Can Indians make a strong finish in the last two rounds of the Gibraltar Masters 2020

by Sagar Shah - 29/01/2020

Praggnanandhaa has the best chances of making a top finish at the Gibraltar Masters as he is on 6.0/8 after his opponent Mamedyarov didn't turn up for the 8th round. Behind Pragg, are five Indians who are on 5.5/8 - they are Adhiban, S.L. Narayanan, Karthikeyan Murali, D. Gukesh and Aryan Chopra. The game between Gukesh and Adhiban in round 8 ended in a draw and now the second youngest GM ever has a stiff challenge in the form of S.L. Narayanan in round 9. Leon Mendonca, the 13-year-old youngster from Goa has shown amazing stability at the event and now needs a win against Kotronias in the ninth round to make his maiden GM norm. An illustrated round 8 report from the Gibraltar Masters 2020.

After eight rounds at the Gibraltar Masters, the highest placed Indian is R. Praggnanandhaa with 6.0/8. After losing to Wang Hao in round 7, Pragg faced a formidable challenge in the form of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. However, Shakh had not been keeping well and did not turn for the game at all. The fact that Pragg was white and no move was made meant that the organizers were aware about the fact that Mamedyarov would not be coming to the game. At the same time, when the pairings came out for round 8, the Azeri GM would have been unsure whether he is playing or not. For round nine Shakh has not been paired and the top seed would no longer be playing at the event.

Pragg had a formidable opponent in Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round 8 of the Gibraltar Masters. But Shakh did not turn up for the game due to bad health. | Photos: Niki Riga

This leaves with Praggnanandhaa on 6.0/8. An excellent score and the youngster is just half a point behind the leaders Maghsoodloo, Wang Hao, Esipenko and Paravyan. In round nine Pragg has great chances to win as he faces Mikhail Kobalia. Kobalia is a strong chess player. However, he is also a coach and works in the FIDE administration. Clearly, chess is not the only thing in his life. Pragg also has the white pieces and it will be a game to look forward to.

The game between Gukesh and Adhiban was hard fought but ended in a draw. | Photo: John Saunders

Adhiban has had a solid tournament with no losses yet, but he also has five draws, which is a bit too much for the beast! | Photo: Niki Riga

One player who has been doing exceedingly well at the event is 18-year-old Aryan Chopra. Aryan is on 5.5/8 and has won three of his games and drawn five. Draws against players like Mamedyarov, Alekseenko, Vocaturo, Adhiban is truly commendable. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2019 runner-up Karthikeyan Murali is also unbeaten and is on 5.5/8. His last two round results have shown that he can hold his own against the best in the world - MVL and Navara. In round 9 Karthikeyan has excellent chances of putting his foot on accelerator as he faces Zhansaya Abdumalik. A win would mean moving to 6.5/9 with a chance to repeat last year's performance! | Photo: John Saunders

S.L. Narayanan started off with 3.5/4, but has slowed down a bit in the last four rounds with four draws. He now faces D. Gukesh in round nine. It will definitely be a game to look forward to. | Photo: Niki Riga

Very close to making his maiden GM norm is Leon Mendonca. He has draws against players like Lalith Babu, Anna Muzychuk, Raunak Sadhwani, Li Di, Alexander Beliavsky and Alejandro Ramirez. He also scored a win against IM Adam Kozak. A win in round nine against Vasilios Kotronias would give the youngster his first GM norm. | Photo: Niki Riga

In round 8 Leon's opponent Alejandro Ramirez tried to play extremely creatively, but the Goan youngster held his ground firmly:

Harshit Raja played a scintillating game in round 8 to register a win. His rook sacrifice was incorrect, but the opponent could not take advantage of it and succumbed to a fine mating attack. | Photo: Niki Riga

Raunak Sadhwani was slightly worse throughout the game, but held his own against Sasikiran | Photo: John Saunders

Shardul Gagare was very close to winning his game against Maxim Matlakov, but misfired his attack. | Photo: John Saunders

Soumya Swaminathan made a huge blunder to lose a piece in an equal position

After a slow start Padmini Rout has scored 3.5 points in the last four rounds and is now on 4.5/8. | Photo: John Saunders

In round 7 Padmini played a very nice game to beat Luca Moroni:

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1
1	16	GM	Esipenko Andrey	RUS	2654		6,5	2862
2	3	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2758		6,5	2861
3	13	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2674		6,5	2815
4	22	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2629		6,5	2789
5	11	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	GEO	2686		6,0	2758
6	46	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2566	ACP Premium 2019	6,0	2749
7	27	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2609	ACP Premium 2020	6,0	2709
8	28	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2607		6,0	2663
9	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2602		6,0	2630
10	47	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2562	ACP Premium 2020	5,5	2744
11	52	GM	Ibarra Jerez Jose Carlos	ESP	2548		5,5	2734
12	56	GM	Werle Jan	NED	2545		5,5	2714
13	32	GM	Basso Pier Luigi	ITA	2600		5,5	2702
14	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	FRA	2770		5,5	2689
	4	GM	Topalov Veselin	BUL	2738		5,5	2689
16	45	GM	Sanal Vahap	TUR	2569		5,5	2688
17	7	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2704	ACP Premium 2019	5,5	2679
18	48	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2562		5,5	2674
19	24	GM	Durarbayli Vasif	AZE	2625	ACP Premium 2020	5,5	2673
20	51	GM	Maze Sebastien	FRA	2550		5,5	2671

Pairings of round 9:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Wang Hao	2758	6½		6½	GM	Paravyan David	2629	22
2	13	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2674	6½		6½	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2654	16
3	28	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2607	6		6	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2686	11
4	31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2602	6		6	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	2609	27
5	46	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2566	6		5½	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2704	7
6	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2770	5½		5½	GM	Can Emre	2600	33
7	4	GM	Topalov Veselin	2738	5½		5½	GM	Basso Pier Luigi	2600	32
8	30	GM	Pichot Alan	2606	5½		5½	GM	Navara David	2717	5
9	6	GM	Le Quang Liem	2713	5½		5½	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	39
10	40	GM	Kadric Denis	2585	5½		5½	GM	Matlakov Maxim	2698	9

Overview of Indian performances:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pts.	Rk.	Group
15	GM	Adhiban B.	2654	IND	½	1	1	½	½	1	½	½			5,5	25	Masters
18	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2648	IND	½	1	½	1	1	½	0	½			5,0	50	Masters
21	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2637	IND	½	1	1	1	½	½	½	½			5,5	32	Masters
29	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	IND	1	1	½	½	½	1	½	½			5,5	21	Masters
31	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2602	IND	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	1			6,0	9	Masters
35	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2593	IND	1	1	½	½	½	½	0	1			5,0	46	Masters
48	GM	Aryan Chopra	2562	IND	1	½	1	½	½	½	1	½			5,5	18	Masters
50	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	IND	1	½	1	½	½	0	1	0			4,5	68	Masters
57	GM	Gukesh D	2542	IND	½	1	½	1	0	1	1	½			5,5	36	Masters
68	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2522	IND	½	1	½	½	½	1	½	½			5,0	53	Masters
79	IM	Raja Harshit	2482	IND	½	1	0	1	0	1	½	1			5,0	67	Masters
80	GM	Gagare Shardul	2481	IND	1	½	½	1	½	1	½	0			5,0	43	Masters
92	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2464	IND	½	½	1	1	0	½	½	½			4,5	100	Masters
111	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	IND	1	½	0	½	1	1	½	½			5,0	57	Masters
115	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2417	IND	1	½	½	½	½	½	1	½			5,0	52	Masters
119	IM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2404	IND	1	0	1	½	0	1	0	½			4,0	131	Masters
125	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2400	IND	0	1	½	1	0	1	½	½			4,5	92	Masters
127	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2384	IND	1	0	1	0	½	½	1	0			4,0	145	Masters
130	CM	Mullick Raahil	2382	IND	0	1	½	0	1	½	0	1			4,0	117	Masters
139	IM	Padmini Rout	2369	IND	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	½			4,5	99	Masters
152	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2322	IND	0	½	1	0	1	0	1	½			4,0	136	Masters
155	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2312	IND	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	½			4,5	78	Masters
157	FM	Pranav Anand	2309	IND	1	0	½	½	½	½	0	1			4,0	110	Masters
174	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2267	IND	0	1	0	1	½	1	0	½			4,0	132	Masters
175	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	2267	IND	0	1	0	1	½	0	0	1			3,5	172	Masters
181	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2242	IND	½	0	1	½	½	0	0	½			3,0	183	Masters
191	WFM	Cholleti Sahajasri	2202	IND	0	½	1	0	0	1	0	1			3,5	169	Masters
192	IM	Mohota Nisha	2201	IND	0	½	½	0	1	0	0	1			3,0	197	Masters
201	WIM	Tejaswini Sagar	2180	IND	0	0	1	½	½	0	½	½			3,0	194	Masters
223	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2099	IND	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	0			2,0	235	Masters
233		Raghav Srivathsav V	2023	IND	0	½	0	½	1	½	½	0			3,0	198	Masters
247		Sagar Siya	1740	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0			0,0	250	Masters
250		Manukonda Arun	1959	IND	0	0	½	0	1	0	0	0		0	1,5	241	Masters

Related news:

	Anna Muzychuk's jewel from the final round of Gibraltar 2020 @ 03/02/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	जिब्राल्टर मास्टर्स - आर्यन चोपड़ा रहे सर्वश्रेष्ठ भारतीय @ 31/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	David Paravyan wins Gibraltar Masters 2020 @ 31/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Welcome to Planet Ivanchuk @ 31/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Gibraltar R09: A crushing 27-move game by Aryan Chopra @ 30/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	जिब्राल्टर मास्टर्स - जोरदार संघर्ष के बाद हारे प्रग्गानंधा @ 28/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	प्रग्गानंधा नें फिर किया कारनामा पूर्व फीडे विश्व चैम्पियन टोपालोव को किया पराजित @ 27/01/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Praggnanandhaa beats the highest rated player of his career - Veselin Topalov (2738) @ 26/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	How not following top level games can make you lose out on important points @ 26/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Gibraltar R03: S.L.Narayanan and Adhiban Baskaran shine @ 24/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Praggnanandhaa's love for chess @ 24/01/2020 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Gibraltar R02: Adhiban turns his beast mode on @ 23/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	The Gibraltar gala is on @ 22/01/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Live Games from the Gibraltar Masters 2020 @ 21/01/2020 by ChessBase India (en)
	Indians at the Gibraltar Masters 2019 @ 01/02/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)