Grand Swiss R06: Vishy Anand's instructive lesson in Spanish

by Satanick Mukhuty - 16/10/2019

When it comes to the mastery of traditional systems, Vishy Anand is truly second to none. In the sixth round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 the Indian legend proved this once again by outplaying his young talented opponent Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the classical Ruy Lopez. The other major victory of the day was pulled off by Surya Sekhar Ganguly who made an emphatic comeback after previous round's defeat to beat the Georgian genius Baadur Jobava. Sethuraman S.P. and Gukesh D also registered important wins, while Harikrishna Pentala suffered an unfortunate loss in the hands of Vladislav Kovalev. Two players, Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao, lead the event with 5.0/6 points each but there are seven players, including Magnus Carlsen, who are closely following them just half a point behind. We bring a detailed, illustrated report from Douglas, Isle of Man.

The Madras Tiger still going strong!

Vishy Anand's encounter against the 15-year-old Uzbekistani phenom Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the sixth round of ongoing Grand Swiss 2019 was the proverbial battle of experience and youth. In Chess it is never easy for a veteran to face such young opposition and there are two main reasons behind this. Firstly, a teenager is able to bring in a lot of energy and freshness over the board which most often than not an aged player will lack. And secondly, the ELO rating of an up-and-coming talent is never the true indicator of his/her actual strength. Interestingly, in this event itself, the strong Croatian Grandmaster Ivan Saric has faced players all below 16 years of age till round five and one can clearly see from his performance overview below that it has not been an altogether easy ride for him.

Ivan Saric is a former World Youth Champion who even holds a notable victory against Magnus Carlsen. He is 29-year-old but could manage to win only one game in the first five rounds against the under-16 opposition he faced! | Photo: Wikipedia

However, if there is one man who is consistently giving these rising youngsters a run for their money then it is none other than our very own Madras Tiger. At 49, Vishy Anand is still one of the strongest opponent to sit with across a chessboard. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen himself has said that he can still beat anyone in the World. Well, yesterday playing against the prodigiously talented Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vishy only reinforced Carlsen's assertion.

With his sixth round victory the five-time World Champion has moved to 4.0/6 in the tournament and has revived his chances to make it to the Candidates | Photo: John Saunders

Vishy had the White pieces and he started off the game as usual with 1.e4, to which Nodirbek replied symmetrically and invited his more experienced opponent to enter into the infamous Berlin territory. But the Indian had other plans in mind and promptly avoided going into drawish endings with 4.d3. Thus, the game continued in the vein of classical spanish!

Vishy Anand - Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Round 6

The critical moment arrived on move 21 when White played Bb3. This is very familiar Ruy Lopez structure where White's knights are developed on f3 and g3, and Nf5 is in the air. Well, it was in this position that Black erred with the move 21...Bc7

This harmless looking 21...Bc7 is really the beginning of disaster. Vishy continued here with 22.Bxf4 exf4 and followed it up with the thematic 23.Nf5! and soon Black was in trouble.

Position after 23.Nf5 : Black faces a dilemma here, what does he do with the well placed knight on f5?

If Black allows the knight to remain on f5 with something slow like 23...Qe8 then White pushes with 24.e5 Nd5 25.Rbd1 Ra3 26.Bxd5 cxd5 27.Nd6 Qe7 28.Nxb5 and gets a comfortable position. Thus, in the game, Nodirbek chose 23...Bxf5 and after 24.exf5 Qf8 25.c4 the center opened up!

And this was all very pleasant for White; with the bishop hitting f7, the queen b5, the rooks ready to take control of the middle, and the kingside pawns prepared to roll out, he couldn't ask for anything better!

Soon White grabbed a pawn on the queenside, can you see why Black can't recapture on b4?

36.g5 was the final blow, after 36...hxg5 37.Nxg5 even the f7 pawn fell! Black kept on playing for a few more moves but the result of the game at this point had become absolutely clear.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly's Caro-Kann destruction!

