Dubai Open: Vidit Gujrathi's Squeeze
43% of the players playing in Dubai are Indians. Go figure. After the Sharjah Masters, the Dubai Open 2017 has turned into a mini-India as strong grandmasters and young talents compete for ratings and norms. Vidit Gujrathi is playing impressive chess to be the joint leader with 6.0/7, with two others. Report.
Dubai Open: Vidit Gujrathi's Squeeze
The annual Dubai Open has always been a hot destination for Indian chess players. They get to play a super-strong tournament with plenty of chances to score norms and increase the rating. The even started with 90 Indians (out of 208 players), which was reduced to 89 after it was revealed that one of them was a cheater.
India's best bet in the starting list was GM Vidit Gujrathi, who began the even with an Elo 2670. Apart from him, there were several other strong grandmasters competing, followed by a horde of young talents.
With 43% of players being Indians, would any of them take the podium?
Vidit played a beautiful positional game out of a Bogo-Indian as Safarli was left shuffling his pieces in the last three ranks for the major part of the game. Frustrated, he lashed out with ...e5 and Vidit smashed him to a pulp.
[Site "Dubai"]
[Date "2017.04.09"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Black "Safarli, Eltaj"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E11"]
[WhiteElo "2670"]
[BlackElo "2680"]
[Annotator "TA"]
[PlyCount "131"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
Bogo-Indian} 7. b3 d5 8. Bg2 Ne4 {LiveBook: 3 Games. The position is equal.} 9.
Qb2 Qb4+ $146 (9... b6 10. O-O Bb7 11. Nc3 O-O-O 12. Rac1 Kb8 13. e3 f5 14. a3
{0-1 (30) Goganov,A (2605)-Moiseenko,A (2695) Jerusalem 2015}) 10. Nfd2 $1 ({
Reject} 10. Nbd2 dxc4 11. Qc2 Nxd2 12. Qxd2 cxb3 13. axb3 Bd7 $11) 10... Nxd2
11. Nxd2 dxc4 {[#]} 12. Rc1 $1 O-O 13. Rxc4 Qb6 14. O-O Rd8 (14... Ne7 $142)
15. e3 (15. Bxc6 $142 $1 bxc6 16. Rfc1) 15... Ne7 16. Rfc1 c6 17. h4 Bd7 18.
Qa3 Nd5 19. Ne4 Be8 20. Nc5 Qc7 21. Qb2 Nb6 22. R4c2 Nd7 23. Nd3 a5 24. Nc5
Nxc5 25. Rxc5 Rd6 26. Qa3 Qd8 27. Bf3 f6 28. Qb2 Bf7 29. Kg2 Rd7 30. a3 Rd6 31.
b4 axb4 32. Qxb4 Rd7 33. Rb1 Re7 34. a4 Bg6 35. Rd1 Bf7 36. a5 Qc7 37. Qc3 h6
38. Be2 Be8 39. Rb1 Kh8 40. Bd3 Rd8 41. Be4 Kg8 42. Rb6 Kh8 43. Qb4 Ra8 44. Rc1
f5 45. Bd3 Rd8 46. Be2 e5 (46... Kh7 $16 {keeps fighting.} 47. Rb1 c5 48. dxc5
(48. Qxc5 Qxc5 49. dxc5 Rd5 $18) 48... e5) 47. dxe5 Qxe5 48. Bf3 Qc7 {[#]} (
48... Bf7 $16 {might work better.}) 49. Rb1 $1 $18 Rdd7 50. Qc5 Rf7 $2 (50...
Qe5 {was necessary.} 51. Qxe5 Rxe5 52. Rxb7 Rxa5) 51. Bh5 {White is clearly
winning.} Rd5 52. Qc3 f4 53. Bxf7 f3+ 54. Kh2 Qxf7 55. Rxb7 Bd7 56. e4 Rd6 57.
a6 Qa2 58. R7b2 (58. Qc5 $142 Rd2 59. Qf8+ Qg8 60. Qxg8+ Kxg8 61. a7 Rxf2+ 62.
