Chennai 2018 Round 4: Yogic Timur Gareyev leads with six others

by Sagar Shah - 20/01/2018

Timur Gareyev is always a crowd puller either by the moves on the board or by his actions off it. Today he sat like a Yogi in his game against Rahul Sangma and played some fine chess to put it across his opponent. Six more players join him on 4.0/4. They are: Adam Tukhaev, Deepan Chakkravarthy, R.R.Laxman, Karthik Venkatraman, Marcos Llaneza and Arif Abdul Hafiz. In the fourth round we saw some mini-upsets as grandmasters Sivuk, Horvath and Tran Tuan Minh stumbled to a defeat. We have the full report with game analysis, pictures, and videos!

A short summary video that gives an idea of what happened in the fourth round of the Chennai Open 2018

The battles between opponents become more intense as we move to the fourth round of the Chennai Open 2018. No longer can we call lower rated players beating their high rated opponents an upset. More like a mini-upset, because these so called "lower-rated" players are also very strong in their own right. On the top board, however, it was a completely one-sided battle as IM Rahul Sangma went wrong right out of the opening.

...Qa5 looks like an active move putting pressure on c3, but Bxf6 is extremely strong and believe it or not, the result of the game is already beyond doubt.

Rahul Sangma was no match for the yogic Gareyev | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Pragg fever?!! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

On board two Sergei Tiviakov was unable to make any headway against Saravana Krishna, who is looking for his final IM norm at this event | Photo: Amruta Mokal

It seems like Adam Tukhaev is all set to show his best chess at the Chennai Open. He is playing quite flawlessly until now and is on 4.0/4. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Muthaiah A.L. has just swooped in with his rook to c3. How did Adam finish off the game? Mind you, the ensuing tactics are beautiful!

GM R.R. Laxman was able to beat Vitaly Sivuk. Laxman was on the backfoot in the game. It was exactly the moment above that was shot in the photo when the Indian GM made a bold decision of changing the flow of the game. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Laxman's 21.g4 was a radical decision to change the nature of the game. It weakened the f4 square and Sivuk was surely quite better at some point, but he kept making inaccurate moves and the game ended in Laxman's favour.

Marcos Llaneza Vega played a very interesting game to down GM Tran Tuan Minh. The Spanish IM first attacked with his rooks down the a-file and when his work was done, shifted his attention down the h-file to launch a mating attack. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Arif Hafiz from Indonesia went all out on the attack to win against Hungarian grandmaster Adam Horvath | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Karthik Venkatraman won his game against Ankit Gajwa by making a very interesting exchange sacrifice for long-term compensation | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Anup Deshmukh fought hard but couldn't stop the Rajnikant! Deepan Chakkravarthy is now on 4.0/4 and faces the top seed Timur Gareyev in the fifth round | Photo: Amruta Mokal

IM Ravi Hegde is 60 years old but is still very dangerous as he showed by beating GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury

Players from La Reunion have come to India with their specially designed t-shirts for the trip

It is nice to see experienced IM B.T.Muralikrishna in action. He is on 3.0/4 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Arjun Tiwari is an IM elect and a very talented player from Madhya Pradesh. He speaks to ChessBase India about how financial difficulties can make it hard for even a talented player to become an IM. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Arjun Tiwari analyzes one of his games of Delhi International 2018 with IM Sagar Shah

After four rounds we have seven players on 4.0/4. 11 players trail them by half a point. Deepan versus Gareyev on the top board will be an interesting struggle and also fun to watch will be Laxman against Tukhaev.

Results of round 4

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Sangma Rahul	2332	28
2	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3	½ - ½	3		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	30
3	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	3	1 - 0	3		Muthaiah Al	2291	34
4	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6
5	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	7
6	29	FM	Hafiz Arif Abdul	2324	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	12
7	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	3	1 - 0	3	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	36
8	35	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2285	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	14
9	2	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2½	1 - 0	3		Dixit Nikhil	2139	64
10	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	2½	1 - 0	2½		Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2222	45
11	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	2½	1 - 0	2½		Mithil Ajgaonkar	2219	48
12	15	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	2½	½ - ½	2½		Tiwari Arjun	2179	52
13	55	IM	Shetty Rahul	2163	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	16
14	17	IM	Visakh N R	2457	2½	1 - 0	2½		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2170	54
15	57		Phoobalan P.	2158	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	18
16	59	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Nitin S.	2422	20
17	61		Balasubramaniam H	2147	2½	0 - 1	2½		Arjun Kalyan	2407	22
18	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	2½	½ - ½	2½		Sahil Tickoo	2161	56
19	67		Hari Madhavan N B	2112	2½	0 - 1	2½	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	27
20	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	31

Rank after round 4:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2476	AP	4,0	0,0	9,0	11,5	11,50	4,0
2	29	FM	Hafiz Arif Abdul		INA	2324	INA	4,0	0,0	9,0	10,5	10,50	4,0
3	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2475	ICF	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0	10,00	4,0
4	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2570	UKR	4,0	0,0	7,5	9,0	9,00	4,0
5	1	GM	Gareyev Timur		USA	2605	USA	4,0	0,0	7,0	9,0	9,00	4,0
6	19	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2434	ICF	4,0	0,0	7,0	8,5	8,50	4,0
7	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos		ESP	2421	ESP	4,0	0,0	6,5	8,5	8,50	4,0
8	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	NED	3,5	0,0	9,5	12,5	10,75	3,0
9	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal		IND	2105	KAR	3,5	0,0	8,5	10,0	8,25	3,0
10	17	IM	Visakh N R		IND	2457	TN	3,5	0,0	8,5	9,5	8,00	3,0
11	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.		IND	2372	KER	3,5	0,0	8,0	10,0	8,50	3,0
12	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2536	NED	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,5	8,25	3,0
13	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri		UKR	2571	UKR	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	7,75	3,0
	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat		UZB	2434	UZB	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	7,75	3,0
15	30		Saravana Krishnan P.		IND	2323	TN	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	7,25	3,0
16	2	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	RUS	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,5	7,75	3,0
17	22		Arjun Kalyan		IND	2407	TN	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,5	7,50	3,0
18	33	IM	Kandil Adham		EGY	2294	EGY	3,5	0,0	6,5	8,0	7,25	3,0
19	35	IM	Deshmukh Anup		IND	2285	MAH	3,0	0,0	10,0	12,0	8,00	3,0
20	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2550	UKR	3,0	0,0	9,5	11,5	7,50	3,0

Round 5 pairings:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	4		4	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	1
2	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	4		4	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5
3	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	4		4	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	13
4	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3½		4	FM	Hafiz Arif Abdul	2324	29
5	22		Arjun Kalyan	2407	3½		3½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2
6	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	3½		3½	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
7	30		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	3½		3½	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	9
8	33	IM	Kandil Adham	2294	3½		3½	IM	Visakh N R	2457	17
9	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	3½		3½	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	69
10	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	3		3		Bhambure Shantanu	2173	53
11	7	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	3		3	IM	Shetty Rahul	2163	55
12	8	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	3		3		Sahil Tickoo	2161	56
13	12	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	3		3	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	59
14	64		Dixit Nikhil	2139	3		3	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	15
15	16	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	3		3	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2104	70
16	20	IM	Nitin S.	2422	3		3		Bala Kannamma P	2077	76
17	86	AGM	Tarun Kanyamarala	2031	3		3	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	25
18	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	3		3	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2057	83
19	28	IM	Sangma Rahul	2332	3		3		Barath Kalyan M	2022	88
20	34		Muthaiah Al	2291	3		3		Alan Diviya Raj	1970	98