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Bhopal 2017 Round 2+3: "Where was my mistake, sir?"

by Sagar Shah - 23/12/2017

"I love playing in India", says Alberto David. But there is a small issue. Every time he plays against an eleven year old Indian, he is asked a question after the game! Know more about it in our article. Also in the report you will find some fine upsets, some excellent photographs by Niklesh Jain, high class videos by Sagar Shah and also game fragments which have been analyzed with great care. Overall it's a report which you would not want to miss. It contains the right dose of information as well as entertainment! 

I was strolling around the hall three hours into the round trying to pick up something exciting for my report. I saw the game between GM Tran Tuan Minh and Aryan Shah. "Another one of those typical endgame grinds by a GM", I thought to myself.

 

Aryan Shah vs GM Tran Tuan Minh

This is one of those positions which looks visually appealing for the second player, but it is not so great. Black with his central clump of pawns looks better, but White has his trumps as well. Hence, my initial assessment that this position is clearly better for Black is wrong. White has an active rook. His king has the possibilities of climbing into the position with Kg3-h4. Somehow there is some magical co-ordination between the dispersed White forces. The objective assessment of the above position is just a draw. Aryan played the endgame in Karpovian style. Of course, he was helped by his opponent, but he made all the accurate moves and I particularly liked the fact that he repeated the position before making the best moves. Somehow telling his opponent that he was the one in driver's seat!

Tran Tuan Minh wasn't the first, nor will he be the last GM in this tournament who lost his sense of objectivity! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Where was my mistake, sir?

I am sure you were wondering what does the title of the article mean? Well, it is this funny anecdote that Alberto David spoke about in his interview. "I love coming back to India", says Alberto. "The tournament hall is quiet, the conditions are nice. But there is something that I have noticed. Young Indian players after the game ask you 'where was my mistake, sir?' and they ask it even after beating you! Sometimes after losing, this question is too much! It can really drive some grandmasters crazy!", Alberto said this with a huge smile! We have to confirm this with Souhardo and Adam Tukhaev, but we think that after beating the 2575 grandmaster, the young boy did ask him, "Where was my mistake, sir?"

Alberto David speaks about his third round victory over Jishitha, how he enjoys being in India and the funny "where was my mistake, sir?" anecdote!

Making sure that he doesn't give his opponents any chances - Alberto David from Italy | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Alberto David - Jishitha

Black has just moved her bishop back to f8. How should White react?

Ivan Rozum is going strong with 3.0/3. He beat Manush Shah in the third round. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

I noticed the analysis session between Ivan Rozum and Manush Shah. They were discussing the following position:

It seemed from the analysis session that Manush believed he had some defensive chances. Ivan completely believed that the position is busted for Black. I would say that the 2595 GM is correct in this case and this is one of the reasons why Russian GMs are so strong. Endgames like these are something they learn when they are very young and they manage to play them well based on their feel. What I usually see in Indians is that they try to calculate these positions. If they don't see the win, they feel that the endgame can be defended. While good endgame players usually understand that one way or the other the breakthrough will come. And they are not just guessing. They have this thought process because they have worked hard on this phase of the game.

Ivan was, of course, right! White is winning and he won over here with a nice move. Can you find it?

GM Suat Atalik from Turkey | Photo: Niklesh Jain

One of the players who we would be following very closely in the Indian circuit is GM Suat Atalik! The grandmaster from Turkey has never lost to an Indian player before. He kept his record intact by winning his first three games. Suat's games were quite different in nature. In the second round he won with a blistering attack on his opponent's king, while in the third he won with some luck as Parnali Dharia got her knight trapped.

Of all the possibilities that were there in the position, Parnali chose the worst one. Nc6-d8. What was so bad about that move?

Of course! ...Na5! The knight is trapped. What a sad way to end a hard fought game.

Sometimes it's just not meant to be! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Suat Atalik - Deepthamsh Reddy, round 2

It's White to play, How do you finish Black off? Note: Make sure you go deep and see the fine points.
Suat Atalik is a great annotator. Those who read his analysis in Mega Database 2017 would agree. It's nice to see him annotate a game fresh after having played it.

Top seed Timur Gareyev (2606) has not had any accidents yet and is on 3.0/3 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Timur's blindfold accomplishments are quite well known. He holds the Guinness record for playing 48 opponents blindfolded. But yesterday I saw a video on Youtube that left me dumbfounded:

This is craziness!

Timur has an excellent memory and over the period of next month where he would be travelling all over India we will try and pick his brain for more tips as to how to improve one's memory.

This analysis session with Timur took place at 10.30 p.m. and Timur chose fresh air over brightly lit indoor room! We discussed the Trompowsky. In case you would like to learn from Timur, go ahead and invest a few rupees in this fantastic DVD:

It's sometimes quite difficult to gauge the accurate ratings of some of the Indian players. A small background history can help you to keep your objectivity against some lower rated players. For example Santosh Kumar Sinha is rated just 1952, but at some point he was 2275. If the talented youngster Gukesh knew about this, he would have been more careful. Santosh Sinha beat Gukesh in a fine positional game which he explained to us after it finished.