Kg1) 58... Qxa6 59. Qxf3 {Strongly threatening Qf8+.} Rf6 60. Qe3 Qc4 61. e5
Rf7 62. Rb4 Qc2 63. R1b2 Qf5 64. Rf4 Qh3+ 65. Kg1 Bf5 66. g4 (66. Rb8+ $142 Kh7
67. Qb3) 1-0
(Analyzes with the Tactical Analysis feature of ChessBase 14. Use it to improve your chess.)
Besides Gawain and Vidit, the third person in the lead is Venezuelan GM Eduardo Bonelli Iturrizaga (2671). who beat...
The Venezuelan started an offensive on the kingside with a massive attack but misplayed allowing the Indian to stage a comeback. Karthikeyan started an attack on the queenside, but Iturrizaga had a tactic ready.withstand the attack.
[Site "Dubai"]
[Date "2017.04.09"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Iturrizaga Bonelli, Eduardo"]
[Black "Karthikeyan, P."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A25"]
[WhiteElo "2671"]
[BlackElo "2507"]
[Annotator "TA"]
[PlyCount "145"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
English Opening vs King's Indian with ...Nc6 but without early d3} (7. Nf3 Bxc3
8. Bxc3 d6 9. O-O h6 10. a3 {1/2-1/2 (10) Talla,V (2423) -Mirumian,V (2513)
Orlova 2011}) 7... a5 8. Nge2 Nd4 $146 (8... h6 9. h3 d6 10. O-O Bc5 11. Kh2
Nd4 12. Nxd4 Bxd4 13. Rb1 c6 14. f4 Rb8 {0-1 (58) Voiska ,M (2330)-Vo,H (2261)
Istanbul 2000}) 9. O-O {The position is equal.} c6 10. h3 h6 11. Nxd4 exd4 12.
Ne2 Bxd2 13. Qxd2 c5 14. f4 d6 15. g4 Nh7 16. Ng3 Qh4 17. Qf2 Ra7 18. Rae1 b6
19. Re2 Rae7 20. Qe1 {aiming for Nf5.} Kh8 21. b3 g6 22. f5 gxf5 23. gxf5 Rg8
24. Kh2 $1 (24. Rf3 $2 Ng5 25. Rf1 Nxh3+ 26. Bxh3 Qxg3+ 27. Qxg3 Rxg3+ 28. Kh2
Rxd3 $19) 24... Nf6 25. Bf3 $1 Rg5 26. Rg1 Qf4 27. Rf2 Re8 28. Bd1 (28. Bh5 Qh4
29. Be2 Reg8 $11) 28... Qe5 29. Qd2 Reg8 30. Rf4 Kh7 31. Qf2 Nd7 32. Be2 Nf6
33. Rg2 a4 34. bxa4 Bd7 35. Bd1 Ra8 36. Rh4 Bxa4 $2 ({Black should play} 36...
Rag8 $11) 37. Qd2 $1 $16 (37. Bxa4 $6 Rxa4 38. Kh1 Rb4 $11) 37... Kg7 $2 {[#]}
(37... Rag8 $16 {is a better defense.} 38. Bxa4 Nh5 39. Rxh5 Rxh5) 38. Rxh6 $1
$18 Kxh6 39. h4 Nh7 40. hxg5+ Nxg5 41. Kg1 (41. Bxa4 $142 Rxa4 42. Kh1) 41...
f6 {[#]} 42. Bxa4 (42. Nh5 $1 $18 Bxd1 43. Qxd1) 42... Rxa4 $14 43. Qe2 $36 {
Strongly threatening Qh5+. White has some pressure.} Ra7 $2 (43... Kg7 $14) 44.
Qh5+ $18 Kg7 {intending ...Kg8.} 45. Qg6+ Kf8 46. Nh5 {Qh6+ is the strong
threat.} Rf7 47. Qh6+ ({Don't take} 47. Rb2 $6 d5 $18) 47... Ke7 {[#]} 48. Nxf6
$1 Nf3+ $2 (48... Qxf6 {is a better chance.} 49. Qxg5 Qxg5 50. Rxg5 Rf8) 49.
