Asian 2019 Round 2: Karthikeyan does a Kramnik

by Satanick Mukhuty - 09/06/2019

In what was every bit classy chess, Murali Karthikeyan won his second game in a row when he defeated Xu Zhihang of China. India's triple crown champion Aravindh Chithambaram was also in his element when he grabbed the chance to create a demolishing passer against Zhao Yuanhe. Sethuraman S.P. beat Raunak Sadhwani in a Najdorf when the latter made a careless move. In the women's section, Bhakti Kulkarni continued her conquest by beating Hoang Thi Bao Tram. It was round 2 at the Asian continental championships 2019 and in this report we bring you the most important moments of the day's excitement.

Karthi, Sethu and Vishnu on 100%

Murali Karthikeyan's performance stood out today for it's uncanny resemblance with Kramnik's Berlin immortal against Aronian in the Candidates 2018. Let's first have a look at the idea executed by Kramnik:

Aronian - Kramnik, Candidates 2018

Aronian has just played his pawn to h3. How did Kramnik continue?

...Rg8!! Well, the h3 pawn is a hook and g5-g4 would be very strong, so why not! Vlad went on to win an amazing game! You can check it out in this video analyzed by Sagar Shah

Let's come back to Karthikeyan's game against Xu Zhihang from the Asian Continental 2019, Round 2:

Murali Karthikeyan - Xu Zhihang, Round 2

Now that you have the knowledge of the Kramnik game, how do you think White continued?

Karthikeyan played 12.Rg1!? - the beginning of a devious plan. White intends here to storm out with g4 and g5 against Black's castled king. Black is certainly not lost but practically it is very difficult to defend against such a direct onslaught. The game went 12...Rae8 13.g4 Qd8 14.g5 and what followed next was a heavy rampage along the g-file.

White king sits uncastled and pretty on e1, while the Black monarch is under a lot of stress on g8

Karthikeyan's opponent was forced to call it quits after White played 26.Rg1 literally breathing fire through the g-file.

The full game with comments is presented below:

Karthikeyan learnt from Kramnik's games and applied this in his own encounter! | Amruta Mokal

Another interesting game to note is Ganguly vs Axel Smith, where the same opening was played and White got a huge advantage

Aravindh Chithambaram, the first ever triple crown champion of India, played solidly against Zhao Yuanhe and seized the opportunity with both hands when it presented itself. | Photo: imsa.cn

The following was the turning point in the game:

Aravindh Chithambaram - Zhao Yuanhe, Round 2

In a roughly equal position Black has just moved 22...Na4?! - a mistake that gives White serious edge. Aravindh didn't miss anything when he played 23.Nc6! the game continued 23...Bxc6 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.dxc6 and White got a monster of a passer in the c6 pawn.

The above shows position after 30.Bb5, White has a decisive advantage but Aravindh's task was made all the more easy when his opponent blundered on the 35th move:

The above shows position after 35...Rd6? - a blunder. After 36.Rxd6 Qxd6 37,Qd5 Black called it a day!

Elsewhere, Sethuraman S.P. too registered an impressive victory over Raunak Sadhwani | Photo: imsa.cn

Raunak Sadhwani - Sethuraman S.P, Round 2

In a roughly balanced position White played 29.Rfe1? - a mistake that allowed 29...g4! and after 30.Nf1 f4 31.Nxe3 fxe3 32.Be2 Ne4! Black's advantage is tangible.

With the rook on f8 and the knight jumping to f2, the queen all ready to join in, White is in a very difficult position

Vidit Gujrathi played solid chess and drew his game against Xu Yinglun (2548). Vidit is now on 1.5/2 | Photo: imsa.cn

Vishnu Prasanna beat S.L. Narayanan and moved to 2.0/2. Along with Karthikeyan and Sethuraman, he is the third Indian players on 2.0/2 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Karthik Venkatraman beat Xu Minghui (2368) and is on 1.5/2 | Photo: imsa.cn

Abhijeet Gupta is on 1.5/2. In round two he drew his game against Xu Yi (2526) | Photo: imsa.cn

Praggnanandhaa's duel against Alireza Firouzja was looked forward to with great interest by chess fans across the globe as two young prodigies were going to be pitted against each other. The game lived upto the expectations as both players struck blow for blow before the game ending in a draw! | Photo: imsa.cn

When two bright young talents faced each other at the Asian #Chess Chp today, look what a cracker of a slugfest they produced! Praggnanandhaa - Firouzja 27...g3!!?? @PlaychessCom @ChessBase @ChessbaseIndia pic.twitter.com/2fuZHmNNQ4
— Venkat Saravanan (@reachvsara) June 8, 2019

Here's the game with Tactical Analysis (computer generated analysis). The variations may not be 100% accurate, but they give you an idea of how complicated the game was!