If you do enjoy these videos, make sure to go to the ChessBase India channel on Youtube and subscribe to us

Yeoh Li Tian, Malaysia number one is here. He is on 2.5/3 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

How do these youngsters manage? Arjun Erigiasi played a grueling event at the World Youth Olympiad 2017 and came straight to Bhopal! He is on 2.5/3. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Angela Franko travelled 55 hours from Columbia to come to India. She did miss her first round, but will be seen in action for the rest of the tournament and also in IIFLW Mumbai and Delhi International. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Life of Supriya Joshi is not easy! First she has to ensure that she plays well.... | Photo: Niklesh Jain

...and then make sure that her husband Anniruddha Deshpande plays well! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

You can always expect something fresh from Sa Kannan!
Vietnamese player Nguyen Phuoc Tam rated just 2035 beat IM S.Nitin
Ram S Krishnan is an IM elect. He has made his three IM norms, but has to reach 2400 to get his title. For achieving this feat he is stuck between two problems. Financially in order to sustain he has to play open tournaments and win prizes, but if he does that it is quite difficult to maintain his rating. It is a conundrum that every Indian player who lacks financial resources has to go through!

Growing fast not only in age, but also in strength. Future of Indian women's chess - Divya Deshmukh | Photo: Niklesh Jain

This little guy is thoroughly in love with the game! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

It's cold, but chess players are prophylactic! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The excellent playing hall from board 77 onwards | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sunil Soni, Sanjay Nayak and Vikas Bharti Sahu making sure that the tournament progresses smoothly! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Chief Arbiter Dharmendra Kumar shares his experience with Anurag Singh | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The real estate tycoon Anandh Babu! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

All the above pictures have NOT been taken by Amruta Mokal! They are by Niklesh Jain. Our Hindi Editor-in-chief's presence helped Amruta to take some time off photography and work on editing her pictures. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 2

Bo.No. NameTypFEDRtgPts.ResultPts.NameTypFEDRtg No.
11GMGareyev TimurUSA260611 - 01Saptorshi GuptaU18IND200487
288Sudhanshu RanjanU18IND199810 - 11GMRozum IvanRUS25952
389Supriya JoshiIND198810 - 11GMDavid AlbertoITA25714
45GMAtalik SuatS50TUR254511 - 01Deepthamsh Reddy. MIND198591
590Aryan Abhijeet ShahU14IND198711 - 01GMTran Tuan MinhU20VIE25446
67GMNguyen Duc HoaVIE250411 - 01Soham KamotraU14IND198193
792Harshavardhan G BU14IND198410 - 11IMYeoh Li TianU18MAS24808
89GMHimanshu SharmaIND246910 - 11Utsab ChatterjeeU14IND197895
994Lama SurbirNEP197810 - 11IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK245110
1011IMNitin S.IND244111 - 01Selvabharathy TU18IND196397

 

Results of round 3

Bo.No. NameTypFEDRtgPts.ResultPts.NameTypFEDRtg No.
154Anuj ShrivatriU14IND214920 - 12GMGareyev TimurUSA26061
22GMRozum IvanRUS259521 - 02Manush ShahU20IND214855
34GMDavid AlbertoITA257121 - 02WFMJishitha DU14IND214057
462WIMParnali S DhariaU20IND211620 - 12GMAtalik SuatS50TUR25455
571Singh Arvinder PreetIND20612½ - ½2GMNguyen Duc HoaVIE25047
68IMYeoh Li TianU18MAS24802½ - ½2Chakravarthy Y V KIND212261
710IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK245121 - 02Bhambure ShantanuIND210864
875Nguyen Phuoc TamVIE203521 - 02IMNitin S.IND244111
977Soham DatarIND202920 - 12IMRavi Teja S.IND237813
1014IMWohl Aleksandar H.S50AUS237021 - 02Surendran NIND210266

 

Pairings of round 4:

Bo.No. NameTypFEDRtgPts.ResultPts.NameTypFEDRtg No.
11
GMGareyev TimurUSA260633IMDeshmukh AnupS50IND2283
30
232
Sekar BIND227433GMRozum IvanRUS2595
2
333
Ram S. KrishnanIND225533GMDavid AlbertoITA2571
4
45
GMAtalik SuatS50TUR254533Aishwin DanielU18IND2184
46
537
Kumar GauravU18IND223133IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK2451
10
613
IMRavi Teja S.IND237833CMKushagra MohanU14IND2174
48
741
Nayak RajeshIND221133IMWohl Aleksandar H.S50AUS2370
14
817
Kunal M.IND235233WIMPratyusha BoddaU20IND2163
50
949
Shelke SankarshaU14IND217333IMSangma RahulIND2311
24
1025
IMRathnakaran K.IND230733Nguyen Phuoc TamVIE2035
75

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