Delhi 2018 Round 07: Naiditsch and Karthikeyan!

by Sagar Shah - 14/01/2018

The seventh round of the Delhi International 2018 began with three leaders Arkadij Naiditsch, Karthikeyan Murali and Ziaur Rahman. We are now down to two leaders - Arkadij Naiditsch and Karthikeyan Murali. Both of them will face off against each other in the eighth round of the Delhi International 2018. The Delhi Open is turning into a hotbed for Indian players to show their skills against International opponents. Local talents like Arjun Tiwari, Nubairshah Shaikh, Aditya Mittal, Ankit Gajwa, and many others are doing exceedingly well. We have the full round seven report.

The true champions are the ones who pace themselves well in the tournament. Very often we see outstanding performances by underdogs at the start of the event, but by the end of it they burn out. For players who are strong and who keep an aim to win a tournament, this does not happen. This is because they are hungry for victory and put their maximum efforts in crucial rounds. Mainly they aren't satisfied. This could be the major difference between Ziaur Rahman and Arkadij Naiditsch when they sat opposite each other at the start of the seventh round. Naiditsch was hungry to win, while Ziaur Rahman already has had a great tournament with wins over Tran Tuan Minh and Farrukh Amonatov.

Ziaur Rahman faced Arkadij Naiditsch on the top board and the Azerbaijani grandmaster dominated the game right from the start until the end | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ziaur Rahman has shown phenomenal form at this event. However, in the seventh he just didn't find his feet against the top seeded Arkadij Naiditsch. What went wrong? Let's have a look:

Black attacks the queenside with his a5 pawn

Once the rook activated itself down the a-file, it turned out that White was in trouble. Arkadij Naiditsch left no stone unturned in converting this into a win

Karthikeyan Murali showed that he can create activity from any position and pose problems to his opponent | Photo: Amruta Mokal

When I saw this position I felt that White is better. He has more space, and the d6 pawn looks weak. All in all in seemed like an uphill task for Black to defend this position. First of all, this evaluation is incorrect as the engines show. Secondly, Karthikeyan was immediately able to solve some of his problems by playing the move ...d5-d5! But the thing to note is that even if he didn't play this move, this position is not so bad for Black as he these irritating moves like Bg5, he also can jump to e5 with his knight and in general probe White's position.

Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury is playing well at the event and has only lost a game against Vaibhav Suri. He beat Hoa Nguyen and draws against Alberto David and Adam Tukhaev. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Aditya Mittal has finally found his stride at the Delhi International 2018 and is gaining 46 Elo points | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aditya Mittal shows his win over P. Iniyan

Arjun Tiwari is playing one of the best tournaments of his life. He is currently on 5.0/7 and has beaten GMs Himanshu Sharma and Attila Czebe, IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev and draws with Adam Horvath and P. Karthikeyan. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

What a phenomenal performance!

Nubairshah Shaikh is unbeaten and is currently on 5.5/7. He drew his game against Alberto David. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After a not particularly happy double round Abhijeet Gupta was back to his winning ways with victory over Niranjan Navalgund | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Abhijeet came to the studio when the live commentary was in progress and one the viewers asked the question - Is it better for a chess player to marry a chess player, or a non chess player! We posed this question to Abhijeet Gupta and at the same time Bharat Singh Chauhan also entered the studio. Don't miss this funny conversation:

Abhijeet Gupta and Bharat Singh Chauhan answer - is it better to marry a chess player or a non chess player!