Kf2 {Hoping for Nd5+.} Qxf6 50. Qxf6+ Kxf6 51. Kxf3 {Endgame KR-KR} Rh7 52.
Rg6+ Ke7 53. Kg2 Rh8 54. e5 dxe5 (54... Rh5 $142 55. Re6+ (55. exd6+ Kd7 $16) (
55. Rxd6 Rxf5 56. Rxb6 Rxe5 $16) 55... Kf7 56. exd6 Rg5+ 57. Kh3 Rxf5) 55. Rxb6
Kf7 56. Re6 Ra8 (56... e4 $142 57. dxe4 Rd8) 57. Rxe5 Ra3 58. Rxc5 Rxd3 59. Rd5
Kf6 60. Kf2 Ra3 61. Ke2 (61. Rxd4 Kxf5 62. Rd2 Ke5 $14) 61... Rc3 62. c5 (62.
Rxd4 Kxf5 63. Kd2 Ra3 $16) 62... Ra3 63. Kd2 ({Not} 63. Rxd4 Kxf5 64. Kd2 Ke6
$16) 63... Rc3 64. a4 ({Less strong is} 64. Rxd4 Rxc5 65. Rh4 Kg5 $16) 64...
Ra3 65. Rxd4 {White mates.} Ke5 66. Rc4 Kd5 67. Rf4 Rh3 68. f6 Rh8 69. f7 Rf8
70. a5 Kxc5 71. a6 Kb6 72. Rf6+ Ka7 73. Ke3 1-0
(Analyzes with the Tactical Analysis feature of ChessBase 14. Use it to improve your chess.)
Pairings of the next round for IND
Rd. | Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
8 | 2 | 8 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2670 | 6 | 5½ | GM | Korobov Anton | 2695 | 1 | |||
8 | 9 | 30 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2571 | 5 | 5 | GM | Rakhmanov Aleksandr | 2665 | 10 | |||
8 | 12 | 17 | GM | Zhigalko Sergei | 2639 | 5 | 5 | IM | Vignesh N R | 2411 | 56 | |||
8 | 13 | 19 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2607 | 5 | 5 | IM | Xu Xiangyu | 2503 | 40 | |||
8 | 14 | 38 | IM | Karthikeyan P. | 2507 | 5 | 5 | GM | Bok Benjamin | 2605 | 20 | |||
8 | 16 | 15 | GM | Salgado Lopez Ivan | 2641 | 4½ | 5 | IM | Siva Mahadevan | 2363 | 70 | |||
8 | 17 | 53 | IM | Nitin S. | 2432 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Mchedlishvili Mikheil | 2602 | 21 | |||
8 | 18 | 23 | GM | Tari Aryan | 2597 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Laxman R.R. | 2403 | 59 | |||
8 | 20 | 61 | Iniyan P | 2399 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Abasov Nijat | 2588 | 26 | ||||
8 | 21 | 27 | GM | Antipov Mikhail Al. | 2586 | 4½ | 4½ | IM | Rathnakaran K. | 2383 | 64 | |||
8 | 24 | 35 | GM | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | 2551 | 4½ | 4½ | Sidhant Mohapatra | 2341 | 76 | ||||
8 | 25 | 37 | GM | Mastrovasilis Athanasios | 2524 | 4½ | 4½ | Kulkarni Rakesh | 2325 | 78 | ||||
8 | 26 | 39 | IM | Kuybokarov Temur | 2504 | 4½ | 4½ | Harikrishnan.A.Ra | 2305 | 85 | ||||
8 | 27 | 73 | FM | Saeed Ishaq | 2360 | 4½ | 4½ | IM | Stany G.A. | 2495 | 42 | |||
8 | 28 | 77 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 2337 | 4½ | 4½ | IM | Salomon Johan | 2487 | 44 | ||||
