Asian Nations Cup 2018: A pawn endgame that Sasikiran could not solve

After two solid wins over Iran Red and Kazakhstan, India faced a stiff challenge against the young Iran Green team. The Iran Green team consisting of Maghsoodloo, Idani, Tabatabaei and Firouzja are all young and extremely talented. In fact the oldest of them is Pouya Idani, who is just 22.

The Indian team consisting of Adhiban, Sethuraman, Sasikiran and Ganguly took on Iran Green

The Indian team had to tread carefully because the Iranians had just beaten China in the previous round. But even though we had a higher rated player than our opponent on every board, we couldn't overcome Iran.

The key decisive game was between Sasikiran and Tabatabaei

We bring our attention to one of the key positions in the game Sasikiran versus Tabatabaei:

Sasikiran has just taken the pawn on f3. Tabatabaei played his knight to e4 and then got it to c5.

When Sasikiran took his king to e8, Tabatabaei had an option whether to recapture the pawn on f3 or go into a king and pawn endgame by exchanging everything on d7. He chose the latter.

We have reached this extremely interesting pawn endgame. Black to play. How should Black save the game?

It is obvious that White is better here. His king is more active and this gives him the right to play for a win. But Black king is just one tempo behind and it is his move. So a draw should be feasible. But how exactly to get it? Sasikiran missed it. We recommend that you take around 20 minutes on your clock and think about this position. When you are done, just have a look at the analysis given below in both video and replayable format.

IM Sagar Shah explains the intricacies of how Sasikiran could have held the draw in this video

Rank after round 4:

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2
1	3	Iran Green	4	4	0	0	8	12,0
2	5	Vietnam	4	3	0	1	6	10,5
3	2	China	4	3	0	1	6	9,0
4	1	India	4	2	1	1	5	9,5
	7	Uzbekistan	4	2	1	1	5	9,5
6	6	Iran Red	4	2	0	2	4	10,5
7	4	Kazakhstan	4	2	0	2	4	10,0
8	8	Iran White	4	2	0	2	4	9,5
9	10	Iraq	4	1	1	2	3	5,0
	11	Syria	3	1	1	1	3	5,0
11	12	Lebanon	4	1	0	3	2	6,0
12	9	Bangladesh	4	1	0	3	2	5,5
13	13	Oman	4	1	0	3	2	3,0
14	14	Afghanistan	4	0	1	3	1	5,0

Women's section:

The women's team gave Harika the rest against Syria. Supporting the team from the background is GM Swapnil Dhopade, who is the coach of the team.

It was an easy win for the Indian girls

Eesha Karavade all smiles on board two! | Photo: Swapnil Dhopade

It's really interesting to see Vaishali on board two for Indian team. Against Syria she took the top board as Harika was rested. Invaluable experience for the 16-year-old. | Photo: Swapnil Dhopade

The super confident Padmini Rout | Photo: Swapnil Dhopade

The young star from Maharashtra Akanksha Hagawane | Photo: Swapnil Dhopade

Ranking after round 4

Rk.	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	China	*		3		2½	2½	3½		8	11,5	0
2	Iran Green		*			2	2	3½	3	6	10,5	0
3	India	1		*	2			4	4	5	11,0	0
4	Uzbekistan			2	*	1		2½	4	5	9,5	0
5	Vietnam	1½	2		3	*	2½			5	9,0	0
6	Kazakhstan	1½	2			1½	*		4	3	9,0	0
7	Iran Red	½	½	0	1½			*		0	2,5	0
8	Syria		1	0	0		0		*	0	1,0	0