Results of round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	23	GM	Xu Yinglun	2548	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2707	1
2	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2537	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Firouzja Alireza	2682	3
3	28	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2526	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2665	5
4	6	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2639	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Li Di	2535	25
5	32	GM	Liu Yan	2504	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2625	7
6	36	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2482	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	9
7	10	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Xu Yi	2526	29
8	50	FM	Zou Chen	2415	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Nihal Sarin	2606	11
9	12	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2603	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2511	31
10	16	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2593	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Xu Zhihang	2504	33
11	18	GM	Xu Xiangyu	2583	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Krishna C R G	2481	37
12	22	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	2395	57
13	2	GM	Le Quang Liem	2694	½	1 - 0	½	IM	Vignesh N R	2459	41
14	4	GM	Adhiban B.	2676	½	½ - ½	½	IM	Bilguun Sumiya	2478	39
15	8	GM	Lu Shanglei	2624	½	1 - 0	½	IM	Garcia Jan Emmanuel	2413	51
16	14	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2598	½	1 - 0	½		Zhao Yuanhe	2444	45
17	54	IM	Akash G	2404	½	1 - 0	½	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	15
18	52		Zhang Ziji	2408	½	½ - ½	½	IM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2587	17
19	58	FM	Amartuvshin Ganzorig	2394	½	0 - 1	½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2571	19
20	56		Lin Yi	2396	½	½ - ½	½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2559	21

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	28	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	VIE	2526	2,0	2665	1,0	2,0	0,0	2	2	1,03	0,97	10	9,7
2	32	GM	Liu Yan	CHN	2504	2,0	2625	1,0	1,0	0,0	2	2	1,11	0,89	10	8,9
3	31	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2511	2,0	2603	1,0	1,5	0,0	2	2	1,13	0,87	10	8,7
4	16	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2593	2,0	2504	1,0	2,0	0,0	2	2	1,36	0,64	10	6,4
5	9	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2613	2,0	2482	1,0	2,0	0,0	2	2	1,41	0,59	10	5,9
6	23	GM	Xu Yinglun	CHN	2548	1,5	2707	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,01	0,49	10	4,9
7	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2537	1,5	2682	1,5	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,03	0,47	10	4,7
8	25	IM	Li Di	CHN	2535	1,5	2639	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,08	0,42	10	4,2
9	29	IM	Xu Yi	CHN	2526	1,5	2606	1,5	2,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,12	0,38	10	3,8
10	50	FM	Zou Chen	CHN	2415	1,5	2606	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	0,51	0,99	10	9,9
11	54	IM	Akash G	IND	2404	1,5	2597	1,0	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	0,51	0,99	10	9,9
12	37	IM	Krishna C R G	IND	2481	1,5	2583	1,5	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,28	0,22	10	2,2
13	57	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	IND	2395	1,5	2561	1,5	2,5	0,0	2	1,5	0,57	0,93	10	9,3
14	1	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2707	1,5	2548	1,5	2,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,50	0,00	10	0,0
15	3	GM	Firouzja Alireza	IRI	2682	1,5	2537	1,5	2,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,46	0,04	10	0,4
16	6	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2639	1,5	2535	1,5	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,38	0,12	10	1,2
17	10	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2606	1,5	2526	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,33	0,17	10	1,7
18	18	GM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2583	1,5	2481	1,5	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,38	0,12	10	1,2
19	2	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2694	1,5	2478	1,0	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,57	-0,07	10	-0,7
20	8	GM	Lu Shanglei	CHN	2624	1,5	2444	0,5	1,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,51	-0,01	10	-0,1

Women's Section

Bhakti Kulkarni continued her conquest by registering yet another victory, this time against Hoang Thi Bao Tram in a clinical fashion. | Photo: David Llada

Following was the position when Bhakti (with the black pieces) started to look dominant:

Hoang Thi Bao Tram - Bhakti Kulkarni, Round 2

The above is after 17...Nc4, the knight supported by the c8 rook is embedded firmly in White's camp

Fast forward a few more moves, Black has just played 23...Bh6! proclaiming a full-fledged domination.

After 30...h4 Black is threatening a nasty fork on g3. White went 31.Rg2 and after 31...Ng3+ 32.Rxg3 hxg3 33.Nc5 Bxe3 Black crashed through!

With this win Bhakti is one of the four players in the lead with 2.0/2 in the women's section. The other three are Ren Xiaoyi, M.Mahalakshmi and Dinara Saduakassova.

