Shardul Gagare and Arghyadip Das stay in the hunt at XLV Seville Open 2020

by Shahid Ahmed - 17/01/2020

GM Kirill Shevchenko (UKR) and GM Lu Shanglei (CHN) are in the joint lead with 6.5/7 at the end of the seventh round of XLV Seville Open 2020. They will face each other in the penultimate round. Among the Indians, both GM Shardul Gagare and IM Arghyadip Das registered fine victories and they are now just a half point behind the leaders at 6.0/7. GM Swayams Mishra and IM Ravi Teja S drew their respective games, they are at 5.5/7. Among the Indian women, IM Padmini Rout, IM Nisha Mohota, WIM Pratyusha Bodda and WIM Shalmali Gagare all won their respective games and they are now at 5.0/7. The tournament has only two rounds left to go. Photo: Amruta Mokal and Shahid Ahmed

Shardul and Arghyadip closes in on the leaders

Overnight leaders GM Kirill Shevchenko (UKR) and GM Lu Shanglei (CHN) won their respective games to maintain their lead at 6.5/7 each respectively. Among the Indians, both GM Shardul Gagare and IM Arghyadip Das won their respective games against Vladimir Bukar Jr. and Juan Jose Corbalan respectively in round 7. They both are at 6.0/7 each.

Shardul scored a fine win in French Defence Tarrasch variation | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Shardul - Bukar, Round 7

Find out the correct plan for white after 16...h4

Shardul hatched the correct plan on the queen side which eventually became the focal point of the game and allowed him to score the full point without ease.

Arghyadip scored a clinical win | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Arghyadip got the perfect position out of the Sicilian Maroczy Bind opening.

Arghyadip - Corbalan, Round 7

Position after 17...hxg6

It is evident that white has an advantage after 17...hxg6. Find out what is the correct plan for white here.

GM Swayams Mishra made a short draw with the black pieces against FM Leo Pecnik (CRO, 2357)

Swayams is poised for a top finish | Photo: ChessBase India archives

IM Ravi Teja S maintained his unbeaten streak in the tournament by salvaging a draw from a momentary difficult position involving the all the major pieces against FM Daniel Barrish (RSA, 2352)

Ravi Teja is in good form | Photo: Supriya Bhatt

Among the Indian women, IM Padmini Rout won against Yang Xu (CHN, 2047), WGM Soumya Swaminathan lost to CM Artem Pingin (RUS, 2143), WIM Pratyusha Bodda defeated Oscar Saez Gabikagogeaskoa (ESP, 1978), IM Nisha Mohota defeated FM Marlano Romero Garcia (ESP, 1981) and WIM Shalmali Gagare defeated FM Ricardo Montecatine Rios (ESP, 1924)

The nine-round Swiss League tournament XLV Abierto Internacional "Ciudad de Sevilla" takes place from 10th to 18th January 2020, everyday at 5:30 p.m. local time, 9 p.m. IST. Only final round on 18th January 2020 will take place at 9:30 a.m. local time, 1 p.m. IST.

