Aeroflot 2019 R07: Sasikiran loses, Nihal beats Pragg

by Sagar Shah - 26/02/2019

Sasikiran tasted his first defeat at the Aeroflot Open 2019. It came at the hands of the talented Armenian Haik Martirosyan. In spite of the defeat Sasikiran continues to lead the tournament with 5.5/7. But now he has two more people on the same score - Martirosyan and the Estonian GM Kaido Kulaots. Sasikiran still has excellent chances of winning the event if he can get the better of Kulaots in round 8. Another important game of the round was Nihal Sarin against Praggnanandhaa. The battle between these two talents was a hard fought one and Nihal came out on top playing an excellent endgame. We have the report of round 7 with some excellent pictures sent to us by David Llada, who is present in Moscow.

At the Batumi Olympiad 2018 India lost a crucial match against Armenia. While the top three games had ended in draws, it had all boiled down to Sasikiran playing on the fourth board against Haik Martirosyan. Sasi fought valiantly, but in vain. In the end, it was Martirosyan who helped Armenia score a big victory over India.

Sasikiran lost his game against Haik Martirosyan at the Batumi Olympiad | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sasi and Martirosyan were paired once again in the seventh round of the Aeroflot Open 2019. Sasikiran was leading the tournament by half a point and had played brilliantly until then with a score of 5.5/6.

Sasikiran was looking for his revenge | Photo: David Llada

But Martirosyan was extremely calm and he played one strong move after another in the King's Indian to hand Sasikiran his first defeat in the tournament. In spite of the loss Sasikiran kept his lead but was joined at the top by Martirosyan as well as Kulaots.

The thing to note about Sasikiran is that even after his defeat he analyzed the game and did it with great energy and purpose. Our friend David Llada, who is present at the venue sent us the video of Sasikiran analyzing after the game:

Sasikiran's concentration and willingness to learn even after a loss is worth emulating

Kulaots Kaido is having the tournament of his life. The Estonian GM started as the 62nd seed. In this tournament he has beaten four super strong opponents - Wei Yi (2733), Parham Maghsoodloo (2666), Alireza Firouzja (2616) and Daniil Dubov (2703). He will next face Sasikiran in round 8. | Photo: David Llada

Round 7 at the Aeroflot Open witnessed a very interesting struggle between two future champions of Indian chess - Nihal and Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: David Llada

In December 2017 when I interviewed Nihal at the end of the World Youth Olympiad 2017, he mentioned that Praggnanandhaa was the stronger player when it came to calculation. Making sure that he avoided sharp positions, Nihal played with great calm at the Aeroflot Open and managed to create small problems for his opponent. Pragg had things under control for quite some time, but on move 55 he blundered. Nihal was not very alert and for a moment gave his opponent a chance to come back. But Pragg missed it and Nihal was back in driver's seat, not missing his chance again.

Nihal versus Pragg analyzed by Sagar Shah

Gukesh hasn't been having a great event. He is on 2.5/7 with three losses and one win and is losing 10 Elo points | Photo: David Llada

Aditya Mittal with 3.0/7 and a 2525 performance is well on track for making his final IM norm | Photo: David Llada

Alireza Firouzja is on 4.5/7 and with two fine games can end on the top. He lost a crucial game in the event to Kulaots Kaido. | Photo: David Llada

Padmini Rout has been playing solid chess at the event and has already gained 10 Elo points | Photo: David Llada

Ranking after round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	62	GM	Kulaots Kaido		EST	2542	5,5	4	2646
2	11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan		IND	2678	5,5	4	2604
3	28	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.		ARM	2616	5,5	3	2543
4	43	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	U18	IRI	2590	5,0	4	2600
5	41	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.		ARM	2595	5,0	3	2594
6	21	GM	Sarana Alexey		RUS	2630	5,0	3	2561
7	30	GM	Chigaev Maksim		RUS	2613	5,0	3	2559
8	3	GM	Wang Hao		CHN	2714	4,5	4	2594
9	9	GM	Korobov Anton		UKR	2687	4,5	4	2575
10	7	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto		RUS	2692	4,5	4	2574
11	29	GM	Zhou Jianchao		CHN	2615	4,5	4	2571
12	47	GM	Vaibhav Suri		IND	2575	4,5	4	2547
13	25	GM	Khismatullin Denis		RUS	2621	4,5	4	2516
14	53	GM	Fier Alexandr		BRA	2561	4,5	3	2649
15	35	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	U18	ROU	2603	4,5	3	2644
16	32	GM	Lupulescu Constantin		ROU	2610	4,5	3	2625
17	1	GM	Wei Yi		CHN	2733	4,5	3	2586
18	15	GM	Anton Guijarro David		ESP	2642	4,5	3	2552
19	12	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham		IRI	2666	4,5	3	2551
20	26	GM	Firouzja Alireza	U18	IRI	2618	4,5	3	2521

Overview of Indian performances

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Rk.	Group
11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2678	IND	1	1	1	1	1	½	0	5,5	2	Open A
14	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2651	IND	½	1	0	½	½	½	½	3,5	48	Open A
18	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2636	IND	1	½	½	½	½	0	½	3,5	57	Open A
38	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2601	IND	1	1	0	0	0	½	1	3,5	55	Open A
42	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2593	IND	1	1	½	½	0	1	0	4,0	28	Open A
45	GM	Nihal Sarin	2578	IND	1	1	0	½	½	0	1	4,0	30	Open A
47	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2575	IND	0	½	1	1	½	1	½	4,5	12	Open A
49	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2572	IND	½	0	0	1	½	0	½	2,5	90	Open A
55	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2560	IND	½	0	1	1	½	0	½	3,5	52	Open A
57	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2556	IND	0	0	½	1	½	½	½	3,0	70	Open A
63	GM	Aryan Chopra	2540	IND	½	½	½	½	0	1	½	3,5	45	Open A
65	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2538	IND	½	0	1	½	½	1	0	3,5	53	Open A
67	GM	Debashis Das	2532	IND	½	1	½	½	½	0	0	3,0	73	Open A
68	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2532	IND	0	1	0	½	1	½	0	3,0	66	Open A
71	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2524	IND	0	0	½	½	½	½	½	2,5	91	Open A
74	IM	Gukesh D	2508	IND	0	0	1	½	0	½	½	2,5	89	Open A
78	GM	Gagare Shardul	2495	IND	0	0	½	1	½	½	½	3,0	63	Open A
79	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2494	IND	0	½	0	0	1	1	½	3,0	79	Open A
84	IM	Iniyan P	2480	IND	½	½	0	½	½	½	1	3,5	47	Open A
87	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2471	IND	1	½	0	0	½	½	½	3,0	76	Open A
88	IM	Prithu Gupta	2470	IND	0	½	0	½	1	½	½	3,0	65	Open A
91	CM	Aditya Mittal	2454	IND	½	0	1	0	½	0	1	3,0	78	Open A
93	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2448	IND	½	1	½	½	½	½	½	4,0	32	Open A
94	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2444	IND	½	½	0	½	0	0	½	2,0	96	Open A
95	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2443	IND	0	0	1	½	½	½	½	3,0	82	Open A

Standings after round 7 in B group

Shyam Sundar and Sammed Shete are in top 20 in the B group (2300 to 2550)

