S.L. Narayanan's perfect 5.0/5 start at the Sunway Sitges 2019

by Sagar Shah - 18/12/2019

After winning the Ellobregat Open, S.L. Narayanan is continuing his excellent run at the Sunway Sitges 2019. He beat GM S.P. Sethuraman in the fifth round with an excellent game. His opening preparation was top notch and his calculation and understanding of the position ensured that Sethuraman had absolutely no chances. Narayanan, is on 5.0/5 and leads the tournament with Anton Korobov, who beat Praggnanandhaa in the fifth round. Abhimanyu Puranik is on 4.5/5 and plenty of other Indian players including Arjun Erigaisi, D. Gukesh, Sasikiran etc. are on 4.0/5. In this article we bring you all the action from round five along with video interviews with Nihal Sarin and Karthikeyan Murali.

With a rating performance of over 3000, S.L. Narayanan is playing sublime chess at the Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival. He is on 5.0/5 and leading the tournament along with Anton Korobov. Narayanan's win in the fifth round showed what a strong player he is, as he beat S.P. Sethuraman from the black side of an unconventional Anti-Sicilian. With this win he also crossed 2650 Elo in the live rating list.

S.L. Narayanan speaks to Daniel King after his fifth round win against Sethuraman | Photo: Lennart Ootes

S.L. Narayanan's play in the opening was extremely logical. He gave importance to rapid piece development in the first phase of the game. When the position was ripe he calculated the piece sacrifice accurately and launched a powerful attack against the white king. While Narayanan could have improved his attack at some point, it didn't really matter, because the way he played was also winning.

Sethuraman vs S.L. Narayanan, Round 5

Black to play. What would you do here?

Narayanan calculated the powerful move ...Nxe4!! here. After Rxe4 Rxe4 Qxe4 Qc3! Kc1 we reach an important position in the game.

Narayanan continued ...Bb5 here. The stronger move was ...Rc8. But it doesn't matter because both the moves are pretty strong. What is more important to understand here is that even though Black is a piece down, he has a continuing attack and that the white pieces cannot do anything. Black can take his time to attack with moves like ...Rc8, ...Re8, ...a4, ...Bb5

Sethuraman knows when he has been outplayed | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Anton Korobov played a fine game on the top board to beat Praggnanandhaa and join S.L. Narayanan in the lead | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4.5/5 for Abhimanyu Puranik, who beat IM Raymond Song in round 5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Gukesh survived a worse position against GM Stephen Gordon and has moved to 4.0/5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Arjun Erigaisi drew against top seed Amin Tabatabaei and is on 4.0/5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Raunak Sadhwani could not manage to hold Vassily Ivanchuk | Photo: Lennart Ootes

India's top visually impaired player Darpan Inani is on 2.5/5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Intensity and fun at the same time in the analysis session of the Sunway Sitges 2019 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Now that's a pose of someone who really wants to do well! Nino Batsiashvili drew against Valentin Dragnev | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A mother eagerly waits for her child to finish the game! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Video interviews:

The organizer of the Sunway Sitges 2019 Oskar Stöber did the interviews after round four. He was not very happy with the fact that he couldn't ask too many chess questions in the interview. Hence after the fifth round, he caught up with two Indian GMs Karthikeyan Murali and Nihal Sarin, who had finished their games and asked them to interview each other! Here's the result! It's very nice to see two top GMs interviewing each other and asking them about their games.

Karthikeyan Murali interviewed by Nihal Sarin

Nihal Sarin interviewed by Karthikeyan Murali

Wine Tasting:

On 17th afternoon a wine tasting event was held in Sitges | Photo: Lennart Ootes

A special flask for wines! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Timur Gareyev prefers water! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Or does he?! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Gareyev, the wine lover?! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Commentator Danny King having a nice time! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Results of round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2586	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Korobov Anton	2668	3
2	10	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2638	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2626	13
3	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2644	3½	½ - ½	4	GM	Li Di	2543	35
4	34	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2544	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2635	11
5	12	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2627	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	2539	37
6	18	GM	Durarbayli Vasif	2609	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Kelires Andreas	2510	47
7	40	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2529	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Gareyev Timur	2598	21
8	46	GM	Aroshidze Levan	2514	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2585	25
9	26	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2580	3½	1 - 0	3½	IM	Song Raymond	2468	67
10	56	GM	Gordon Stephen J	2495	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Gukesh D	2547	31