8 | 30 | 49 | IM | Visakh N R | 2464 | 4½ | 4½ | Ashwath R. | 2242 | 100 | ||||
8 | 31 | 51 | IM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2447 | 4½ | 4½ | Arjun K | 2232 | 102 | ||||
8 | 32 | 41 | GM | Debashis Das | 2501 | 4 | 4 | WIM | Khalafova Narmin | 2303 | 86 | |||
8 | 33 | 45 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | 2483 | 4 | 4 | Arjun Kalyan | 2280 | 91 | ||||
8 | 34 | 101 | Dodeja Pawan | 2235 | 4 | 4 | GM | Kotanjian Tigran | 2469 | 48 | ||||
8 | 35 | 50 | IM | Shyaamnikhil P | 2454 | 4 | 4 | Sankalp Gupta | 2265 | 94 | ||||
8 | 37 | 54 | IM | Asadli Vugar | 2431 | 4 | 4 | CM | Gukesh D | 2260 | 96 | |||
8 | 38 | 57 | IM | Viani Antonio Dcunha | 2410 | 4 | 4 | WIM | Zarkovic Mila | 2256 | 98 | |||
8 | 39 | 118 | Yohan J. | 2164 | 4 | 4 | IM | Padmini Rout | 2400 | 60 | ||||
8 | 40 | 63 | IM | Kanter Eduard | 2383 | 4 | 4 | Kumar Gaurav | 2172 | 115 | ||||
8 | 42 | 71 | FM | Thakur Akash | 2363 | 4 | 4 | Jeet Jain | 2078 | 139 | ||||
8 | 43 | 107 | FM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2218 | 4 | 4 | WGM | Charkhalashvili Inga | 2362 | 72 | |||
8 | 44 | 79 | IM | Rajesh V A V | 2324 | 4 | 4 | Vijay Anand M. | 1956 | 168 | ||||
8 | 45 | 81 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | 2316 | 4 | 4 | CM | Mullick Raahil | 1710 | 203 | |||
8 | 47 | 55 | IM | Tania Sachdev | 2429 | 3½ | 3½ | FM | Mohammad Fahad Rahman | 2182 | 114 | |||
8 | 48 | 65 | IM | Yap Kim Steven | 2379 | 3½ | 3½ | Pranav V | 2149 | 121 | ||||
8 | 51 | 130 | WFM | Cholleti Sahajasri | 2120 | 3½ | 3½ | Raahul V S | 2306 | 84 | ||||
8 | 52 | 87 | CM | Kulkarni Bhakti | 2286 | 3½ | 3½ | CM | Mendonca Leon Luke | 2110 | 131 | |||
8 | 53 | 89 | WIM | Pratyusha Bodda | 2281 | 3½ | 3½ | Ebner Johann | 2028 | 155 | ||||
8 | 54 | 126 | Vantika Agrawal | 2130 | 3½ | 3½ | FM | Kuznetsov Mikhail V. | 2279 | 92 | ||||
8 | 55 | 136 | Priyanka Nutakki | 2084 | 3½ | 3½ | WGM | Maisuradze Nino | 2273 | 93 | ||||
8 | 56 | 164 | Doshi Moksh Amitbhai | 1974 | 3½ | 3½ | Aliyev Ravan | 2256 | 99 | |||||
8 | 57 | 104 | Jayakumaar S | 2229 | 3½ | 3½ | Al Yaghshi M. Hisham | 2056 | 147 | |||||
8 | 58 | 106 | Jaiswal Puneet | 2219 | 3½ | 3½ | Velieva Hurma | 1997 | 162 | |||||
8 | 59 | 110 | Dimarucut Francis Erwin | 2211 | 3½ | 3½ | Krithigga K | 1708 | 204 | |||||
8 | 60 | 146 | Sameir Ramez | 2062 | 3½ | 3½ | AGM | Nishant Malhotra | 2197 | 111 | ||||