Mahalakshmi beat R. Vaishali to move to 2.0/2 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Eesha Karavade beat Zhang Xiao (2234) and is on 1.5/2 | Photo: David Llada

After losing round 1 to the top seed Nisha Mohota drew her game in round 2 against Anousha Mahdian (2078) | Photo: imsa.cn

Mary Ann Gomes lost in round 2 to Zhai Mo and is on 0.5/2 | Photo: imsa.cn

Results of round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12		Li Xueyi	2305	1	0 - 1	1	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	2458	1
2	13	WGM	Hoang Thi Bao Tram	2293	1	0 - 1	1	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2380	3
3	4	IM	Sukandar Irine Kharisma	2378	1	½ - ½	1	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	2259	15
4	14	WFM	Li Yunshan	2264	1	½ - ½	1	WFM	Munkhzul Turmunkh	2371	5
5	16		Ren Xiaoyi	2255	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	2370	7
6	18	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2245	1	1 - 0	1	WGM	Vaishali R	2338	9
7	10	WGM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	2337	1	½ - ½	1	WIM	Dauletova Gulmira	2252	17
8	6	IM	Karavade Eesha	2370	½	1 - 0	1		Zhang Xiao	2234	20
9	8	WGM	Zhai Mo	2358	½	1 - 0	½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2314	11
10	29	WIM	San Diego Marie Antoinette	2080	½	½ - ½	½	WFM	Mendoza Shania Mae	2171	24
11	2	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2420	0	1 - 0	½	WGM	Frayna Janelle Mae	2157	26
12	19	IM	Mohota Nisha	2236	0	½ - ½	0	WFM	Mahdian Anousha	2078	30
13	21	WGM	Swati Ghate	2220	0	0 - 1	0	WIM	Galas Bernadette	2073	31
14	33		Yan Tianqi	2036	0	½ - ½	0	WIM	Wang Doudou	2188	22
15	23	WIM	Gu Tianlu	2183	0	½ - ½	0	WFM	Tan Li Ting	2066	32
16	25	WIM	Pham Bich Ngoc	2167	0	1 - 0	0		Xia Ri Feng	1991	34
17	27	WIM	Mordido Kylen Joy	2133	0	½ - ½	0	WCM	Kojima Natsumi	1711	36
18	35	WIM	Hamid Rani	1929	0	0 - 1	0	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2090	28

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	16		Ren Xiaoyi	CHN	2255	2,0	2370	1,0	1,5	0,0	1	1	0,34	0,66	20	13,2
2	18	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	IND	2245	2,0	2338	1,0	1,5	0,0	2	2	1,29	0,71	20	14,2
3	1	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	KAZ	2458	2,0	2305	1,0	1,5	0,0	2	2	1,48	0,52	10	5,2
4	3	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2380	2,0	2293	1,0	1,0	0,0	2	2	1,33	0,67	20	13,4
5	15	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	UZB	2259	1,5	2378	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,12	0,38	20	7,6
6	14	WFM	Li Yunshan	CHN	2264	1,5	2371	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,11	0,39	40	15,6
7	17	WIM	Dauletova Gulmira	KAZ	2252	1,5	2337	1,5	1,5	0,0	2	1,5	1,25	0,25	20	5,0
8	8	WGM	Zhai Mo	CHN	2358	1,5	2314	0,5	1,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,32	0,18	10	1,8
9	5	WFM	Munkhzul Turmunkh	MGL	2371	1,5	2264	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,39	0,11	20	2,2
10	4	IM	Sukandar Irine Kharisma	INA	2378	1,5	2259	1,5	2,0	0,0	2	1,5	1,41	0,09	10	0,9

Aronian vs Kramnik analyzed by IM Sagar Shah

Ganguly explains his win over Axel Smith

Related news:

	Just 14 and the strongest blitz player of the continent! @ 27/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Asian 2019: Karthikeyan, Sethuraman, S.L.Narayanan, Abhijeet Gupta qualify for the World Cup @ 16/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Asian Continental: Can Sethuraman do in 2019 what he achieved in 2016? @ 15/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Abhijeet Gupta stops the Karthikeyan Express @ 14/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	एशियन कॉन्टिनेन्टल शतरंज - भारत के मुरली कार्तिकेयन नें बनाई बढ़त,महिलाओं में भक्ति सयुंक्त बढ़त पर @ 12/06/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Karthikeyan plays the game of his life, beats Firouzja with a queen sac on move 9! @ 12/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Asian 2019 Round 3-4: Praggnanandhaa pulls off a shocking upset against Vidit, Bhakti is now an IM @ 10/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Asian 2019 Round 1: Vidit sizzles, Bhakti's grit and Nihal's sapient show @ 08/06/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)

Asian 2019 Round 2: Karthikeyan does a Kramnik

Karthi, Sethu and Vishnu on 100%

Results of round 2

Standings after round 2

Women's Section

Results of round 2

Standings after round 2

Related: