Aeroflot R03: After Pranesh it is now Bharath's turn to sizzle

by Satanick Mukhuty - 22/02/2020

With a perfect score of 3.0/3, Rauf Mamedov has taken the sole lead after three rounds at Aeroflot Open 2020. However, there are five players led by 13-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam and S.P. Sethuraman of India who follow him closely just half a point behind. Bharath registered his second victory in this event by beating none other than the second seeded Gabriel Sargissian and is all set to take on Zhou Jianchao in the next round. Be it Pranesh M or Bharath, it seems there is always some Indian junior ready to cause an upset each day. We bring you a detailed pictorial report.

Indian juniors shine at Aeroflot 2020

Indian juniors continued to steal the show in the third day of Aeroflot Open as well. After Pranesh's crushing win against Boris Savchenko, it was now the turn of Bharath Subramaniyam to prove his mettle, and the 13-year-old Chennai boy scalped no less than the second seeded Gabriel Sargissian in the third round of the event. Bharath showed excellent handling of the Catalan as he equalized quite easily with black pieces out of the opening. The Armenian made his first slip on move 16 and allowed his young opponent to bring his knight effectively into the fray, and thereafter it went all downhill for him.

Bharath started off his campaign at the Aeroflot with a fine victory against the strong Russian GM Mikhail Antipov and now leads the chasing pack with an excellent score of 2.5/3 points | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Gabriel Sargissian - Bharath Subramaniyam, Round 3

Gabriel chose the move 10.Ne4 in the above position which is quite popular these days and aims to just simplify by trading off a pair of knights. The erstwhile mainline with 10.Na4 controlling the squares b6 and c5 seems more conservative but is logical in approach as it keeps an eye on Black's progress on the queenside, and after something like 10.Na4 c3 11.a3 a5 12.Qc2 Nbd7 13.Rd1 maintains a dynamic balance.

In the game Bharath was able to soon take charge. His pawn on c3 was an asset and all he had to do now was land his knight on the nice d5 outpost.

But 16.g3-g4 was a serious mistake. Now even f4 and h4 were inviting weaknesses in White's camp.

The Indian understood the need of the position well and immediately went 16...Nd7 targeting d5, f4 etc.

And once White's dark-squared bishop was off the board the vulnerability of his king became apparent.

21...Qh4! felt like a knockout punch. Bharath was now picking up the pawn on h2 with a clearly better position.

Next, White had to give up an exchange in order to get rid of the monstrous c3 pawn.

And things were falling apart for White in no time. Bxc6 followed by Qh3+ was now imminent. Unsurprisingly, Gabriel called it a day only after four moves from here.

Praggnanandhaa R. had to settle for a heartbreaking draw after he blundered under time-pressure in a completely winning position against Aydin Suleymanli | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Aydin Suleymanli - Praggnanandhaa R., Round 3

Pragg had all his pawns rolling down the queenside and was clearly winning but 58...g5? blew everything away for him, can you see why? Check out the analysis below!

Arjun Erigaisi played an interesting game against Rudik Makarian and gave up his queen for a pair of minor pieces to seize a better position. But later he squandered away his advantage in a highly complex queen versus two bishops ending and settled for a draw | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Photo Gallery

The band of talented Indian youngsters in action! | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Sethuraman drew his third round encounter against Zhou Jianchao and is now the second Indian in the chasing pack after Bharath Subramaniyam | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Vaibhav Suri drew against Alexey Sarana and has moved to 2.0/3 | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Deep Sengupta lost his encounter against compatriot S.L.Narayanan and now only has a score of 1.0/3 points | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Aryan Chopra drew his third consecutive game by holding Parham Maghsoodloo | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Adhiban was held to a draw by Abhimanyu Puranik | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Pranesh kept the solid show going and held compatriot Karthikeyan Murali to a draw | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Sreeshwan Maralakshikari lost his second game in a row to Ilia Iljiushenok | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Karthik Venkatraman scored his first point of the tournament by beating IM Kirill Shubin | Photo: Puneet Jaiswal

Results of top ten boards in round 3

Bo.

No.

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts.

Result

Pts.

Name

FED

Rtg

No.

