in round one | Photo: Ruchess.ru

The gritty Aditya Mittal, who has analyzed innumerable games in the past for ChessBase India, held Tigran Petrosian to a draw in round one | Photo: Ruchess.ru

After a solid Cairns Cup in USA, Harika started off with a nice win over Gordievsky

Praggnanandhaa fought hard but in the end could not hold against... | Photo: Ruchess.ru

... GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly | Photo: Amruta Mokal

There are some very interesting lines in the game, have a look at them and learn from Ganguly's play:

Overview of Indian results:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	Pts.	Rk.	Group
11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2678	IND	1	1,0	2	Open A
14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2651	IND	½	0,5	54	Open A
18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2636	IND	1	1,0	13	Open A
38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2601	IND	1	1,0	21	Open A
42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2593	IND	1	1,0	23	Open A
45	GM	Nihal Sarin	2578	IND	1	1,0	8	Open A
47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2575	IND	0	0,0	77	Open A
49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2572	IND	½	0,5	42	Open A
55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2560	IND	½	0,5	63	Open A
57	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2556	IND	0	0,0	94	Open A
63	GM	Aryan Chopra	2540	IND	½	0,5	65	Open A
65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2538	IND	½	0,5	66	Open A
67	GM	Debashis Das	2532	IND	½	0,5	67	Open A
68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2532	IND	0	0,0	81	Open A
71	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2524	IND	0	0,0	97	Open A
74	IM	Gukesh D	2508	IND	0	0,0	83	Open A
78	GM	Gagare Shardul	2495	IND	0	0,0	85	Open A
79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2494	IND	0	0,0	98	Open A
84	IM	Iniyan P	2480	IND	½	0,5	48	Open A
87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2471	IND	1	1,0	26	Open A
88	IM	Prithu Gupta	2470	IND	0	0,0	89	Open A
91	CM	Aditya Mittal	2454	IND	½	0,5	72	Open A
93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2448	IND	½	0,5	73	Open A
94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2444	IND	½	0,5	49	Open A
95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2443	IND	0	0,0	101	Open A

Results of round 1 for Indian players

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	5	55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2560	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	BLR	2703	5
1	7	57	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2556	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2692	7
1	11	61	IM	Sychev Klementy	RUS	2545	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2678	11
1	13	63	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2540	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2663	13
1	14	14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2651	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2540	64
1	15	65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2538	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Anton Guijarro David	ESP	2642	15
1	17	67	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2532	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	VEN	2640	17
1	18	18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2636	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2532	68
1	21	71	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2524	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2630	21
1	24	24	GM	Grachev Boris	RUS	2626	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Gukesh D	IND	2508	74
1	28	28	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2616	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2495	78
1	29	79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2494	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2615	29
1	34	34	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2604	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2480	84
1	37	87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2471	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Gordievsky Dmitry	RUS	2603	37
1	38	38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2601	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Prithu Gupta	IND	2470	88
1	41	42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2593	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Warmerdam Max	NED	2450	92
1	42	93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2448	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2590	43
1	43	44	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2589	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Arjun Kalyan	IND	2444	94
1	44	95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2443	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2578	45
1	46	97	WIM	Zhu Jiner	CHN	2442	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2575	47
1	48	99	FM	Suleymenov Alisher	KAZ	2428	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Narayanan Srinath	IND	2572	49
1	49	91	CM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2454	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	ARM	2595	41

Pairings for round 2:

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
2	4	38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2601	1		1	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2681	10
2	5	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2678	1		1	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2599	40
2	6	39	GM	Donchenko Alexander	GER	2600	1		1	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2636	18
2	7	19	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2634	1		1	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2593	42
2	8	45	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2578	1		1	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2630	20
2	12	87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2471	1		1	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2616	28
2	20	9	GM	Korobov Anton	UKR	2687	½		½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2560	55
2	21	13	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2663	½		½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2538	65
2	22	66	GM	Stupak Kirill	BLR	2537	½		½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2651	14
2	23	15	GM	Anton Guijarro David	ESP	2642	½		½	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2540	63
2	26	84	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2480	½		½	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2627	22
2	27	23	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2627	½		½	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2532	67
2	35	49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	IND	2572	½		½	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2448	93
2	36	94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	IND	2444	½		½	IM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2569	50
2	37	74	IM	Gukesh D	IND	2508	0		0	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2666	12
2	39	37	GM	Gordievsky Dmitry	RUS	2603	0		0	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2495	78
2	40	47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2575	0		0	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2494	79
2	43	86	IM	Dai Changren	CHN	2473	0		0	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2556	57
2	45	88	IM	Prithu Gupta	IND	2470	0		0	IM	Sychev Klementy	RUS	2545	61
2	46	68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2532	0		0	IM	Kevlishvili Robby	NED	2463	89
2	48	70	IM	Lobanov Sergei	RUS	2526	0		0	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2443	95
2	49	33	GM	Idani Pouya	IRI	2604	½		½	CM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2454	91
2	50	92	IM	Warmerdam Max	NED	2450	0		0	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2524	71

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