Bhopal 2017 Round 8: Vietnam's Korchnoi and Madhya Pradesh's Tal

Timur Gareyev looked untouchable at this event. He seemed to be playing chess effortlessly. He was not only leading in the main tournament with a score of 6.5/7, but also gave a blindfold simul which included him playing against eleven opponents. The exhibition lasted for nearly three hours. While Tran Tuan Minh, Gareyev's next opponent, was taking rest and preparing in his room, Timur was giving a simul and then spending time at the musical show held by the organizers. For Timur it is much more important to be in the moment and enjoy life. This is quite apparent from the way he functions. However, in the eighth round of the Bhopal International 2017 when his game went beyond four hours, it started becoming obvious that Tran Tuan Minh is the fresher one.

Timur Gareyev - Tran Tuan Minh

Tran Tuan Minh has just pushed his pawn from e6 to e5. Gareyev simply took it with his queen after Qxe5 Qxe5 dxe5, the material balance was restored but the black king was no longer in trouble and could move around freely. Also another key point was that Black had Rg5! and with the hanging position of the knight on c5, the e5 pawn became weak. If you look at the above position closely you realize that Timur could have easily held the position had he made the move Qh2! The reason being exd4 is not possible due to Qc7+ and when Black does play Ka8, you take the pawn on e5 with the queen and reach the same position with the king on a8 instead of a7. Not a huge difference, but in the game it matters a lot. It was the difference between a half and a full point for Timur Gareyev. 

The Vietnamese player Tran Tuan Minh played like Korchnoi. He gobbled the pawn in the opening and defended staunchly. Even though his opponent had the initiative, he did not flinch. Slowly and steadily he wriggled out of the cramp position, gave some material back for activity and eventually won the game. That explains the title of this article! 

After having spoken about Vietnam's Korchnoi, it's time to talk about Madhya Pradesh's Tal. Ankit Gajwa is talented youngster from the host state. 20 years old, he has been loitering around the 2300 mark for quite some years now. The boy puts in quite a bit of hard work on his game and this was quite apparent from his comments after his crushing victory of Italian GM Alberto David. "I had prepared this sacrifice one year ago while I was paired against Adam Horvath in Chennai Open 2017." Ankit had prepared with IM Roktim Bandhopadhyay for seven days before the tournament. Roktim had given him an important advice, "Try to complicate the game against higher rated players, while try to keep it simple against lower rated opponents." This advice proved handy as Gajwa not only complicated the play beyond measure but was also better prepared!

Another important improvement that he brought in himself was that Ankit was ready to lose the game. He was ready to take the risk, play fast and play confidently. Sometimes this approach works wonders because you do not overthink, you do not waste time and this puts your opponent under pressure. For a 2300 player to beat a 2570 GM like Ankit did is never easy. But the Madhya Pradesh boy proved that it was possible. This game is an inspiration for all the players who have always had a psychological block against grandmasters.

Girish Koushik took his chances, but fell short when it came to accurate concrete play. Rozum won a piece and later the game.

Here's a small trivia for you. Check out the game given below - Adam Tukhaev against Aditya Mittal. Go over the game and try to find where was the point that the Black player went wrong? He did everything as prescribed - played the Sicilian, got in the d5 break, but then ended in an inferior endgame from where he was gradually outplayed. What did the young 11-year-old do wrong? We ask you to find out and then list to Tukhaev's interview.

This was the famous structure from AVRO 1938 between Botvinnik and Capablanca. White won that powerful game. But since then many ideas have been found for Black in this setup. I was keen to know what where the views of a strong and knowledgeable player like Suat Atalik and hence we captured the entire analysis session of his game against Spencer Masango. Check it out and let us know if you found it useful.

Rank after round 8

Results of round 8:

Pairing of round 9:

ChessBase India's Niklesh Jain gave a lecture to all the parents on the importance of food and fitness in the life of a chess player. Here's a five minute snippet: