Asian Individual 01-03: Hiccups for the Indian challengers
For Abhijeet Gupta, it was one nerve-wracking of a race in the Sicilian. He was locked in battle with an unheralded Chinese and while his army raced to get the white King tucked away on the queenside — will he reach there first? The Uzbekistan Chess Federation on behalf of Asian Chess Federation and FIDE is hosting the Asian Continental Chess Championships. The Indian challenge led by Adhiban, Gupta and Vidit suffered a minor blow. A report.
Asian Individual 01-03: Hiccups for the Indian challengers
Photos by Eugeny Smolnikov
For Abhijeet Gupta, it was one nerve-wracking of a race in the Sicilian. He was locked in battle with an unheralded Chinese and while his army raced to get the white King tucked away on the queenside, his opponent broke first on the kingside. White's pieces poured in and Gupta had nothing but a resignation to offer. Then in the second round, Adhiban fell. Vidit too lost, in the third round.
Most of the great cities of the world are characterised by the inherent social and demographic conflicts that are ingrained in them. It is often starkly visible in the form of the old relics and customs and the modern ways that succeeded them, without really killing their predecessors. Tashkent qualifies — a part of it is a new-age metropolis, the most happening place in Uzbekistan, a part of it a leafy Soviet-era city, and also, a part of it is a home away from home represented by sprawling greenery.
The Uzbekistan Chess Federation on behalf of Asian Chess Federation and FIDE is hosting the Asian Continental Chess Championships (Open and Women’s) from 25 May — 5 June 2016 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The tournament is a nine-round-swiss with the time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
With all of our youthful and hungry top grandmasters participating, the tournament was all set for one of the Indians take center-stage. Curiously, the fifth to ninth seeds of the tournament were Adhiban, Vidit, Ganguly, Gupta and Sethuraman, and going into the tournament, each of them had high expectations from themselves. The question is: how far would their wind blow?
[Site "Tashkent UZB"]
[Date "2016.05.26"]
[Round "1.8"]
[White "Fang, Yan"]
[Black "Gupta, Abhijeet"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B89"]
[WhiteElo "2354"]
[BlackElo "2654"]
[PlyCount "79"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
Qc7 9. O-O-O Na5 10. Bd3 b5 11. f4 b4 12. Nb1 g6 13. Nd2 Bg7 14. Kb1 O-O 15.
Rhf1 Re8 16. h3 Bb7 17. g4 Nc6 18. Nxc6 Bxc6 19. h4 a5 20. h5 a4 21. hxg6 fxg6
22. f5 b3 23. cxb3 axb3 24. Nxb3 Nxe4 25. fxg6 hxg6 26. Qc2 Qb7 27. Rf4 Ra4 28.
Rdf1 Qa8 29. Bd4 Rf8 30. Rxf8+ Bxf8 31. Rf4 d5 32. Qh2 Rxd4 33. Nxd4 Bd6 34.
Qh6 Be8 35. Nxe6 Nd2+ 36. Kc2 Qc8+ 37. Kxd2 Qxe6 38. Rf1 d4 39. Rh1 Qxa2 40.
Qh8+ 1-0
[Site "Tashkent UZB"]
[Date "2016.05.27"]
[Round "2.6"]
[White "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Black "Nguyen, Huynh Minh Huy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D16"]
[WhiteElo "2658"]
[BlackElo "2458"]
[PlyCount "111"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
Qa5 9. Qxe4 Bxc3+ 10. Kd1 Bb4 11. Bxc4 Nd7 12. Qg4 g6 13. Ng5 Qd8 14. Nxf7 Nf6
15. exf6 Kxf7 16. h4 Bc5 17. h5 Qxd4+ 18. Qxd4 Bxd4 19. hxg6+ Kxg6 20. Rh6+ Kf7
21. Ra3 b5 22. Be2 Bd7 23. Rah3 Be8 24. Bg5 Bxb2 25. Kc2 Bd4 26. Bd3 bxa4 27.
R3h4 c5 28. Bxh7 Kf8 29. Be4 Rg8 30. Rh8 Rb8 31. Bh6+ Kf7 32. Rxg8 Kxg8 33. Bg7
Kf7 34. Rh6 Rb2+ 35. Kc1 Bxf6 36. Bxf6 Rxf2 37. Bf3 Kg8 38. Rh8+ Kf7 39. Rh6
Kg8 40. Be5 Bb5 41. Rh8+ Kf7 42. Rh7+ Kg6 43. Rxa7 Kf5 44. Bg3 Ra2 45. Ra5 Bd3
46. Rxc5+ Kg6 47. Rc3 Bf1 48. Kb1 Rd2 49. Bf4 Rd4 50. g3 Kf6 51. Kb2 e5 52. Be3
Rc4 53. Rxc4 Bxc4 54. Ka3 Bb3 55. g4 Bc2 56. Bc6 1-0
[Site "Tashkent UZB"]
[Date "2016.05.28"]
[Round "3.11"]
[White "Lalith, Babu M R"]
[Black "Mosadeghpour, Masoud"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A15"]
[WhiteElo "2579"]
