Black Magic by Praggnanandhaa to beat Nino Batsiashvili

by Sagar Shah - 17/12/2019

Sunway Sitges International 2019 is witnessing Indian domination. After four rounds, three out of the five leaders are Indians. Praggnanandhaa, Sethuraman and S.L. Narayanan. All three of them are on 4.0/4. Narayanan and Praggnanandhaa both registered emphatic victories in the fourth round with the former sacrificing a piece leading to a powerful attack, and the latter showing some dark squared wizardry. Pragg's play was very impressive and all the King's Indian players should definitely make a note of his strategy. The youngster has now reached a Live Elo of 2612. Sethuraman was slightly fortunate as his opponent misplayed a superior position to give the Indian a full point. A detailed report with key game analysis and pictures by Lennart Ootes.

From 16 leaders on a perfect score after round three, we are now down to just five. The good news for Indian fans is that out of four players who were on 3.0/3, three have managed to move to 4.0/4 - Praggnanandhaa, Sethuraman and S.L. Narayanan.

Praggnanandhaa's victory showed that there are many ways for Black to play in the King's Indian. With this win, the youngster has moved to 2612. He and Nihal Sarin now have the same live rating! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Praggnanandhaa was up against Nino Batsiashvili with the black pieces. Playing in open events makes it necessary to fight for a win with both colours white and black. Hence, Pragg has decided to start using the King's Indian Defence in his repertoire. A fighting opening which can often land you in positionally suspect situations, but at the same time gives you chances to fight for a win no matter what.

Batsiashvili is one of the top Georgian female players. In 2015, Batsiashvili had also drawn with Magnus Carlsen in round one of the Qatar Masters Open. | Photo: Oskar Stöber

Batsiashvili vs Praggnanandhaa

Directly playing ...e5 before 0-0 is not a very popular idea because White can take on e5 and then take on d8, which would mean Black would not be able to castle. However, Pragg feels that when his opponent has played the h3 line, this would be justified, as the move h3 is not so useful in that queenless position.

Pragg's concept was very interesting. He moved his knight away from f6 and played ...Bf6. He wants to exchange the dark squared bishops and make use of the dark squared weaknesses in White's camp. It was not easy for White to stop this because Qd2 is met with h6 and the bishop makes its way to g5 in any case.

This is what you call dark square domination!

Once Black had everything sorted in the position, Pragg went for ...h5 and White's structure simply fell apart.

Sethuraman took on Hannes Stefansson from Iceland | Photo: | Photo: Oskar Stöber

Sethuraman was in a fighting mood and went for the Dutch Defence with black.

Stefansson vs Sethuraman. Round 4

Things have gone wrong for Black on many levels and White is just better. However, Stefansson didn't play well from this point onwards and Sethu managed to spin up an attack against White's king!

Black now has a winning move here. Can you spot it?

Sethuraman found the winning move ...Rg4+! After Bxg4 Qxg4, the h3 rook fell and Black ended with an extra piece!

Will this be Sethuraman's tournament? | Photo: Lennart Ootes

S.L. Narayanan gave his opponent Lev Yankelevich absolutely no chances in the game | Photo; | Photo: Oskar Stöber

Narayanan SL vs Lev Yankelevich, Round 4

After going wrong in the opening, Black is already struggling. In order to prevent a piece from landing on g5, Black played the move h6. However, Narayanan was ready with the blow beginning with Bxh6! This was a powerful long term sacrifice.

The black king is exposed and the white pieces are perfectly placed. White has many attacking ideas in the position and Narayanan managed to win this game without too many difficulties.

It is proving to be difficult to stop this lad in Spain! S.L. Narayanan now has a live rating of 2645! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Gukesh played a very nice game with the white pieces in the King's Indian Attack and is now on 3.5/4 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

GM Srinath Narayanan drew his game against Alexander Donchenko and is on 3.5/4 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Former World Junior silver medalist Abhimanyu Puranik is also on 3.5/4 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Arjun Erigaisi won a drawn endgame in round 4 and moved to 3.5/4

Harshit who has been playing exceedingly well at the event, having beat Maghsoodloo in round 2, lost a rook endgame that should have been held. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Harshit Raja vs Arjun Erigaisi, Round 4

White has two moves that hold here. What are they?

Black's threat is that after the white rook moves, he would like to play his king to c1, and then push his pawn to c3-c2 when he would be winning. Hence, it is important to prevent this idea. The right way to do it is either with Rh1! which stops Kc1 or Rh3 which stops the pawn from coming to c3. In both cases it would be a draw, but Harshit played Rh4 which after Kc1 Ka3 and now we reached another position where Rd3+ would have won, but instead Arjun erred with c3. White could now have drawn with Kb3, but Harshit made a mistake with Rh1+ After Rd1 it was all over. So many mistakes in a small sequence of moves, but it shows how difficult it is to play accurately with such less time.

Standings after round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	10	GM	Sethuraman S.P.				IND	2638	0		4,0	9,0	0	11,0
2	3	GM	Korobov Anton				UKR	2668	0		4,0	8,0	0	10,0
3	35	GM	Li Di	H			CHN	2543	0		4,0	8,0	0	9,0
4	13	GM	Narayanan.S.L				IND	2626	0		4,0	7,5	0	9,0
5	24	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	H16			IND	2586	0		4,0	7,5	0	8,5
6	11	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin				IRI	2635	0		3,5	9,5	0	11,0
7	46	GM	Aroshidze Levan			2549	ESP	2514	2511	C.E. Banyoles	3,5	9,0	0	11,0
8	12	GM	Vocaturo Daniele				ITA	2627	2619	C.E. Mollet	3,5	8,5	0	10,5
	47	GM	Kelires Andreas	H			GRE	2510	0	O.F.I Chess Club	3,5	8,5	0	10,5
10	40	GM	Narayanan Srinath				IND	2529	0		3,5	8,5	0	10,0
11	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander				GER	2644	0		3,5	8,0	0	9,5
12	67	IM	Song Raymond				TPE	2468	0		3,5	8,0	0	9,0
13	18	GM	Durarbayli Vasif				AZE	2609	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,5
14	34	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	H16			IND	2544	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,5
	60	IM	Erenberg Ariel				ISR	2479	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,5
16	26	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu				IND	2580	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,0
17	21	GM	Gareyev Timur				USA	2598	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,0
	31	GM	Gukesh D	16			IND	2547	0		3,5	7,5	0	9,0
19	37	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan				USA	2539	0		3,5	7,0	0	9,0
20	25	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime				ESP	2585	2572	Ext	3,5	6,5	0	8,0

Pairings for round 5

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

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