8 | 61 | 112 | CM | Aditya Mittal | 2183 | 3½ | 3½ | Siddharth Sabharishankar | 1950 | 169 | ||||
8 | 63 | 142 | WFM | Tarini Goyal | 2077 | 3 | 3 | Saurabh Anand | 2284 | 88 | ||||
8 | 65 | 97 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2259 | 3 | 3 | Panesar Vedant | 2036 | 151 | ||||
8 | 66 | 105 | Prithu Gupta | 2226 | 3 | 3 | Nayak Rajesh | 2034 | 152 | |||||
8 | 67 | 154 | Priyanka K | 2030 | 3 | 3 | Abbasov Vusal | 2211 | 109 | |||||
8 | 70 | 117 | WFM | Srija Seshadri | 2166 | 3 | 3 | Fernandez Dandel | 2022 | 157 | ||||
8 | 72 | 132 | Baivab Mishra | 2105 | 3 | 3 | Dushyant Sharma | 2013 | 159 | |||||
8 | 73 | 171 | Nair Sanjeev | 1938 | 3 | 3 | WFM | Salonika Saina | 2098 | 133 | ||||
8 | 74 | 134 | Salah Romany | 2096 | 3 | 3 | WCM | Isha Sharma | 1878 | 179 | ||||
8 | 75 | 140 | WIM | Gagare Shalmali | 2077 | 3 | 3 | Panda Sambit | 1959 | 167 | ||||
8 | 76 | 194 | De Silva Gihan | 1759 | 2½ | 2½ | Harini S. | 2150 | 119 | |||||
8 | 77 | 122 | WIM | Maroroa Sue | 2148 | 2½ | 2½ | Shourya Jain | 1879 | 178 | ||||
8 | 78 | 124 | WGM | Makropoulou Marina | 2144 | 2½ | 2½ | Saranya Y | 1890 | 176 | ||||
8 | 79 | 128 | IM | Feldman Vladimir | 2121 | 2½ | 2½ | Pankaj Sindhu | 1819 | 188 | ||||
8 | 80 | 174 | Saksham Rautela | 1908 | 2½ | 2½ | WFM | Hallaeva Bahar | 2083 | 137 | ||||
8 | 81 | 138 | Pranav Anand | 2083 | 2½ | 2½ | Reyes Danilo G. | 1750 | 198 | |||||
8 | 82 | 182 | Makhija Aashna | 1858 | 2½ | 2½ | CM | Nikhil Magizhnan | 2077 | 141 | ||||
8 | 83 | 196 | Narendran Gouthaman | 1757 | 2½ | 2½ | WFM | Ovezdurdiyeva Jemal | 2073 | 145 | ||||
8 | 86 | 202 | Narendran V | 1716 | 2½ | 2½ | WFM | Alattar Ghayda M. | 1999 | 161 | ||||
8 | 87 | 210 | Jijo Joy | 1589 | 2½ | 2½ | WFM | Boshra Alshaeby | 1992 | 163 | ||||
8 | 88 | 165 | Abdulkarim Ali | 1972 | 2½ | 2½ | Mohammed Fawwaaz | 1386 | 214 | |||||
8 | 89 | 190 | Srimathi R | 1810 | 2 | 2 | Asmar Elie | 2043 | 149 | |||||
8 | 90 | 160 | Ali Abdulaziz | 2007 | 2 | 2 | Thrish Karthik | 1817 | 189 | |||||
8 | 91 | 187 | Sarvesh Kumar A | 1827 | 2 | 2 | AGM | Srihari L R | 1922 | 173 | ||||
8 | 95 | 186 | Salem Ahmed Salem | 1830 | 2 | 2 | Singh Gurmeher | 1433 | 213 | |||||
8 | 98 | 191 | Alem Ali Hussien | 1795 | 1 | 1½ | Aditya Varun Gampa | 1552 | 212 | |||||
8 | 99 | 177 | Tejaswini Reddy S. | 1889 | 1 | 1 | Kulniyaz Mohammed Ali | 1575 | 211 |
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