Gibraltar 2018 R01-03: Indians have a ball!

by Sagar Shah - 26/01/2018

The Gibraltar Masters is one of the strongest open tournaments in the world. Players from 50 countries with 92 grandmasters are participating in the event. 12 GMs above the rating of 2700 with some big names Aronian, MVL, Nakamura among others are seen in action. India has fielded 28 players with number two Harikrishna leading the campaign. Our young and talented players are getting the unique opportunity of facing world class opposition and they are not disappointing. Debashis Das beat Navara and Shardul Gagare got the better of Vitiugov. Many others held top players to a draw. A pictorial report from the rock!

Debashis Das and Shardul Gagare beat Navara and Vitiugov

The Gibraltar Masters is held each year at the Caleta Hotel. What a scenic location!

Indian challenge is being led by Harikrishna, who made a slow start to this event by drawing his first two rounds to Hemant Sharma and Anita Gara. He won his third round against Nils Gustaf Renman and this might be the start of his winning streak. He is the fifth seed in the event.

Hemant Sharma was 200% happy after drawing his game against Harikrishna

Prithu Gupta is playing some great chess at the event as he drew his first two rounds against GM Le Quang Liem and GM Bonelli Itturizaga. He followed it up with a win against a 2100+ player.

I had my unit test examinations, so I didn't prepare much - Prithu Gupta

Youngster Raunak Sadhwani drew his game against Varuzhan Akobian (2647) in the first round

Nihal Sarin (2524) will be a guy to watch out for. Until now he has two draws and one win with players rated below him. He will be looking to score a few wins and play against the "big guys"!

Nigel Short couldn't break through the defences of young Praggnanandhaa. He drew the game. Pragg will be trying hard to get his second GM norm here. He is on 2.5/3.

Up against a very talented young #Indian player today, but I will do my best to thrash the little Pragga @GibraltarChess
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) January 25, 2018

Praggnanandhaa speaks to Tania Sachdev

The top seed of the event is Levon Aronian. The Armenian began with a draw against Anita Gara in round one and then won both his games against Hemant Sharma and Sarah Hoolt.

GM Debashis Das scored one of the biggest upsets of the event, by beating GM David Navara

GM Shardul Gagare calmly refuted Nikita Vitiugov's (2732) piece sacrifice and took home the full point!

Two legends having a chat: Boris Gelfand and Levon Aronian!

Sethuraman has started off with 2.5/3

Lalith Babu held Michael Adams to a draw and now faces Boris Gelfand!

Can you guess who these shoes belong to? For those who watched the World Cup 2017 coverage by ChessBase would surely know!

Top 20 players after round three:

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1	3	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	USA	2781	3,0	3279
2	9	GM	Duda Jan-Krzysztof	POL	2724	3,0	3267
3	16	GM	Howell David W L	ENG	2682	3,0	3246
4	24	GM	Grandelius Nils	SWE	2647	3,0	3236
5	30	GM	Gledura Benjamin	HUN	2612	3,0	3222
6	38	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2588	3,0	3201
7	78	IM	Batsiashvili Nino	GEO	2504	3,0	3119
8	81	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2501	2,5	2765
9	82	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2494	2,5	2753
10	2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	FRA	2793	2,5	2736
11	11	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2709	2,5	2732
12	12	GM	Rapport Richard	HUN	2700	2,5	2730
13	25	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2646	2,5	2715
14	94	GM	Salomon Johan	NOR	2476	2,5	2711
15	14	GM	Gelfand Boris	ISR	2697	2,5	2708
16	29	GM	Edouard Romain	FRA	2613	2,5	2707
17	63	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2542	2,5	2704
18	96	IM	Saduakassova Dinara	KAZ	2470	2,5	2700
19	65	GM	Mikhalevski Victor	ISR	2538	2,5	2693
	98	IM	Dragnev Valentin	AUT	2466	2,5	2693

Standings after round 3

Tania Sachdev:

One person who is lighting up the show at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is Tania Sachdev. She is the host of many videos that are being produced every day. Everyone's favourite was, of course, the one below:

One of the most exciting videos with some very nice questions by Tania

Performances of Indian players:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	Pts.	Rk.	Group
5	GM	Harikrishna P.	2745	IND	½	½	1	2,0	76	Masters
25	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2646	IND	1	1	½	2,5	13	Masters
31	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2610	IND	1	½	½	2,0	58	Masters
37	GM	Gopal G.N.	2593	IND	½	1	½	2,0	85	Masters
42	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2579	IND	½	½	1	2,0	101	Masters
45	GM	Narayanan S. L.	2573	IND	1	1	½	2,5	31	Masters
63	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2542	IND	1	1	½	2,5	17	Masters
68	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2533	IND	1	1	½	2,5	29	Masters
71	IM	Nihal Sarin	2524	IND	1	½	½	2,0	93	Masters
74	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	2515	IND	1	½	½	2,0	64	Masters
81	GM	Debashis Das	2501	IND	1	1	½	2,5	8	Masters
82	GM	Gagare Shardul	2494	IND	1	1	½	2,5	9	Masters
102	IM	Prasanna Raghuram Rao	2458	IND	1	0	1	2,0	98	Masters
108	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2445	IND	1	1	½	2,5	26	Masters
114	IM	Swayams Mishra	2432	IND	1	½	1	2,5	27	Masters
119	IM	Raja Harshit	2427	IND	½	1	½	2,0	116	Masters
136	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2380	IND	1	½	½	2,0	78	Masters
139	FM	Prithu Gupta	2373	IND	½	½	1	2,0	45	Masters
149	IM	Hemant Sharma (Del)	2348	IND	½	0	1	1,5	121	Masters
159	IM	Padmini Rout	2325	IND	0	1	0	1,0	181	Masters
162	FM	Sadhwani Raunak	2321	IND	½	0	1	1,5	129	Masters
176	IM	Mohota Nisha	2269	IND	½	0	1	1,5	136	Masters
186	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2238	IND	0	1	½	1,5	148	Masters
228	WFM	Cholleti Sahajasri	2083	IND	0	0	1	1,0	221	Masters
230	WIM	Tejaswini Sagar	2081	IND	½	½	½	1,5	132	Masters
247	WIM	Gagare Shalmali	2001	IND	½	0	0	0,5	239	Masters
254	CM	Dev Shah	1977	IND	½	0	0	0,5	241	Masters
268		Mayank Pal	1834	IND	½	0	0	0,5	250	Masters

Master Classes:

Nigel Short on becoming a candidate:

Maxime Vachier Lagrave shows his best game against Ding Liren:

Official website