IIFLW Mumbai 08: Parham Maghsoodloo retains lead throwing Gupta out of title contention

With just one round to go, Parham Maghsoodloo has strengthened his lead beating Abhijeet Gupta with the black pieces on board one. For Gupta, this loss means he will be out of title contention in the final round. After the conclusion of the penultimate round, just two players -- David Alberto and Deepan Chakkravarthy -- have a realistic shot at the title.

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, who had been leading the tournament until the previous round, made a strong comeback winning his game against the Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh. Currently, he is half-a-point behind Maghsoodloo. But even if he is able to catch up in the final round, his loss against the current tournament leader from the previous round will haunt him in the tiebreak.

In the game between Abhijeet Gupta and Parham Maghsoodloo, the latter chose the Stonewall Dutch to counter his opponent's 1. d4. The position was pretty even coming out of the opening when Gupta spotted a temporary knight sacrifice and -- in the opinion of the computer -- rushed with regaining his piece.

In response, the computers felt white could maintain equality with 23.Re2. However, Gupta regained his piece immediately with 23.fxg4. And after 23...Nxg4, black had strong pressure on the e3 point. Soon, the e3 pawn was captured and white's position began to look hopeless quickly after this. Three moves later, Gupta tried to hang on by sacrificing his queen for a rook and a minor piece but this only hastened the end.

With the white pieces, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy went on the offensive from the word go in his game against the Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh. Kicking off with 1.e4, Deepan flung his kingside pawns early in the game to counter his opponent's Sicilian Najdorf. By move 21, Deepan already had a much better position but on the very next move, Deepan made an inaccuracy and allowed his opponent equality. On the very next move, Tuan Minh blundered again. This time Deepan exploited his opponent's error successfully. By the 30th move, the Vietnamese GM was about to be a full piece down and, therefore, resigned.

On board three, Vietnamese GM Nguyen Duc Hoa had a bad day against GM David Alberto. The two played a Rossolimo Sicilian in which the former ended up in a worse position very early in the game. Things just didn't seem to be going his way as he shed a pawn on move 10 and was under attack on the kingside for the most part. The final nail in the coffin was when he missed an intermezzo while sacrificing his queen and ended up a piece down. By the 27th move, it was all over.

Timur Gareyev took a day off from his routine of playing unconventional openings in the penultimate round of the event. With the black pieces, the Uzbek-American GM essayed the open variation of the Ruy Lopez against Ameir Moheb. And even though the opening wasn't as crafty as it usually has been in his games at this event, he did come up with some neat tactics to get the better of his Egyptian opponent. The game finished in a tragic-comic position where white's dark squared bishop trapped in the centre of the board.

In the final round, the clash for the title will be mainly between Maghsoodloo, Alberto and Chakkravarthy. While Maghsoodloo will be playing Alberto on the top board today, Deepan Chakkravarthy will face the blindfold king, Timur Gareyev on board two. Maghsoodloo definitely has an edge over Alberto and Chakkravarthy with his extra half point and the white pieces in hand. But if Alberto can pull out a win tomorrow, he assures himself at least a shared first place. As for Deepan Chakkravarthy, he has to win his final round game if he is to keep his chances of winning the title alive.

Results of round 8

Rank after round 8

Round 9 Pairing

Juniors

The Juniors category is also going along similar lines as the open segment. After the penultimate round, there is one clear leader half-a-point ahead of his nearest rival while two others are following him. After his win against co-leader Nikhil Magizhnan, Pranav V has emerged as the sole leader in the field. Hot under his heels are D Gukesh and Aryan Varshney who are both within striking distance.

In his eighth round game against Niyata Jain, Aaryan went for the London System and began attacking on the kingside right out of the opening. Flinging his kingside pawns forward, Aaryan got a pleasant edge very soon. On move 21, Niyata offered an exchange of queens which Aaryan happily accepted and, a few moves later, emerged a pawn up. As play progressed, players reached a similar coloured bishop endgame in which Aaryan finished off in style sacrificing his bishop to queen his passed queenside pawns.

Nikhil went for the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez -- perhaps, to play something safe. Out of the opening, Pranav, who had the black pieces, was able to equalise quite early and began pushing for a win. As play neared the first time control, Magizhnan began to make some inaccuracies. Capitalizing on his opponent's errors, Pranav exchanged rooks and began harvesting his opponent's pawns one after another. To add to Magizhnan's troubles, one of Pranav's pawns had a far advanced passed pawn on the queenside. Seeing no way to save the game, Magizhnan resigned on the 54th move.

In the final round, Pranav Vijay will face Aaryan Varshney while D Gukesh will be pitted against Rohit Krishna S. With his half point lead, Pranav Vijay has good chances of lifting the champion's trophy at the event but with one more difficult round to go and two strong contenders like Gukesh and Aaryan Varshney to dodge, it will not be an easy challenge.

Results of round 8

Rank after round 8

Round 9 Pairing

About the Author

Aditya Pai is an ardent chess fan, avid reader, and a film lover. He has been an advertising copywriter and is currently pursuing a Master's in English Literature at the University of Mumbai. He loves all things German and is learning the language. He has also written scripts for experimental films.