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	3	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav		UKR	2536	6,5	4	2424
2	29	IM	Muradli Mahammad	U18	AZE	2444	5,5	4	2386
3	7	GM	Lintchevski Daniil		RUS	2517	5,5	4	2385
4	25	IM	Drygalov Sergey		RUS	2450	5,5	3	2407
5	5	IM	Harutyunian Tigran K.		ARM	2532	5,0	4	2418
6	9	GM	Levin Evgeny A.		RUS	2512	5,0	4	2403
7	19	GM	Kostenko Petr		KAZ	2466	5,0	4	2360
8	27	IM	Asadli Vugar	U18	AZE	2449	5,0	4	2358
9	43		Pershin Denis		RUS	2400	5,0	4	2321
10	41	IM	Schekachikhin Maksim		RUS	2402	5,0	3	2509
11	48	FM	Ofitserian Boris		RUS	2395	5,0	3	2432
12	10	GM	Shyam Sundar M.		IND	2512	5,0	3	2408
13	15	IM	Drygalov Andrey		RUS	2492	5,0	3	2349
14	18	IM	Bilguun Sumiya		MGL	2471	5,0	3	2335
15	39	FM	Davtyan Artur	U18	ARM	2413	4,5	4	2434
16	53		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2387	4,5	4	2399
17	6	IM	Demidov Mikhail		RUS	2520	4,5	4	2394
18	11	IM	Khanin Semen		RUS	2512	4,5	4	2363
19	1	GM	Vaganian Rafael A	S60	ARM	2546	4,5	4	2359
20	4	IM	Li Di		CHN	2534	4,5	3	2408

Overview of Indian performances in B group

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	Group
10	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2512	IND	1	0	1	1	1	½	½			5,0	12	Open B
17	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2488	IND	1	1	½	1	0	0	½			4,0	46	Open B
46	IM	Nitin S.	2395	IND	½	1	½	0	1	0	½			3,5	71	Open B
51	IM	Krishna Teja N	2391	IND	½	½	1	0	½	1	0			3,5	67	Open B
53		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2387	IND	½	1	1	½	½	0	1			4,5	16	Open B
60	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2376	IND	½	0	0	1	1	½	½			3,5	76	Open B
72		Sankalp Gupta	2345	IND	0	½	½	1	0	1	½			3,5	73	Open B
79		Koustav Chatterjee	2332	IND	1	1	½	½	½	½	0			4,0	32	Open B
82	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2324	IND	½	½	½	0	1	½	½			3,5	69	Open B
85	FM	Dixit Nikhil	2318	IND	0	½	½	½	1	½	0			3,0	84	Open B
86	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2317	IND	½	½	0	0	1	0	1			3,0	96	Open B
88	IM	Padmini Rout	2315	IND	½	½	0	1	½	½	1			4,0	42	Open B
92		Ajay Karthikeyan	2298	IND	½	0	1	0	0	1	1			3,5	64	Open B
98	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2268	IND	0	½	½	1	½	0	0			2,5	105	Open B
109		Bhambure Shantanu	2220	IND	½	0	1	0	1	½	½			3,5	70	Open B
110	FM	Srihari L R	2211	IND	½	0	1	½	1	1	0			4,0	45	Open B
114	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2185	IND	0	½	0	1	0	1	1			3,5	66	Open B
121		Jaeel Atharva	2145	IND	½	0	½	½	0	½	0			2,0	118	Open B
122	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	0	1	0	0	1	½	½			3,0	83	Open B
123	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2127	IND	0	0	½	1	1	1	0			3,5	62	Open B
124	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2126	IND	½	1	1	0	½	0	1			4,0	43	Open B
125		Rakshitta Ravi	2105	IND	0	0	½	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,5	126	Open B
126	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2026	IND	0	0	0	½	1	0	0			1,5	123	Open B

Overview of Indian performances in C group

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts.	Rk.	Group
13		Pranavananda V	2234	IND	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	5,0	10	Open C
34	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2133	IND	1	0	1	½	0	½	1	4,0	34	Open C
40	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2076	IND	1	0	1	0	1	½	1	4,5	23	Open C
48		Priyanka K	2033	IND	1	0	1	0	1	½	½	4,0	33	Open C
51		Sanskriti Goyal	2006	IND	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	3,0	67	Open C
59	WCM	Isha Sharma	1935	IND	0	1	1	1	½	½	0	4,0	27	Open C
60		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1913	IND	0	1	0	1	½	1	0	3,5	45	Open C
69		Varsha Ramesh	1831	IND	0	1	0	0	1	1	½	3,5	57	Open C
74		Sunyuktha C M N	1804	IND	0	1	1	½	0	1	0	3,5	43	Open C

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