[BlackElo "2481"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
Qa3 Nc6 9. e3 O-O 10. Be2 a5 11. Rc1 Nb4 12. b3 Bg4 13. O-O Bxf3 14. Bxf3 c6
15. Rfd1 f5 16. Qb2 e6 17. Qd2 g5 18. Bg3 Qe7 19. h3 Rfd8 20. a3 Na6 21. Nb1
Nc7 22. Qe1 e5 23. Rc5 e4 24. Be2 Ncd5 25. Bc4 f4 26. Bh2 fxe3 27. fxe3 Nxc4
28. Rxc4 g4 29. Qg3 Rf8 30. Re1 gxh3 31. Qxh3 Rf7 32. Nd2 Raf8 33. Be5 Bxe5 34.
dxe5 Qxe5 35. Rxe4 Qc3 36. Rd4 Re8 37. Qh4 Nxe3 38. Rd8 Rff8 39. Rd7 Qc2 40.
Qg3+ Qg6 41. Rxe3 1-0
With 2.5/3, grandmasters Ganguly, Chithambaram, Lalith Babu and Sethuraman are in close pursuit of the leaders — Wen Yang, Wei Yi, Le Quang Liem ad Ehsan Ghaem Maghami — while Adhiban, Sethu and Gupta can easily make a comeback from 2.0/3. The most crucial game in the fourth round for the Indians may be Lalith's clash with the Uzbek No. 1 GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
Indian Pairings for Round 04:
Тур | Bo. | Ном. | Имя | Bdld | Рейт | Очки | Результат | Очки | Имя | Bdld | Рейт | Ном. | ||
4 | 3 | 2 | GM | Kasimdzhanov Rustam | 2703 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2579 | 15 | |||
4 | 4 | 22 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2528 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2654 | 7 | |||
4 | 5 | 18 | GM | Gao Rui | 2556 | 2½ | 2½ | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2647 | 9 | |||
4 | 8 | 35 | IM | Firman Syah Farid | 2432 | 2 | 2 | GM | Adhiban B. | 2665 | 5 | |||
4 | 9 | 6 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2658 | 2 | 2 | IM | Tin Jingyao | 2427 | 37 | |||
4 | 10 | 8 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2654 | 2 | 2 | Yakubboev Nodirbek | 2422 | 38 | ||||
4 | 16 | 20 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2543 | 2 | 2 | IM | Wahono Awam | 2346 | 55 | |||
4 | 28 | 24 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2518 | 1 | 1½ | FM | Nigmatov Ortik | 2330 | 57 | |||
4 | 37 | 88 | Avalboev Sukhrobjon | 1845 | 1 | 1 | Rahul Srivatshav P | 2313 | 61 |
Women's section:
[Site "Tashkent UZB"]
[Date "2016.05.28"]
[Round "3.6"]
[White "Kulkarni, Bhakti"]
[Black "Soumya, Swaminathan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A62"]
[WhiteElo "2296"]
[BlackElo "2346"]
[PlyCount "83"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
O-O 9. O-O a6 10. a4 Nbd7 11. Bf4 Qc7 12. Rc1 Re8 13. b4 Qb6 14. bxc5 Nxc5 15.
Nd2 Bf8 16. Nc4 Qd8 17. a5 Bf5 18. Nb6 Rb8 19. Re1 h6 20. Nca4 Nxa4 21. Qxa4 g5
22. Bd2 Nd7 23. e4 Nxb6 24. axb6 Bd7 25. Qb4 Rc8 26. Rxc8 Bxc8 27. Rc1 Bg7 28.
Rc7 Re7 29. Rc4 Bg4 30. e5 Bf5 31. exd6 Rd7 32. g4 Bd3 33. Rc7 Rxd6 34. Rxb7
Bb5 35. Qc5 Be5 36. Rc7 Qf6 37. b7 Rd8 38. Rc8 Bd7 39. Rxd8+ Qxd8 40. d6 f6 41.
Ba5 Qe8 42. Bc7 1-0
Bhakti has a very good chance to fight for the top spot if she manages to beat the top seed IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (2459), while the other Indians are still in the race. Well begun is half done — and you can interpret 'half done' both ways.
Indian Pairings for Round 04:
Тур | Bo. | Ном. | Имя | Bdld | Рейт | Очки | Результат | Очки | Имя | Bdld | Рейт | Ном. | ||
4 | 3 | 1 | IM | Khademalsharieh Sarasadat | 2459 | 2 | 2½ | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | 2296 | 15 | |||
4 | 5 | 14 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | 2304 | 2 | 2 | WGM | Saduakassova Dinara | 2415 | 5 | |||
4 | 7 | 8 | WGM | Hejazipour Mitra | 2349 | 2 | 2 | WIM | Pratyusha Bodda | 2336 | 12 | |||
4 | 8 | 10 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2346 | 1½ | 1½ | IM | Munguntuul Batkhuyag | 2442 | 3 | |||
4 | 9 | 4 | IM | Padmini Rout | 2433 | 1½ | 1½ | Nadirjanova Nodira | 2128 | 23 | ||||
4 | 11 | 24 | WFM | Citra Dewi Ardhiani Anastasia | 2127 | 1½ | 1½ | WIM | Vaishali R | 2322 | 13 |
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