IIFLW Mumbai 07: Deepan slips while Gareyev shows his blindfold magic

The antepenultimate round of the IIFLW Mumbai International tournament concluded yesterday. With two rounds to go, tournament leader Deepan Chakkravarthy was overtaken by the Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo. Another Indian, GM Abhijeet Gupta has been on the rise since the last few rounds. In the seventh round, he got the better of GM Karthikeyan P and is currently on the joint second spot along with compatriot, Deepan Chakkravarthy and three others.

Deepan Chakkravarthy had been leading the tournament since the last couple of rounds. Having won all of his games in the tournament so far, he had strongly established himself as one of the favourites to win the event. Maghsoodloo, on the other hand, had also played extremely well so far. Except for his draw against Saurabh Anand in round 4, he had won all of his games. With such closely matched opponents, it was hard to imagine the game to be so one-sided.

Deepan had essayed a novelty on move 11 from the black side of an English Opening. This, however, left his queenside pawns pretty weak. Maghsoodloo grabbed the opportunity to attack these pawns with both hands and was able to win a pawn very soon. After this, the Indian GM was never really able to make a comeback. Maghsoodloo did miss a few chances to win more quickly but never really let his advantage slip. By the 45th move, the Iranian GM had maintained his extra pawn and had liquidated into a king and pawn endgame to force resignation.

In the game between P Karthikeyan and Abhijeet Gupta, the tournament's top seed was unable to generate any chances until the players had reached well into the endgame. Just like Deepan, Gupta also came out with an early novelty with the black pieces in the English Opening. Pieces were traded at regular intervals and just when it seemed like the players were cruising towards a draw, Karthikeyan missed the most accurate way to maintain equality. Consequently, the 27-year-old IM had to shed a pawn and it was one-way traffic this point onwards. 

Day 7 of the IIFLW Mumbai International Chess Tournament was especially important because the blindfold king of the world was scheduled to give all comers a taste of his genius with a blindfold simul on 12 boards. But along with this, Timur also showed how incredible his stamina is. Within a span of about three hours, Timur had won nine out of his twelve blindfold games and drawn the remaining three.

While giving this simultaneous display, Timur also cycled 22 kilometres! What's even more incredible is the fact that, just 20 minutes later, Gareyev had to play his seventh round game. After such a brilliant blindfold display, having ridden 22 kms, one might have expected Garayev to have been tired. Going for a quick draw could have been on the cards for him. But as it turned out, Timur is not only a genius, he is also a powerhouse of stamina. In his game against Debarshi Mukherjee, Timur was the one to create complications to try and win. Playing with the white pieces, the Uzbek-American grandmaster essayed a rare line in the Trompowsky that involved a pawn sacrifice on move 5. As play proceeded, players castled on opposite wings and Timur emerged on top in the complex battle that ensued.

With two rounds to go, Parham Maghsoodloo, with his win over Deepan Chakkravarthy, has pushed himself to the top spot, half-a-point ahead of the field with a score of 6.5/7. His opponent, Deepan, who was leading the tournament until this round, has slipped to the joint second spot with Abhijeet Gupta and three others. With two more rounds to go, this is sure to be an exciting contest.

Round 7 Results

Rank after round 7

Round 8 Pairings