Replay all games

Round 7 results

Brd.	White	Pts.	FIDE	Fed.	Res.	Black	Pts.	FIDE	Fed.
1	GM Li, Di	5.5	2562	CHN	½-½	GM Grigoryan, Karen H.	5.5	2632	ARM
2	GM Lu, Shanglei	5.5	2611	CHN	1-0	GM Harutyunian, Tigran K.	5.5	2533	ARM
3	GM Shevchenko, Kirill	5.5	2553	UKR	1-0	GM Bernadskiy, Vitaliy	5.5	2588	UKR
4	GM Shariyazdanov, Andrey	5.0	2519	RUS	1-0	IM Polivanov, Anatoliy	5.0	2420	UKR
5	GM Campora, Daniel H.	5.0	2420	ARG	½-½	GM Matamoros Franco, Carlos S.	5.0	2487	ECU
6	GM Gagare, Shardul	5.0	2481	IND	1-0	IM Bukal, Vladimir Jr.	5.0	2385	CRO
7	FM Pecnik, Leo	5.0	2357	CRO	½-½	GM Swayams, Mishra	5.0	2479	IND
8	GM Alsina Leal, Daniel	5.0	2465	ESP	1-0	FM Gutierrez Olivares, Daniel	5.0	2358	ESP
9	FM Barrish, Daniel	5.0	2352	RSA	½-½	IM Ravi, Teja S.	5.0	2464	IND
10	IM Das, Arghyadip	5.0	2451	IND	1-0	Corbalan Gomez, Juan Jose	5.0	2243	ESP
11	IM Chen, Qi B	5.0	2432	CHN	1-0	IM Henni, Mohamed	5.0	2202	ALG
12	IM Estremera Panos, Sergio	5.0	2307	ESP	0-1	IM Panjwani, Raja	4.5	2444	CAN
13	GM Pridorozhni, Aleksei	4.5	2601	RUS	1-0	Draghici Flutur, Gavril **	4.5	2125	ESP
14	FM Oragwu, Chukwunonso	4.5	2220	NGR	½-½	GM Pap, Misa	4.5	2427	SRB
15	Soldo, Robert	4.5	2180	CRO	½-½	GM Pogorelov, Ruslan	4.5	2377	UKR
16	WIM Gu, Tianlu	4.5	2255	CHN	1-0	Pozo Prior, Jose Antonio	4.5	2016	ESP
17	CM Pingin, Artem	4.5	2143	RUS	1-0	WGM Soumya, Swaminathan	4.0	2384	IND
18	IM Padmini, Rout	4.0	2369	IND	1-0	Xu, Yang	4.0	2047	CHN
19	FM Montero Melendez, Rafael	4.0	2288	ESP	1-0	Vela Ignacio, Jose Manuel **	4.0	2038	ESP
20	Filipovich, David	4.0	1995	CAN	½-½	FM Chkhaidze, Nikoloz	4.0	2288	GEO

Complete results

Round 8 pairings

Brd.	White	Pts.	FIDE	Fed.	Black	Pts.	FIDE	Fed.
1	GM Shevchenko, Kirill	6.5	2553	UKR	GM Lu, Shanglei	6.5	2611	CHN
2	GM Grigoryan, Karen H.	6.0	2632	ARM	GM Alsina Leal, Daniel	6.0	2465	ESP
3	GM Gagare, Shardul	6.0	2481	IND	GM Li, Di	6.0	2562	CHN
4	IM Das, Arghyadip	6.0	2451	IND	GM Shariyazdanov, Andrey	6.0	2519	RUS
5	GM Bernadskiy, Vitaliy	5.5	2588	UKR	IM Chen, Qi B	6.0	2432	CHN
6	IM Ravi, Teja S.	5.5	2464	IND	GM Pridorozhni, Aleksei	5.5	2601	RUS
7	GM Harutyunian, Tigran K.	5.5	2533	ARM	GM Campora, Daniel H.	5.5	2420	ARG
8	GM Matamoros Franco, Carlos S.	5.5	2487	ECU	FM Pecnik, Leo	5.5	2357	CRO
9	GM Swayams, Mishra	5.5	2479	IND	FM Barrish, Daniel	5.5	2352	RSA
10	IM Panjwani, Raja	5.5	2444	CAN	CM Pingin, Artem	5.5	2143	RUS
11	IM Polivanov, Anatoliy	5.0	2420	UKR	WIM Gu, Tianlu	5.5	2255	CHN
12	GM Pap, Misa	5.0	2427	SRB	IM Borsos, Bogdan	5.0	2214	UKR
13	IM Bukal, Vladimir Jr.	5.0	2385	CRO	IM Mohota, Nisha	5.0	2201	IND
14	GM Pogorelov, Ruslan	5.0	2377	UKR	Dubreuil, Nicolas	5.0	2200	FRA
15	FM Melekhina, Alisa	5.0	2192	USA	IM Padmini, Rout	5.0	2369	IND
16	FM Gutierrez Olivares, Daniel	5.0	2358	ESP	Soldo, Robert	5.0	2180	CRO
17	IM Henni, Mohamed	5.0	2202	ALG	IM Estremera Panos, Sergio	5.0	2307	ESP
18	FM Montero Melendez, Rafael	5.0	2288	ESP	CM Uribe, Jhonny Alberto	5.0	2149	VEN
19	FM Simon Padros, Emili	5.0	2119	ESP	FM Rangel, Daniel	5.0	2269	BRA
20	WIM Pratyusha, Bodda	5.0	2267	IND	Romero Romero, Sebastian	5.0	2122	ESP

Complete pairings

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