Grand Swiss R07: Aronian joins the lead, a mixed day for Indians

by Satanick Mukhuty - 18/10/2019

Levon Aronian joined Fabiano Caruana in the lead after defeating Wang Hao in round seven of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man. In what was a draws galore in the top twelve boards of the round, the Armenian became the only one to clinch a victory. However, for the Indian contingent it was a mixed day as four players registered wins, three lost, and the rest out of the fifteen split points. Arguably the best performance was pulled off by Harika Dronavalli who demolished Mircea Pârligras, a 2629 rated Romanian Grandmaster, in just 34 moves. The ever steady S.L.Narayanan, who has drawn all his games from rounds one to six, registered a much needed win against Anton Domchenko. Gukesh D and Soumya Swaminathan were the other two Indians who won their encounters against Axel Bachmann and Pia Cramling respectively.

Harika's tactical alertness stuns Mircea

Harika Dronavalli and Soumya Swaminathan, the two female players representing India, have both been exceptionally solid in this tournament so far. Both have held their own against formidable 2600+ and even 2650+ rated opposition quite admirably. In round seven Harika registered her first win of the tournament by beating the strong Romanian Grandmaster Mircea Pârligras. The former had the black pieces and adopted the King's Indian defense in response to the latter's Queen's pawn opening. Black achieved a comfortable position quite early in the game and seized the initiative at the right moment when White suffered a tactical oversight.

Harika has suffered only one loss against compatriot Krishnan Sasikiran in round three. With her victory in the seventh round she has now moved to 3.5/7 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Mircea Pârligras - Harika Dronavalli, Round 7

Black had already to managed to achieve a comfortable position out of the opening when White played the move 20.Bf3. Can you see what he missed?

In the above position one can already see that White's king is much more vulnerable from its black counterpart. There looks nothing wrong with 20.Bf3 at first glance but in reality it weakens the queenside more and allows the opponent to arrange a deadly attack. Something like 20.Qa3, consolidating the position of the king and at the same time hitting a7, would have been a better option. For instance, with 20.Qa3 Qb6 21.Qb3 the position is just even. In the game, after the erroneous 20.Bf3, Harika showed phenomenal alertness and didn't miss the very powerful response 20...Qb6 which prepares the surprising Rc3!

The threat after 20...Qb6 is the decisive move Rc3. If White goes 21.Qb3 here then thanks to the undefended f1-a6 diagonal, Black can play 21...Qa6 with the new threat of Ba4! In fact, this is what exactly happened in the game.

And after 23...d4-d3 was pushed, Black completely broke in. Resignation came only about ten moves from here.

Soumya Swaminathan beat the legendary Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling with the white pieces in round seven. The Indian didn't miss her chance when the 56-year-old erred on move 27 and grabbed an extra pawn on the queenside. The game had a nice tactical twist towards the end which we post to you as a little puzzle below | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Soumya Swaminathan - Pia Cramling, Round 7

Black's knight on c5 is attacked twice and her rook on e5 too is en prise. What would you play as Black here? Check the game below for answer!

S.L.Narayanan actually found himself in trouble against Anton Demchenko but the 21-year-old Kerala lad defended well and on move 35 turned the tables when his opponent blundered | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Anton Demchenko - S.L.Narayanan, Round 7

Can you see what White missed when he blundered with 35.Rc3? See the game below for answer

Gukesh's opponent Axel Bachmann tried to complicate matters with white pieces on move 22 but ended up losing his way which allowed the Indian youngster to finish off in style | Photo: John Saunders

Axel Bachmann - Gukesh D, Round 7

White could have simply captured the knight on c6 with 29.Qxc6 but he played 29.Qc1 instead. The idea obviously is to go Qg5+ and grab the bishop on g4 but this is a blunder, can you see why?