Mamedov Rauf

AZE

2643

1 - 0

2594

2622

½ - ½

2641

2728

1½

½ - ½

1½

2593

2600

1½

½ - ½

1½

2674

2656

1½

½ - ½

1½

2591

2597

1½

½ - ½

1½

2654

2650

1½

0 - 1

1½

2577

2629

1½

1 - 0

1½

2590

2626

1½

½ - ½

1½

2563

2592

1½

½ - ½

1½

Durarbayli Vasif

AZE

2625

Results of all Indians in round 3

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
3	2	23	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2622	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2641	12
3	5	5	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2656	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2591	39
3	6	34	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2597	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2654	6
3	14	28	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2608	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Visakh N R	IND	2518	64
3	16	30	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2602	1½	½ - ½	1½	FM	Pranesh M	IND	2425	90
3	17	71	IM	Suleymanli Aydin	AZE	2474	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2602	31
3	18	2	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2689	1	0 - 1	1½	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	IND	2402	96
3	19	3	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2674	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2562	49
3	21	53	GM	Chanda Sandipan	IND	2552	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2644	10
3	23	59	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2534	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2637	14
3	24	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2630	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Moroni Luca Jr	ITA	2536	58
3	25	73	IM	Raja Harshit	IND	2472	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2630	16
3	31	32	GM	Basso Pier Luigi	ITA	2600	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2427	88
3	32	46	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2563	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Makarian Rudik	RUS	2414	92
3	37	48	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2562	½	1 - 0	½	IM	Krishna C R G	IND	2443	80
3	42	83	IM	Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	IND	2440	½	0 - 1	½	GM	Iljiushenok Ilia	RUS	2519	62
3	43	85	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2436	½	1 - 0	½	IM	Lobanov Sergei	RUS	2507	66
3	44	91	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke	IND	2418	½	1 - 0	½	IM	Vogel Roven	GER	2473	72
3	46	97	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2369	½	½ - ½	0	IM	Kozak Adam	HUN	2523	60
3	47	61	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2522	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	IND	2474	70
3	48	69	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2483	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Shubin Kirill	RUS	2427	89

Standings of players after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	11	GM	Mamedov Rauf	AZE	2643	3,0	1	2569
2	96	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	IND	2402	2,5	2	2602
3	12	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2641	2,5	2	2534
4	43	GM	Idani Pouya	IRI	2577	2,5	2	2418
5	17	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2629	2,5	1	2519
6	23	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2622	2,5	1	2473
7	37	GM	Cordova Emilio	PER	2593	2,0	2	2656
8	64	GM	Visakh N R	IND	2518	2,0	2	2623
	68	IM	Zanan Evgeny	ISR	2500	2,0	2	2623
10	90	FM	Pranesh M	IND	2425	2,0	2	2587
11	4	GM	Sjugirov Sanan	RUS	2674	2,0	2	2557
12	6	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2654	2,0	2	2539
13	14	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2637	2,0	2	2518
14	16	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2630	2,0	2	2510
15	20	GM	Durarbayli Vasif	AZE	2625	2,0	2	2501
16	29	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2607	2,0	2	2474
17	24	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2620	2,0	2	2472
18	27	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2609	2,0	2	2466
19	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2602	2,0	2	2455
20	39	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2591	2,0	2	2428
	45	GM	Sanal Vahap	TUR	2569	2,0	2	2428
22	47	GM	Sychev Klementy	RUS	2563	2,0	2	2403
23	33	GM	Can Emre	TUR	2600	2,0	1	2674
24	57	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	UZB	2537	2,0	1	2646
25	36	GM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2594	2,0	1	2643
26	67		Nesterov Arseniy	RUS	2501	2,0	1	2625
27	71	IM	Suleymanli Aydin	AZE	2474	2,0	1	2607
28	1	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	RUS	2728	2,0	1	2593
29	5	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2656	2,0	1	2591
30	13	GM	Riazantsev Alexander	RUS	2639	2,0	1	2536
31	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2630	2,0	1	2523
32	19	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	ROU	2626	2,0	1	2507
33	21	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	RUS	2623	2,0	1	2500
34	28	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2608	2,0	1	2471
35	32	GM	Basso Pier Luigi	ITA	2600	2,0	1	2443
	34	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2597	2,0	1	2443
37	38	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2592	2,0	1	2440
38	40	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2590	2,0	1	2432
39	30	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2602	2,0	1	2425
40	26	GM	Smirin Ilia	ISR	2615	2,0	1	0

Complete results and standings

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