Andrei Deviatkin played a beautiful game to beat the young Indian talent Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Amruta Mokal

We had Andrei Deviatkin in the studio and he showed us one of his favourite wins of his career against GM Ernesto Inarkiev. It featured a novelty that he had prepared at home without the use of a computer engine:

David Llada is having a great time in India. Here he is with his younger daughter Isel. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

David's wife Cindy Llada and elder daughter Nahui Llada in an Indian dress! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Atul Dahale wearing the ChessBase India t-shirt! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

WIM Rucha Pujari is playing well and gaining 18 Elo points at this event | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Results of Round 7

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	23	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2472	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2701	1
2	14	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	5	0 - 1	5½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2580	8
3	26	IM	Vignesh N R	2470	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	5
4	6	GM	Sengupta Deep	2586	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	13
5	35		Akash Pc Iyer	2415	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	7
6	42	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2380	5	½ - ½	5	GM	David Alberto	2553	12
7	72	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	5	0 - 1	4½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2542	16
8	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2636	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2429	33
9	34	IM	Nitin S.	2422	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	4
10	18	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2397	38
11	98		Tiwari Arjun	2179	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	19
12	24	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2471	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	40
13	30	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2451	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2328	51
14	31	IM	Gusain Himal	2450	4½	0 - 1	4½		Koustav Chatterjee	2288	71
15	32	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	4½	1 - 0	4½		Neelash Saha	2105	121
16	61		Navalgund Niranjan	2312	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2610	3
17	65		Sankalp Gupta	2303	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	9
18	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	4	½ - ½	4		Muthaiah Al	2291	69
19	66	IM	Kathmale Sameer	2300	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2556	11
20	76	FM	Matta Vinay Kumar	2269	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2542	15

Rank after round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij		AZE	2701	6,5	0,0	29,0	32,5
2	8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2580	6,5	0,0	26,5	29,0
3	23	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2472	5,5	0,0	30,0	33,0
4	42	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		IND	2380	5,5	0,0	29,5	32,0
5	7	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	5,5	0,0	28,5	32,5
6	16	GM	Vaibhav Suri		IND	2542	5,5	0,0	28,5	32,0
7	12	GM	David Alberto		ITA	2553	5,5	0,0	28,5	31,5
8	71		Koustav Chatterjee		IND	2288	5,5	0,0	28,5	31,0
9	6	GM	Sengupta Deep		IND	2586	5,5	0,0	28,0	30,5
10	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2636	5,5	0,0	27,0	30,0
	5	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	5,5	0,0	27,0	30,0
12	35		Akash Pc Iyer		IND	2415	5,5	0,0	27,0	29,5
13	26	IM	Vignesh N R		IND	2470	5,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
14	18	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2536	5,5	0,0	26,0	29,5
15	13	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2550	5,5	0,0	26,0	29,0
16	32	GM	Dzhumaev Marat		UZB	2434	5,5	0,0	23,5	26,5
17	30	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2451	5,5	0,0	23,0	25,5
18	24	GM	Deviatkin Andrei		RUS	2471	5,5	0,0	23,0	25,0
19	49		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2337	5,0	0,0	29,5	32,0
20	14	GM	Tran Tuan Minh		VIE	2548	5,0	0,0	29,0	32,0

Pairings of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2701	6½		6½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2580	8
2	24	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2471	5½		5½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2636	2
3	5	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	5½		5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2472	23
4	26	IM	Vignesh N R	2470	5½		5½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2586	6
5	7	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	5½		5½	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2451	30
6	12	GM	David Alberto	2553	5½		5½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	32
7	13	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	5½		5½		Akash Pc Iyer	2415	35
8	16	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2542	5½		5½	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2380	42
9	71		Koustav Chatterjee	2288	5½		5½	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	18
10	3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2610	5		5	IM	Hemant Sharma (Del)	2348	48
11	4	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	5		5		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2337	49
12	54		Kaustuv Kundu	2324	5		5	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	14
13	15	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2542	5		5		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	56
14	19	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	5		5		Sankalp Gupta	2303	65
15	21	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	5		5	IM	Kathmale Sameer	2300	66
16	37	IM	Sardana Rishi	2402	5		5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	22
17	28	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	5		5	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	72
18	92	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2203	5		5	IM	Nitin S.	2422	34
19	33	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2429	4½		5		Tiwari Arjun	2179	98
20	73	FM	Rathanvel V S	2284	4½		4½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	10