Aeroflot 2019 R 03 + 04: Finish off your opponents like Sasikiran

by Sagar Shah - 23/02/2019

Sasikiran scored a fine win against Aravindh Chithambaram in round three of the Aeroflot Open 2019. With this win he led the tournament along with Maksim Chigaev on 3.0/3. 23rd February is a double round (thanks to the bomb scare) and Sasi kept up his pace with another win against Chigaev. This gives the Chennai GM a score of 4.0/4 and a full points lead over the field. In round five that is currently in progress, Sasikiran is up against Anton Korobov. It will be interesting to see the game between these two ambitious players. We have some in-depth analysis from the game Sasikiran versus Aravindh that will help you to improve your art of calculation.

Sasikiran Krishnan 3.0/3 at the Aeroflot Open 2019 | Photo: David Llada

It was Chennai domination at the Aeroflot Open 2019 as Sasikiran took on Aravindh Chithambaram on the top board. The game was exciting and the opening was played very well by Sasikiran. However, the point which I really want to stress upon, is his middlegame calculation. Here's the position:

Sasikiran vs Aravindh Chithambaram

It is white to play and win.

Bear in mind that there are a lot of variations and possibilities for both the sides. But if you are able to calculate them accurately, then you can be sure that you are on the road to chess improvement!

The game between Sasikiran vs Aravindh Chithambaram broken down by IM Sagar Shah

Sasikiran is not very active on Twitter but on 22nd of February a few hours before the game he made the following tweet:

Representing India in Official FIDE Chess events ( Asian/World/Olympiad) has always been an honor for me and shall always be. When i die, I should not regret that i missed a possibility to play for India whenever i had the chance. Next World Teams 2019.
— Sasikiran (@GMSasikiran) February 22, 2019

Nihal Sarin played on board number two. He lost to Maksim Chigaev | Photo: David Llada

In round 4 Sasikiran kept up his pace and scored another win over Maksim Chigaev. 23rd February is a double round day because of the bomb threat on day one. Sasikiran now has a full point lead and is playing against Anton Korobov in round 5.

Rank after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan		IND	2678	4,0	2	2600
2	35	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	U18	ROU	2603	3,0	2	2677
3	42	GM	Narayanan.S.L		IND	2593	3,0	2	2625
4	62	GM	Kulaots Kaido		EST	2542	3,0	2	2622
5	2	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir		RUS	2715	3,0	2	2604
6	1	GM	Wei Yi		CHN	2733	3,0	2	2585
7	9	GM	Korobov Anton		UKR	2687	3,0	2	2569
8	52	GM	Petrosyan Manuel		ARM	2564	3,0	2	2560
9	4	GM	Dubov Daniil		RUS	2703	3,0	2	2557
10	29	GM	Zhou Jianchao		CHN	2615	3,0	2	2542
11	43	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	U18	IRI	2590	3,0	2	2538
12	44	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.		RUS	2589	3,0	2	2530
13	28	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.		ARM	2616	3,0	2	2497
14	30	GM	Chigaev Maksim		RUS	2613	3,0	1	2536
15	32	GM	Lupulescu Constantin		ROU	2610	2,5	2	2715
16	54	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	U18	UZB	2560	2,5	2	2696
17	39	GM	Donchenko Alexander		GER	2600	2,5	2	2662
18	67	GM	Debashis Das		IND	2532	2,5	2	2629
19	72	IM	Xu Yi		CHN	2520	2,5	2	2627
20	45	GM	Nihal Sarin	U18	IND	2578	2,5	2	2622

