Delhi 2018 Round 10: Arkadij Naiditsch romps to the finish line!

by Sagar Shah - 17/01/2018

When the 2700+ rated Azeri GM confirmed his participation for the Delhi International 2018, questions arose whether he would be able to win the tournament or not. With the under-rated Indian players, it was not going to be easy. However, Naiditsch showed to the world that he was a class apart as he easily won the tournament with 8.5/10. He paced himself in exemplary style and was never in danger of being pushed behind. Ziaur Rahman finished second and Nubairshah Shaikh was third. The C-category was won by Anirudh Jain. We bring you the final round report along with some pictures of the prize giving ceremony.

If the Delhi International 2018 was a 10-kilometre run, then Arkadij Naiditsch zoomed past everyone is the first 8 kilometres and then walked his way to the finish line in the last two. The Azeri GM seemed simply in control of everything during the tournament and scored a clinical 8.5/10 (with draws against Ratnakaran, Akash PC Iyer and Alberto David).

The final round clash between Naiditsch and Alberto David ended in a quick draw. Naiditsch was happy with a draw, because even if Ziaur won, the Azeri GM would win the event due to direct encounter being the first tiebreak.

And you thought chess was a game played between two players!

The five wins from rounds four to eight ensured Naiditsch's victory at the event

Immediately after his game we caught up with Naiditsch and asked him about his experience of playing in India, his two victories over Magnus Carlsen and what he feels about Vishy Anand becoming the World Rapid Champion at 48.

Karthikeyan Murali and Ziaur Rahman fought very hard, but the game ended in a draw

For Ziaur Rahman this was one of the most important performances of his chess career. Not only did he finish second and took home Rs. 4,00,000, but he also gained 31 Elo points. This means that he is back into the 2500 league! A place where he deserves to be.

The find of the tournament was Nubairshah Shaikh who scored 8.0/10, earned his maiden GM norm and also finished third

Nubair's tournament was already very successful after he had achieved his GM norm in nine rounds. Hence, he offered his opponent Vignesh a draw after just three moves. But Vignesh was in a fighting mood and went for a full-blooded fight. Nubair played a model game in the Caro Kann and won the game in style. First have a look at the game on our replayable board and then listen to the lad analyze the game.

Nubairshah Shaikh analyzes his tenth round win against Vignesh

Top three winners of the tournament with Bharat Singh Chauhan - Arkadij Naiditsch (centre), Ziaur Rahman (left) and Nubairshah Shaikh (right)

Adam Horvath beat Akash PC Iyer in the final round and finished fourth

The closing ceremony was attended in huge numbers by the participants!

David Llada had his work cut out, but he had a few assistants!

Tania Sachdev was the special guest at the event!

Selfie requests abounded in plenty!

ChessBase India caught up with Tania to speak about the Delhi International 2018, her role at the Gibraltar Chess Festival and how chess can make it to the Olympics

Mary Ann Gomes scored 6.5/10 and won the best woman player prize

Karthikeyan Murali (left) finished fifth, Harsha Bharathakoti and Nubairshah Shaikh

Two Delhi youngsters IM Rishi Sardana (left) and GM Vaibhav Suri. Vaibhav finished sixth.

The two IM norm scorers at the event - Sammed Shete and Koustav Chatterjee

Akash Iyer made his maiden GM norm at the event along with IM Nubairshah Shaikh

Nurtr supported the tournament in a big way by sponsoring Rs. 21 lakh

Two pillars of the tournament Gopakumar Sudhakaran and A.K. Verma with the majestic trophies

Results in round 10

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2701	8	½ - ½	7	GM	David Alberto	2553	12
2	8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2580	7	½ - ½	7½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2472	23
3	21	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	7	1 - 0	7		Akash Pc Iyer	2415	35
4	28	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2471	24
5	26	IM	Vignesh N R	2470	7	0 - 1	7	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2380	42
6	29	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2586	6
7	7	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	32
8	71		Koustav Chatterjee	2288	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	10
9	13	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6½	0 - 1	6½	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2451	30
10	16	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2542	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	2313	60