Standings after round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	GM	Korobov Anton				UKR	2668	0		5,0	14,5	0	17,0
2	13	GM	Narayanan.S.L				IND	2626	0		5,0	12,5	0	14,5
3	35	GM	Li Di	H			CHN	2543	0		4,5	14,0	0	16,0
4	26	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu				IND	2580	0		4,5	12,5	0	14,5
5	25	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime				ESP	2585	2572	Ext	4,5	12,0	0	14,0
6	33	GM	Nasuta Grzegorz				POL	2545	0		4,5	11,5	0	14,0
7	11	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin				IRI	2635	0		4,0	15,5	0	17,5
8	47	GM	Kelires Andreas	H			GRE	2510	0	O.F.I Chess Club	4,0	15,0	0	17,0
9	10	GM	Sethuraman S.P.				IND	2638	0		4,0	15,0	0	17,0
10	6	GM	Lagarde Maxime				FRA	2655	2596	C.E. Barcelona	4,0	14,5	0	16,5
11	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander				GER	2644	0		4,0	14,0	0	16,0
12	37	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan				USA	2539	0		4,0	13,5	0	16,0
13	12	GM	Vocaturo Daniele				ITA	2627	2619	C.E. Mollet	4,0	13,5	0	16,0
14	34	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	H16			IND	2544	0		4,0	13,5	0	15,5
15	21	GM	Gareyev Timur				USA	2598	0		4,0	13,5	0	15,5
16	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	H16			IND	2586	0		4,0	13,5	0	15,0
17	18	GM	Durarbayli Vasif				AZE	2609	0		4,0	13,0	0	15,0
18	8	GM	Kovalenko Igor				LAT	2647	0		4,0	13,0	0	15,0
19	40	GM	Narayanan Srinath				IND	2529	0		4,0	13,0	0	14,5
20	5	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan				IND	2656	0	Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd	4,0	12,5	0	15,5

Pairings for round 6:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Korobov Anton	2668	5		5	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2626	13
2	25	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2585	4½		4½	GM	Nasuta Grzegorz	2545	33
3	35	GM	Li Di	2543	4½		4½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2580	26
4	1	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2690	4		4	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2586	24
5	5	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2656	4		4	GM	Peralta Fernando	2577	28
6	27	GM	Wagner Dennis	2578	4		4	GM	Lagarde Maxime	2655	6
7	31	GM	Gukesh D	2547	4		4	GM	Kovalenko Igor	2647	8
8	32	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	2547	4		4	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2644	9
9	34	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2544	4		4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2638	10
10	11	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2635	4		4	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2529	40

Related news:

	The biggest gainers at the Sunway Sitges 2019 @ 24/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Immovable Arjun Erigaisi and Solid Nihal Sarin at the Sunway Sitges 2019 @ 21/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Abhimanyu Puranik has a performance of 2746 after seven rounds at the Sunway Sitges 2019 @ 20/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	When Ivanchuk roars! @ 19/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	सनवे सिट्जस - सेथुरमन को हराकर नारायनन पहुंचे शीर्ष पर @ 18/12/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	सनवे सिट्जस - प्रग्गानंधा का बेहतरीन खेल ,सेथुरमन ,नारायनन के साथ सयुंक्त बढ़त पर @ 17/12/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Black Magic by Praggnanandhaa to beat Nino Batsiashvili @ 17/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Sunway Sitges 2019 - An event hosting 106 Indian players in Spain @ 16/12/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	सनवे सिट्जस 2019 - परहम को हराकर हर्षित नें किया धमाका ! @ 15/12/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	The most popular event in Europe for Indian players - Sunway Sitges Chess Festival @ 18/11/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)