After yesterday's loss against Carlsen, Surya Sekhar Ganguly bounced back with an emphatic victory against Baadur Jobava. The Indian Grandmaster found an edge right out of the opening and by move 20 got a completely winning position | Photo: John Saunders

Surya Sekhar Ganguly - Baadur Jobava, Round 6

7...f6?! was a dubious attempt in the opening by the Georgian that got him into unfavourable positions. 7...Ng6 would have been much better instead, in fact it was played by Ganguly himself against Harikrishna last year in Kolkata.

Black could have stirred some really sharp play here with 17...Nec6 18.c4 dxc4 19.d5 exd5 20.Rxd5 where he gets ideas of Qb6, Bxa3 etc. But in the game 17...Nc4 was played, which made White's task simpler.

And the final mistake of the game came by the eighteenth move itself when Black went Ng6, this simply allowed White to grab a free pawn with a superior position. After 19.Bxc4 dxc4 20.Qxc4 Rc8 21.Qd3 Black was lost. Jobava played on for 15 more moves before resigning.

One of the most anticipated encounters of round six was between Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov which the former won with white pieces in 43 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Vladislav Kovalev handed Harikrishna Pentala his first defeat in the event. The Belarusian was able to create a strong passer on the queenside and outplay the Indian | Photo: John Saunders

Harika Dronavalli drew with White against Ahmed Adly of Egypt. The highest rated female player of the event now has 2.5/6 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

The other Indian female player in the event, Soumya Swaminathan, is also defending solidly. In round six she held GM Karen Movsziszian to a draw | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Nihal Sarin drew Alexander Motylev with black pieces | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Abhimanyu Puranik held Ray Robson to a draw and moved to 3.5/6 | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Raunak Sadhwani is all set to become the 65th GM of India. In the sixth round he was up against Peter Leko with black pieces. Although the Hungarian got the bishop pair early in the game but the 13-year-old didn't concede any chances and forced the split of point after 38 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Another very interesting game was that between Boris Gelfand and Adhiban Baskaran. Adhiban had the black pieces and drew the Israeli legend in 46 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova

The leaders

There were seven leaders at the end of five rounds, after the completion of sixth round only two of them remained on the top after winning their games. Fabiano Caruana was able to draw his opponent Vladimir Fedoseev into his preparation of Sicilian Rossolimo and win a fine game, while Wang Hao played brilliantly to clinch the full point against the in-form Luke McShane.

Fabiano Caruana defeated Vladimir Fedoseev to maintain his position on the top along with Wang Hao of China | Photo: John Saunders

China's no.3, Wang Hao, is in tremendous form and has all the potential to make it to the Candidates this year. In round six he was just too strong for Luke McShane of England | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 6)

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
6	8	30	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	73
6	11	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	3	1 - 0	3½	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2608	106
6	14	53	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	2661	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	9
6	20	56	GM	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2657	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	17
6	26	102	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2613	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	37
6	29	42	GM	Leko Peter	2670	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	129
6	30	114	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Robson Ray	2670	43
6	40	94	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2684	33
6	41	104	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2667	45
6	43	54	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Jobava Baadur	2617	101
6	46	62	GM	Motylev Alexander	2651	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	105
6	57	122	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Adly Ahmed	2636	77
6	58	124	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2635	80
6	67	119	GM	Gukesh D	2520	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Houska Jovanka	2430	142
6	69	130	GM	Movsziszian Karen	2475	1½	½ - ½	1½	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	149

Pairings of all Indian players for the next round

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

Results of top ten boards (Round 6)

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	47
2	48	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	7
3	15	GM	Wang Hao	2726	4	1 - 0	4	GM	McShane Luke J	2682	34
4	1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	3½	1 - 0	4	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	49
5	6	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	44
6	8	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	51
7	13	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2643	70
8	30	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	73
9	38	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2638	75
10	64	GM	Lenderman Aleksandr	2648	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	39

Top ten board pairings for the next round

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

Complete results and standings after six rounds

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