Player overview for India in A Group

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	Pts.	Rk.	Group
11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2678	IND	1	1	1	1	4,0	1	Open A
14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2651	IND	½	1	0	½	2,0	52	Open A
18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2636	IND	1	½	½	½	2,5	25	Open A
38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2601	IND	1	1	0	0	2,0	64	Open A
42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2593	IND	1	1	½	½	3,0	3	Open A
45	GM	Nihal Sarin	2578	IND	1	1	0	½	2,5	20	Open A
47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2575	IND	0	½	1	1	2,5	35	Open A
49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2572	IND	½	0	0	1	1,5	87	Open A
55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2560	IND	½	0	1	1	2,5	39	Open A
57	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2556	IND	0	0	½	1	1,5	85	Open A
63	GM	Aryan Chopra	2540	IND	½	½	½	½	2,0	44	Open A
65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2538	IND	½	0	1	½	2,0	45	Open A
67	GM	Debashis Das	2532	IND	½	1	½	½	2,5	18	Open A
68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2532	IND	0	1	0	½	1,5	81	Open A
71	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2524	IND	0	0	½	½	1,0	96	Open A
74	IM	Gukesh D	2508	IND	0	0	1	½	1,5	82	Open A
78	GM	Gagare Shardul	2495	IND	0	0	½	1	1,5	68	Open A
79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2494	IND	0	½	0	0	0,5	99	Open A
84	IM	Iniyan P	2480	IND	½	½	0	½	1,5	70	Open A
87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2471	IND	1	½	0	0	1,5	72	Open A
88	IM	Prithu Gupta	2470	IND	0	½	0	½	1,0	91	Open A
91	CM	Aditya Mittal	2454	IND	½	0	1	0	1,5	75	Open A
93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2448	IND	½	1	½	½	2,5	21	Open A
94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2444	IND	½	½	0	½	1,5	66	Open A
95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2443	IND	0	0	1	½	1,5	84	Open A

Player overview for India in B Group

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	Pts.	Rk.	Group
10	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2512	IND	1	0	1	2,0	38	Open B
17	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2488	IND	1	1	½	2,5	8	Open B
46	IM	Nitin S.	2395	IND	½	1	½	2,0	43	Open B
51	IM	Krishna Teja N	2391	IND	½	½	1	2,0	33	Open B
53		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2387	IND	½	1	1	2,5	13	Open B
60	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2376	IND	½	0	0	0,5	121	Open B
72		Sankalp Gupta	2345	IND	0	½	½	1,0	92	Open B
79		Koustav Chatterjee	2332	IND	1	1	½	2,5	4	Open B
82	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2324	IND	½	½	½	1,5	63	Open B
85	FM	Dixit Nikhil	2318	IND	0	½	½	1,0	85	Open B
86	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2317	IND	½	½	0	1,0	94	Open B
88	IM	Padmini Rout	2315	IND	½	½	0	1,0	95	Open B
92		Ajay Karthikeyan	2298	IND	½	0	1	1,5	66	Open B
98	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2268	IND	0	½	½	1,0	103	Open B
109		Bhambure Shantanu	2220	IND	½	0	1	1,5	68	Open B
110	FM	Srihari L R	2211	IND	½	0	1	1,5	50	Open B
114	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2185	IND	0	½	0	0,5	113	Open B
121		Jaeel Atharva	2145	IND	½	0	½	1,0	102	Open B
122	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	0	1	0	1,0	90	Open B
123	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2127	IND	0	0	½	0,5	114	Open B
124	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2126	IND	½	1	1	2,5	17	Open B
125		Rakshitta Ravi	2105	IND	0	0	½	0,5	115	Open B
126	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2026	IND	0	0	0	0,0	125	Open B

Player overview in Category C for India

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts.	Rk.	Group
13		Pranavananda V	2234	IND	1	0	1	1	1		4,0	6	Open C
34	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	1	0	1	½	0	0	2,5	51	Open C
40	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2076	IND	1	0	1	0	1		3,0	40	Open C
48		Priyanka K	2033	IND	1	0	1	0	1		3,0	41	Open C
51		Sanskriti Goyal	2006	IND	0	1	1	0	0		2,0	71	Open C
59	WCM	Isha Sharma	1935	IND	0	1	1	1	½		3,5	13	Open C
60		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1913	IND	0	1	0	1	½		2,5	49	Open C
69		Varsha Ramesh	1831	IND	0	1	0	0	1		2,0	74	Open C
74		Sunyuktha C M N	1804	IND	0	1	1	½	0		2,5	46	Open C

India's super coach Ramesh R.B. with his daughter Varsha Ramesh | Photo: David Llada

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