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Kolkata 2018 Round 5: Ivan Rozum shows you what the art of being means!

by Sagar Shah - 19/05/2018

The sole leader at the 3rd LIC Kolkata GM International 2018 is GM Ivan Rozum from Russia. Ivan has been showing phenomenal technique at this event beating all of his opponents in endgames. Against Deep Sengupta in the fifth round he gave a model presentation of how sometimes "being" in chess is more important than "doing". Ivan played perhaps one of the finest positional games of the tournament to outwit Deep Sengupta. Rozum is pursued by three players Amonatov, Srinath and Tukhaev on 4.5/5, with a huge number of players on 4.0/5. Detailed explanation of Rozum's win, pictures, videos and more from Kolkata. 

Ivan Rozum is the sole leader with 5.0/5

Ivan Rozum fully focused as he beats Deep Sengupta in the fifth round of the Kolkata GM International 2018 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

"Chess for Zebras" is a fantastic book written by GM Jonathan Rowson. In it he mentions the difference between being and doing in chess. Here I produce one of the extracts from the book:

 

Once after winning a game Tony Miles was asked, how did he win the game, and he commented:  "I did absolutely ** all and it proved to be enough!" This comment might seem a bit shocking, but you have to admit that it's also quite funny. The point is that Black lost the game; White didn't really win it. One reaction would be to think "So what? Sometimes you get lucky and your opponent makes it easy for you", but I think there is more to it than that. It is well-known that part of being a strong player is making other strong players look weak. Take Kasparov against your average 2600 GM or your average 2600 against your standard 1M, and so on. At every level of play, players who look good against weaker players are, in turn, made to look weak - nothing new there. But I believe part of the reason for this is that the stronger you get, the finer your feeling for the game and the more acutely you sense mistakes. More precisely, as you get better, you get better at avoiding mistakes, but you also come to realize how difficult it is to avoid them, so you develop a better sense of how to make your opponents go astray.

 

Improving your results is thus not just about playing better moves yourself, but encouraging, or even just allowing your opponent to make mistakes. What the above game suggests is that you don't always have to try very hard to do that! Moreover, sometimes trying hard is actually counter-productive. At his peak, Karpov seemed to exemplify this kind of intelligence. Indeed, Icelandic GM Hjartarson once described the experience of playing Karpov as follows: "Nothing happens, but you lose." Karpov has such a fine feeling for the coordination of the pieces that with a few delicate touches in the right places he could make his opponent's position collapse, when it had previously looked quite viable. Moreover, in the notes to one of his games against Kasparov, where he has the advantage but is ex- ploiting it in a leisurely way he writes: "Why hurry? Why worry? The fruit will ripen of its own accord".

How did Rozum win?

Ivan Rozum vs Deep Sengupta

In the opening the queens were exchanged. Rozum played the move a3. His idea was simple to play b4 and break Black's queenside structure and at the same time activate his g2 bishop.

The knight on a5 is a constant headache. You cannot push your b-pawn as c6 hangs and otherwise it is just impossible to kick the knight away! This knight on the rim is not dim!

Rozum exchanged off the dark squared bishops

Look at White's structure! Picture of perfection!

Rozum didn't do anything special. He just kept alternating his knight between a5 and c5

The knight was then shifted to f4 and the pawn was pushed to h4. White is doing nothing concrete yet, but just getting all of his resources ready for a further showdown.

Deep Sengupta is not one of those players who would sit quietly. He played e5, but it turned out to be an inaccuracy.

The knight nicely settled on the e4 square and no one in the world can now kick it out

The pawn move to h4 came to good use when Rozum pushed his pawn to h5 to create a second weakness!

Finally Deep cracked and Nd6 was a big blunder as Nc3 won an exchange! Within a few moves Rozum had the point in the bag!

Srinath managed to trick Abhijeet Gupta in time pressure to score the full point | Photo: Sagar Shah

Nigel Short was not too pleased with his draw against GM Lalith Babu | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Gukesh drew his game against his coach GM Vishnu Prasanna | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Experienced D.V. Prasad had a great start to the event with 3.0/4, but slumped to a defeat against IM Harsha Bharathakoti | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Photo gallery:

Dibyendu Barua interacts with Jennitha Anto about her game and how she is liking it in Kolkata | Photo: Sagar Shah

The visually challenged players of India thank GM Barua for his kind gesture of allowing them to play in the A category without any entry fee or lodging and boarding expenses | Photo: Sagar Shah

The ChessBase India stall is bumbling with people! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Nigel Short gets the ChessBase India t-shirt! As Nigel puts it, "He is not even the FIDE President and the bribery has begun!" | Photo: Sagar Shah

GM R.R. Laxman and Goa's talent Leon Mendonca exchange a few words after their game | Photo: Sagar Shah

Team ChessBase India - always smiling! | Photo: Sayan Bose

Video gallery by Shahid Ahmed:

Deep Sengupta resigns against Ivan Rozum
Abhijeet Gupta has just blundered a piece and is now losing the game!
Starting moments of round 5
The interesting pawn endgame between Raghunandan KS and Karthikeyan Murali

Results of round 5:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
16
GMRozum Ivan258141 - 04GMSengupta Deep2563
8
212
GMLalith Babu M R2531½ - ½GMShort Nigel D2656
1
32
GMGupta Abhijeet26190 - 1GMNarayanan Srinath2525
14
44
GMAmonatov Farrukh26081 - 0IMNitin S.2432
32
520
GMRahman Ziaur2495½ - ½GMSandipan Chanda2573
7
622
IMVignesh N R24850 - 1GMTukhaev Adam2551
9
733
CMGukesh D2426½ - ½3GMVishnu Prasanna. V2532
11
841
IMRaghunandan Kaumandur Srihari24003½ - ½3GMKarthikeyan Murali2617
3
910
IMNihal Sarin255131 - 03Arjun Kalyan2383
42
1050
IMSiva Mahadevan236430 - 13GMBurmakin Vladimir2528
13
1154
FMRajdeep Sarkar23553½ - ½3GMShyam Sundar M.2518
15
1216
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.251631 - 03Sekar B2304
63
1351
Koustav Chatterjee236430 - 13GMTran Tuan Minh2512
17
1453
Saravana Krishnan P.23603½ - ½3GMNeverov Valeriy2496
19
1565
FMMohammad Fahad Rahman229630 - 13FMErigaisi Arjun2488
21
1677
IMPrasad Devaki V228430 - 13IMHarsha Bharathakoti2463
25
1789
CMKushagra Mohan22563½ - ½3IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad2456
27
1898
IMSuvrajit Saha221730 - 13GMNeelotpal Das2452
28
1929
GMLaxman R.R.244431 - 03CMMendonca Leon Luke2122
134
20100
Nguyen Phuoc Tam221030 - 13IMDas Sayantan2437
30

Rank after round 5:

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 wwew-we
16
GMRozum IvanRUS2581RUS5,00,013,515,515,50553,661,34
29
GMTukhaev AdamUKR2551UKR4,50,012,013,512,2544,53,860,64
314
GMNarayanan SrinathIND2525AIR INDIA4,50,012,013,011,2544,53,401,10
44
GMAmonatov FarrukhTJK2608TJK4,50,011,013,011,7544,54,180,32
58
GMSengupta DeepIND2563PSPB4,00,014,517,012,00443,610,39
621
FMErigaisi ArjunIND2488TEL4,00,014,016,511,50443,520,48
71
GMShort Nigel DENG2656ENG4,00,013,515,512,00344,01-0,01
87
GMSandipan ChandaIND2573WB4,00,013,015,512,50343,870,13
933
CMGukesh DIND2426AP4,00,013,015,011,50342,901,10
1030
IMDas SayantanIND2437WB4,00,012,515,011,75343,940,06
1117
GMTran Tuan MinhVIE2512VIE4,00,012,514,511,25343,950,05
1220
GMRahman ZiaurBAN2495BAN4,00,012,514,510,75332,640,36
1312
GMLalith Babu M RIND2531PSPB4,00,012,014,010,50332,620,38
1410
IMNihal SarinIND2551KER4,00,011,514,011,25344,14-0,14
1528
GMNeelotpal DasIND2452PSPB4,00,011,514,011,00343,860,14

Pairings for round 6:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
19
GMTukhaev Adam25515GMRozum Ivan2581
6
214
GMNarayanan Srinath2525GMAmonatov Farrukh2608
4
31
GMShort Nigel D265644GMTran Tuan Minh2512
17
47
GMSandipan Chanda257344GMLaxman R.R.2444
29
58
GMSengupta Deep256344GMRahman Ziaur2495
20
621
FMErigaisi Arjun248844IMNihal Sarin2551
10
725
IMHarsha Bharathakoti246344GMLalith Babu M R2531
12
813
GMBurmakin Vladimir252844CMGukesh D2426
33
928
GMNeelotpal Das245244GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.2516
16
1030
IMDas Sayantan24374GMGupta Abhijeet2619
2

Room mates Adam Tukhaev and Ivan Rozum will fight it out against each other on the top board today!

Articles related to the tournament:

Live Games from 3rd International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2018

FIDE Presidential candidate GM Nigel Short headlines LIC 3rd Kolkata Open 2018

Round 1: Short's last holiday event before campaign

Round 2: Vantika Agrawal shows how to beat a 2600+ GM

Round 3: And then there were eight

Round 4: Gukesh beats Aravindh Chithambaram