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij		AZE	2701	8,5	0,0	64,0	69,5
2	23	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2472	8,0	0,0	61,5	66,5
3	42	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		IND	2380	8,0	0,0	60,5	64,5
4	21	GM	Horvath Adam		HUN	2484	8,0	0,0	54,0	58,5
5	8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2580	7,5	0,0	62,0	67,0
6	16	GM	Vaibhav Suri		IND	2542	7,5	0,0	61,0	65,5
7	7	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	7,5	0,0	60,0	65,0
8	12	GM	David Alberto		ITA	2553	7,5	0,0	60,0	64,0
9	22	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2475	7,5	0,0	56,5	60,5
10	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2570	7,5	0,0	54,5	59,0
11	24	GM	Deviatkin Andrei		RUS	2471	7,5	0,0	54,0	58,0
12	28	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad		TJK	2462	7,5	0,0	53,0	57,5
13	30	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2451	7,5	0,0	50,5	54,5
14	29	GM	Czebe Attila		HUN	2458	7,5	0,0	49,0	53,5
15	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2636	7,0	0,0	58,5	62,5
16	35		Akash Pc Iyer		IND	2415	7,0	0,0	58,0	62,5
17	18	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2536	7,0	0,0	57,0	62,0
18	5	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	7,0	0,0	57,0	61,0
19	3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet		IND	2610	7,0	0,0	56,5	60,5
20	26	IM	Vignesh N R		IND	2470	7,0	0,0	56,5	60,5

Category C

Category C witnessed huge number of entries - 1273 to be precise. If you do open the chess-results page you have to just keep scrolling! This shows that there are a lot of amateur players in India and having good prize money events can attract them to play. The total prize fund was Rs.25,00,000 and the first prize was Rs.2,50,000 followed by Rs.2,00,000 and 1,50,000.

The top three winners of the C group were Anirudh Jain (centre), Devi Das Suresh Pai (right) and Ravindra P

Proud coach Prasenjit Dutta holds the trophy with Anirudh

Anirudh played very consistently scoring 9.5/10 and gaining over 100 Elo points

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	Anirudh Jain	U15		IND	1590	Del	9,5	0,0	64,0	68,0
2	75	Devi Das Suresh Pai			IND	1534	Kar	9,0	0,0	64,0	69,0
3	245	Ravindra P			IND	1457	AP	9,0	0,0	64,0	68,0
4	302	Kesavan G			IND	1426	TN	9,0	0,0	63,5	67,0
5	1	Mohit Kumar Soni			IND	1599	Bih	9,0	0,0	62,0	66,5
6	46	Sanjib Mali			IND	1553	Wes	9,0	0,0	59,0	64,0
7	218	Piyush Khurana			IND	1466	Har	8,5	0,0	59,5	63,5
8	86	Rohit S			IND	1527	Pon	8,5	0,0	59,0	64,0
9	56	Raghunandan Rohit			IND	1546	MP	8,5	0,0	59,0	62,0
10	108	Vinay Gadpayle			IND	1515	Chh	8,5	0,0	57,5	62,5
11	30	Uttam Prakash Sharma	U15		IND	1562	Har	8,5	0,0	56,5	61,5
12	329	Darji Javahar H			IND	1416	Guj	8,0	0,0	65,5	68,5
13	57	Ram Kumar R			IND	1546	AP	8,0	0,0	65,0	70,0
14	369	Chodasita Ramanjineyulu			IND	1391	AP	8,0	0,0	65,0	66,5
15	78	Vaishant Kumar Gangwani			IND	1533	Har	8,0	0,0	63,5	65,5
16	1187	Satyam Pratap			IND	0	Bih	8,0	0,0	61,0	64,5
17	362	Satvik Sharma	U15		IND	1394	Del	8,0	0,0	61,0	64,5
18	166	Nagargoje Dhananjay			IND	1488	Mah	8,0	0,0	60,5	64,5
19	6	Solanki Rutvik			IND	1587	Guj	8,0	0,0	60,0	65,0
20	195	Vangala Prashanth			IND	1476	AP	8,0	0,0	59,0	62,5