The leaders

With four more rounds to go, it is Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana who have emerged as the leaders with 5.5/7 points each. According to swiss rule, they face each other off in the eighth round. Fabiano held Alexander Grischuk to a draw yesterday, while Levon registered a hard fought victory against Wang Hao of China to rise to the top | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Photo Gallery

Vishy Anand held Yuriy Kryvoruchko to a draw with black pieces after coming under some pressure initially in the game. The Ukrainian got quite a bit of activity with his bishop pair in the middlegame. However, the five-time World Champion defended well and forced the split of point after 47 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Vidit Gujrathi was held to draw by Alexey Sarana in the seventh round and now has 4.0/7 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Harikrishna Pentala got a really dominating position against compatriot Abhimanyu Puranik where he was able to push his d-pawn all the way to the seventh rank. But somehow the India no.2 couldn't keep the pressure going and the game fizzled into draw after 56 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Playing White Adhiban Baskaran faced no difficulty holding Hikaru Nakamura to a draw | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Krishnan Sasikiran's unbeaten streak in the event was finally broken in round seven by Aryan Tari who beat him with black pieces | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Raunak Sadhwani once again held Gabriel Sargissian to a draw. The 13-year-old has already become the 65th Grandmaster of the country. Technically, he just has to appear for the next two rounds to fulfill all the title criteria | Photo: John Saunders

Surya Sekhar Ganguly went down against Wesley So with black pieces. The former lost an exchange after making a slip on move 19 which the latter converted smoothly in 56 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 7)

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
7	6	44	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4
7	9	73	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2745	12
7	13	3	GM	So Wesley	2767	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	54
7	16	17	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Sarana Alexey	2655	58
7	23	129	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2690	28
7	25	37	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Tari Aryan	2630	85
7	26	41	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2670	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	94
7	33	9	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	3	½ - ½	3½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	114
7	40	105	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2671	40
7	43	57	GM	Demchenko Anton	2655	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	104
7	56	87	GM	Bachmann Axel	2629	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Gukesh D	2520	119
7	57	89	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2629	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	122
7	68	147	GM	Danielian Elina	2385	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	124
7	71	149	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Cramling Pia	2462	134

Pairings of all Indian players for the next round

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
8	6	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4½		4½	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	47
8	13	73	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	4½		4½	GM	Robson Ray	2670	43
8	17	65	GM	Mamedov Rauf	2645	4		4	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	17
8	24	32	GM	Ragger Markus	2684	4		4	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	129
8	25	94	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	4		4	GM	Korobov Anton	2679	35
8	26	104	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	4		4	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2670	41
8	31	114	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	4		4	GM	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2657	56
8	32	90	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2627	3½		3½	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	9
8	40	96	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	2621	3½		3½	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	37
8	43	54	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	3½		3½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	105
8	50	119	GM	Gukesh D	2520	3½		3½	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	2644	69
8	52	122	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	3½		3½	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2635	80
8	60	149	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	3		3	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2604	107
8	71	135	GM	Jansa Vlastimil	2452	2		2	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	124

Results of top ten boards (Round 7)

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	7	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	4½	½ - ½	5	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	2
2	8	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	4½	1 - 0	5	GM	Wang Hao	2726	15
3	38	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	1
4	39	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	13
5	5	GM	Yu Yangyi	2763	4	½ - ½	4½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	48
6	44	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4
7	47	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	6
8	49	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2748	10
9	73	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2745	12
10	84	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2630	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	30

Top ten board pairings for the next round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	5½		5½	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	8
2	15	GM	Wang Hao	2726	5		5	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	1
3	39	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	5		5	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	7
4	48	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	5		5	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	13
5	3	GM	So Wesley	2767	4½		5	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	38
6	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4½		4½	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	47
7	49	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	4½		4½	GM	Yu Yangyi	2763	5
8	6	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	4½		4½	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	51
9	10	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2748	4½		4½	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	2661	53
10	12	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2745	4½		4½	GM	Melkumyan Hrant	2650	63

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