Delhi 2018 Round 9: Akash Iyer and Nubairshah Shaikh score GM norms

by Sagar Shah - 16/01/2018

GM norms at an event show the chess culture of a country. At the Delhi International 2018 Akash PC Iyer and Nubairshah Shaikh both scored 9 round GM norms. The former drew very quickly against Arkadij Naiditsch, while the latter beat P. Karthikeyan. Both the players made their maiden GM norm. Fighting against international grandmasters, it just goes to show how our youngsters have improved as players. Going into last round Arkadij Naiditsch maintains his half point lead with 8.0/9. Ziaur Rahman is in the sole second position with 7.5/9 and eight players follow him with 7.0/9. Penultimate round report from Delhi.

Akash PC Iyer didn't sleep so well. His health was also not so great and he was facing the top seed Arkadij Naiditsch in the ninth round. He needed a draw for his maiden GM norm, but deep down he knew that against a 2700 opponent it was not going to be easy! Akash came to the game rattled out his opening moves confidently and when he came back to the board after his opponent had played his 14th move, he heard those unbelievable words - "I offer you a draw!" And it was Naiditsch who had offered the draw. Akash grabbed the draw with both his hands and happily, came back home with his first GM norm!

Akash Iyer scoring his first GM norm at the Delhi International 2018

For Akash the Delhi International Open 2018 was an event that wasn't on the schedule. He had scored his final IM norm at the London Chess Classic 2017 just a few days ago and completed his IM title. However, he decided to play this event as he was in good form. "When I scored my first IM norm I took a long break. This was not good for my chess. This time my coach advised me to play on and I made my first GM norm!" After the game ended we caught with Akash for a short interview:

Akash's first interview after scoring the GM norm

For Nubairshah Shaikh the road to GM norm was completely different. He needed a win, but the good thing was that he was up against P. Karthikeyan who is a great fighter. Karthikeyan doesn't like short draws and this helped Nubair spice up the game. The result was there for everyone to see. The Mumbai lad sacrificed an exchange for not enough compensation. But the position was so complex that Karthikeyan soon went wrong and Nubair was able to win with a cute tactic.

Black has just played his knight to e8. How should Nubair (white) gain a decisive advantage?

Karthikeyan had missed this bishop popping out from h3. Nubair played the move 27.Bh3!! and it was clear that White was winning back his exchange with a decisive advantage.

Nubair's plan was to finish his IM title until his Diploma and now the GM title until he gets his engineering degree! We must say that he is on track!

Nubairshah Shaikh makes his maiden GM norm and speaks to ChessBase India

Ziaur Rahman is playing the tournament of his life. After beating GM Tran Tuan Minh, Farrukh Amonatov and Ivan Rozum, he added one more scalp to his kitty by beat GM Sergei Tiviakov

The game between Ziaur Rahman and Sergei Tiviakov was moving towards a draw. However, after four and a half hours of play, tiredness sets in and it is easy to overlook simple tactics. Have a look at this example:

Black has just moved his queen from e5 to b2. Can you see what's wrong with it?

Tiviakov simply missed that Qb7+ is possible losing an entire piece!

Ziaur Rahman speaks to ChessBase India about his phenomenal performance

The game between Karthikeyan Murali and Andrey Deviatkin ended in a draw

IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev beat GM Roeland Pruijssers

Koustav Chatterjee lost a round (for norm) because of walk over against Timur Gareyev. But he has recovered well and now needs a draw in the final round against Adam Tukhaev to make his maiden GM norm! Just have a look at his performance:

Brilliant play by the Kolkata lad

Vignesh was completely outplayed by Abhijeet Gupta. However, the young boy from Tamil Nadu hung in there and was rewarded when Gupta made a huge blunder

Abhijeet's Kg2 turned out to be a huge mistake. Can you see why?

Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad beat his friend and the person whom he helped to win the National title Lalith Babu, by essaying his favourite London System. Dhulipala played a fine attacking game and spoke to us about it afterwards:

If you too would like to learn the London System you can go for our bestseller DVD - London System by Simon Williams. With it you will get a potent weapon with white with 1.d4:

Round up show by IM Sagar Shah:

After the 9th round we had a round up show by IM Sagar Shah discussing the most important positions of the day and also posing questions to the viewers. It was an hour of interactive session with also a surprise guest in between - R.B. Ramesh. We ask him about some tips related to coaching and also whether Praggnanandhaa can become the youngest GM in the world or not.

That's how popular chess is in India!

Can you guess who he is? A strong Indian GM!

Now, that's scary!

The single point source of information for chess news in Hindi in India - Niklesh Jain!

"I am down to my 30 seconds and you are taking my picture?"

Remember the name of this Uzbek boy - Javokhir Sindarov. He is going to make it big in the years to come.

Norm chances for round 10:

Neelash Saha, Arjun Kalyan, and Kaustuv Kundu make an IM norm if they win their games today, while Koustav Chatterjee needs only a draw for a GM norm. Neelash plays Mitrabha Guha with the white pieces, Kaustuv Kundu is black against B. Sekar and Arjun Kalyan is black against AL Muthaiah. Koustav Chatterjee as previously mentioned needs a draw against Adam Tukhaev.

Results of round 9:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	35		Akash Pc Iyer	2415	6½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2701	1
2	23	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2472	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	7
3	8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2580	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2471	24
4	3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2610	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Vignesh N R	2470	26
5	6	GM	Sengupta Deep	2586	6	½ - ½	6		Koustav Chatterjee	2288	71
6	34	IM	Nitin S.	2422	6	0 - 1	6	GM	David Alberto	2553	12
7	32	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2542	16
8	18	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	28
9	42	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2380	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	19
10	49		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2337	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	21
11	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2636	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Sardana Rishi	2402	37
12	45	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	5
13	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Sindarov Javokhir	2429	33
14	57	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2319	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	13
15	14	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2397	38
16	60	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	2313	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2542	15
17	22	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	5½	1 - 0	5½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2328	51
18	56		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	29
19	30	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2451	5½	1 - 0	5½		Kaustuv Kundu	2324	54
20	31	IM	Gusain Himal	2450	5	0 - 1	5½	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	59

Standings after round 9:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij		AZE	2701	8,0	0,0	51,5	56,0
2	23	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2472	7,5	0,0	48,5	52,5
3	12	GM	David Alberto		ITA	2553	7,0	0,0	49,0	52,5
4	8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2580	7,0	0,0	48,5	52,5
5	42	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		IND	2380	7,0	0,0	48,0	51,5
6	35		Akash Pc Iyer		IND	2415	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,5
7	26	IM	Vignesh N R		IND	2470	7,0	0,0	44,0	47,5
8	21	GM	Horvath Adam		HUN	2484	7,0	0,0	43,0	47,0
9	24	GM	Deviatkin Andrei		RUS	2471	7,0	0,0	42,5	46,0
10	28	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad		TJK	2462	7,0	0,0	40,5	44,5
11	7	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	6,5	0,0	50,0	54,5
12	16	GM	Vaibhav Suri		IND	2542	6,5	0,0	50,0	54,5
13	6	GM	Sengupta Deep		IND	2586	6,5	0,0	48,5	52,5
14	71		Koustav Chatterjee		IND	2288	6,5	0,0	47,5	51,5
15	13	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2550	6,5	0,0	45,0	49,5
16	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2570	6,5	0,0	44,5	48,5
17	59	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi		IND	2318	6,5	0,0	44,5	48,5
18	22	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2475	6,5	0,0	44,5	48,0
19	32	GM	Dzhumaev Marat		UZB	2434	6,5	0,0	43,0	46,0
20	30	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2451	6,5	0,0	40,0	44,0

Pairings for round 10:

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