Chennai Grand Masters 2023 R4: Gukesh beats Predke, joins Harikrishna in the lead
D Gukesh scored his first win of the event against Alexandr Predke (SRB) in the fourth round of Chennai Grand Masters 2023. Gukesh joined Pentala Harikrishna in the lead 2.5/4 each. Harikrishna had a well contested draw against Levon Aronian (USA). The two-time World Cup winner elaborated his thoughts on his previous day's reply to chess24 tweet. Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) also scored his first win of the event against Sanan Sjugirov (HUN). Arjun Erigaisi had a well contested draw against Pavel Eljanov (UKR). Five players are trailing the leaders at 2/4 each. They are - Aronian, Eljanov, Parham, Sanan and Arjun. Round 5 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
Gukesh and Parham score their first win of the event
Levon Aronian elaborated on his previous day's tweet reply. He shared, "...I think serving more than two terms always leads to trouble. Because you know leadership is something, that is very infectious. It's something you want to do forever. But no matter how good of a leader you are. You know eventually you are going to start developing those bad traits, that belonged to all of the leaders, that stayed for too long. So it's my personal opinion and I think that when you make such decisions, lot of good things that you do, get undone... I don't like the decision and I am disappointed in FIDE which I was not up to that moment."
Gukesh - Predke: 1-0
GM D Gukesh (2720) and GM Alexandr Predke (SRB, 2689) played only two rated games against each other. Both occurred in 2019 and ended in draws.
Gukesh hadn't started using engine until recently. So he plays humane moves like 24.Kg3 which is safe for the moment because it cannot be harmed for now. Of course, it will not stay like that for the rest of the game as it is prone to future attacks.
The final mistake by Black was 33...h5?? Despite the white king seeming to be quite vulnerable, it's the e6-pawn which decides the fate of the game. 34.e7 Rxg4 35.e8Q+ Kh7 36.Bxf7 and White won the game in the next few moves.
Parham - Sjugirov: 1-0
GM Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2742) and GM Sanan Sjugirov (HUN, 2703) have defeated each other once in Classical and Rapid games. Both took place in Hungary. Parham in search of his first win of the event was determined to score one in this round.
After 22.Rc3 one can see the white king being surrounded by pawns only whereas the black king is under heavy fire by queen, rook and bishop. 22...Qe7 23.Kg1 Re6 24.Bd3 Rxe3 25.Kh2 White found a nice shelter for his king Rd6 26.Rf1 Rxd3 a desperate exchange sacrifice did not help Black. White soon went on to realize his advantage.
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Round 4 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 2720 | GM | Gukesh, D | 1 - 0 | GM | Predke, Alexandr | 2689 | 6 | PGN | ||
| 2 | 7 | 2691 | GM | Eljanov, Pavel | ½ - ½ | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2727 | 5 | PGN | ||
| 3 | 1 | 2723 | GM | Aronian, Levon | ½ - ½ | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2696 | 4 | PGN | ||
| 4 | 2 | 2742 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 1 - 0 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | 2703 | 3 | PGN |
Standings after Round 4
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | IND | 2696 | 2,5 | 0 | 4,50 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2 | 8 | GM | Gukesh, D | IND | 2720 | 2,5 | 0 | 4,00 | 1 | 0 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | Aronian, Levon | USA | 2723 | 2 | 0 | 4,50 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | 7 | GM | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2691 | 2 | 0 | 4,25 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2742 | 2 | 0 | 4,25 | 1 | 0 | |
| 6 | 3 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | HUN | 2703 | 2 | 0 | 3,50 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | IND | 2727 | 2 | 0 | 3,25 | 1 | 0 | |
| 8 | 6 | GM | Predke, Alexandr | SRB | 2689 | 1 | 0 | 2,25 | 0 | 0 |
Round 5 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | PGN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2703 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | GM | Gukesh, D | 2720 | 8 | ||||
| 2 | 4 | 2696 | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2742 | 2 | ||||
| 3 | 5 | 2727 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | GM | Aronian, Levon | 2723 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | 6 | 2689 | GM | Predke, Alexandr | GM | Eljanov, Pavel | 2691 | 7 |
