KIIT R09: Can the local boy stop the Vietnamese force?

by Sagar Shah - 02/06/2017

Nguyen Duc Hoa lost to Vikramjit Singh in the third round. Since then there has been no stopping him as he scored six consecutive victories! With 8.0/9, he is the sole leader in the tournament. Debashis Das, the local boy, beat Farrukh Amonatov in the ninth round, moved to 7.5/9, and has the task of stopping the Vietnamese GM in the final round. While a draw will seal the deal for Nguyen, Debashis will want to play for the win due to his poor tiebreak. Eight players are on 7.0/9. It promises to be an exciting final round! Round nine report from Bhubaneshwar.

Photos by Amruta Mokal

Nguyen beats Nitin, Debashis wins against Amonatov

With 7.0/8, the top board saw S.Nitin from India pitted against Nguyen Duc Hoa from Vietnam

Nitin had the white pieces and the home crowd backing him, but...

...Nguyen was simply too good!

Everything worked just perfectly for the Vietnamese GM. He chose the right opening. Took risks, that paid off with a win! Even though the game was short, it was far from being one sided. Nitin had his pieces lined up for a decisive blow, but Nguyen calculated all the complications accurately and ensured that the Tamil Nadu IM never really got a chance. It was a great game by Nguyen Duc Hoa.

[Event "10th KiiT Festival 2017"]
[Site "Bhubaneshwar"]
[Date "2017.06.01"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Nitin, S."]
[Black "Nguyen, Duc Hoa"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B48"]
[WhiteElo "2426"]
[BlackElo "2481"]
[PlyCount "52"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 {Nguyen goes
for the Taimanov.} 7. Qf3 $5 {An interesting line chosen by Nitin.} Ne5 8. Qg3
h5 9. O-O-O h4 10. Qh3 b5 11. f4 Nc4 12. Bxc4 Qxc4 {Logically White should be
better. He has a lead in development and Black has not yet got any of his
pieces out. But there are no real weaknesses and from a long term point of
view Black has the bishop pair.} 13. Kb1 Bb7 14. f5 Nf6 15. e5 Ne4 16. Nxe4
Bxe4 17. Rd2 (17. fxe6 dxe6 18. Rhe1 Bb4 $15) 17... Rc8 {Black is already
pressing here.} 18. fxe6 dxe6 19. Rhd1 Rh5 $5 20. Qg4 Rxe5 21. Qxh4 {With the
two rooks on d-file and queen on h4 it looks like disaster await on d8, but
Nguyen is as cool as a cucumber.} Bg6 $1 22. b3 (22. Nxe6 Bxc2+ 23. Ka1 Qxh4
$19) 22... Qc3 23. Nf5 Qc7 $1 {Excellent bit of calculation. Black has covered
everything.} 24. Bf4 Bxf5 25. Bxe5 Bxc2+ 26. Kc1 (26. Ka1 Qxe5+ $19) 26... Ba3+
{The game was short, but the Vietnamese GM calculated with great precision.} (
26... Ba3+ 27. Bb2 Be4+ $19) 0-1

With this win Nguyen is now the sole leader with 8.0/9, going into the last round.

On the second board Debashis Das took on the top seed Farrukh Amonatov

The Tajik grandmaster had nearly 150 more Elo points than his opponent and also had the white pieces. He got good attacking chances out of the opening and a critical position was reached after 14 moves.

Debashis has just played the move 14...e5. What should White play?

The right move would have been to ignore the capture of the piece and just play 15.hxg6! If Black takes the knight, then gxh7+ followed by Nxd4 gives White the advantage. On the other hand after 15.hxg6 hxg6 is met with 16.Bh6! when Black is already under a mating attack.

As it turned out, Farrukh retreated his knight to b3 with 15.Nb3? And this turned out to be the decisive mistake of the game as Debashis picked up the e4 pawn with 15...Nxe4 16.fxe4 Bxe4 attacking the h1 rook and the c2 pawn. Farrukh saved his rook with 17.Rg1, but after ...Rxc2 it was already impossible to defend that material imbalance.

Showing great sense of alertness, Debashis was able to beat Amonatov

[Event "10th KiiT Festival 2017"]
[Site "Bhubaneshwar"]
[Date "2017.06.01"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Amonatov, Farrukh"]
[Black "Debashis, Das"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2632"]
[BlackElo "2496"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 g6 {Debashis
converts the game into dragon territory.} 7. g4 Bg7 8. Be3 O-O 9. Qd2 b5 10.
O-O-O Bb7 11. f3 Nbd7 {Black has a harmonious setup and development.} 12. h4
Rc8 13. h5 b4 14. Nce2 e5 $6 {This is not the best move by Debashis, but it is
not so easy to take advantage of it.} 15. Nb3 $2 (15. hxg6 $1 hxg6 (15... exd4
16. gxh7+ Kh8 17. Nxd4 $16 {is clearly better for White.}) 16. Bh6 $1 Nxe4 (
16... exd4 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. Qh8#) 17. fxe4 exd4 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19.
Qh6+ Kf6 20. Nxd4 $16 {White is not even material down and Black king is on
the run. This is really a bad position for Black.}) 15... Nxe4 $1 {Debashis
takes his chance.} 16. fxe4 Bxe4 {Attacking the rook on h1 and the pawn on c2.}
17. Rg1 Rxc2+ 18. Qxc2 Bxc2 19. Kxc2 a5 $17 {The position is still quite
complicated, but Black has the easier game.} 20. Kb1 a4 21. Nbc1 Qc7 22. Nd3 b3
23. Rc1 bxa2+ 24. Ka1 Qa5 25. h6 Bh8 26. Nc3 e4 27. Nxe4 a3 28. Rg2 Re8 29.
Nxd6 Rxe3 30. Nc4 axb2+ 31. Ndxb2 Qc7 32. Rd1 Re8 33. Nd6 Rb8 34. Bb5 Rxb5 35.
Nxb5 Qc6 36. Re2 (36. Nd6 Qxg2) 36... Qxb5 37. Rxd7 Qxd7 {One move changed the
complexion of the entire game and also the tournament! That's how cruel chess
can be!} 0-1

Nguyen Duc Hoa is on 8.0/9. Debashis is the only player within striking distance from him with 7.5/9. All other players are on 7.0/9. This means that the Vietnamese GM only needs a draw with the white pieces to ensure his title. On the other hand a draw doesn't really work well for Debashis who has a poor tie-break. It is quite possible that he finishes out of top five after drawing the game. Hence, it makes sense for him to go all out and try for a win. If he wins the game, he would win the 10th KIIT International Open in front of his home crowd! Now that would be a moment to cherish for a lifetime!

Rank after Round 9

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa		VIE	2481	VIE	8,0	0,0	47,0	50,5
2	5	GM	Debashis Das		IND	2496	ODI	7,5	0,0	45,5	48,0
3	14	IM	Nitin S.		IND	2426	TN	7,0	0,0	50,0	53,5
4	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2526	BAN	7,0	0,0	49,5	53,5
5	16	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2417	TN	7,0	0,0	48,5	53,0
6	10	GM	Babujian Levon		ARM	2438	ARM	7,0	0,0	48,0	52,0
7	2	GM	Ghosh Diptayan		IND	2569	WB	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,5
8	3	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2557	UKR	7,0	0,0	46,0	50,5
9	13	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad		TJK	2433	TJK	7,0	0,0	44,5	48,0
10	8	GM	Grover Sahaj		IND	2478	DEL	7,0	0,0	41,0	44,5
11	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2632	TJK	6,5	0,0	49,5	54,5
12	23	IM	Krishna C R G		IND	2392	AP	6,5	0,0	48,0	51,0
13	27	IM	Ravi Teja S.		IND	2369	AP	6,5	0,0	47,5	51,0
14	48		Saurabh Anand		IND	2266	BIH	6,5	0,0	45,5	49,5
15	35	FM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2317	TN	6,5	0,0	44,5	48,0
16	12	GM	Reefat Bin-Sattar		BAN	2437	BAN	6,5	0,0	44,0	48,0
17	6	GM	Deviatkin Andrei		RUS	2481	RUS	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,5
18	40	FM	Mitrabha Guha		IND	2299	WB	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,5
19	11	GM	Neelotpal Das		IND	2438	WB	6,5	0,0	42,5	46,5
20	22	IM	Iniyan P		IND	2392	TN	6,5	0,0	42,0	46,5
21	49		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2263	MAH	6,5	0,0	42,0	45,0
22	17	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari		IND	2410	KAR	6,5	0,0	41,5	45,0

Standings of round 9

Round 10 on 2017/06/02 at 09:30 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	7	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2481	8		7½	GM	Debashis Das	2496	5
2	2	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2569	7		7	GM	Babujian Levon	2438	10
3	3	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2557	7		7	IM	Nitin S.	2426	14
4	13	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2433	7		7	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2526	4
5	16	GM	Laxman R.R.	2417	7		7	GM	Grover Sahaj	2478	8
6	27	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2369	6½		6½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2632	1
7	48		Saurabh Anand	2266	6½		6½	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2481	6
8	11	GM	Neelotpal Das	2438	6½		6½	IM	Krishna C R G	2392	23
9	12	GM	Reefat Bin-Sattar	2437	6½		6½	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2317	35
10	40	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2299	6½		6½	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2410	17

Complete pairings of round 10

It was raining cats and dogs before the start of the round in Bhubaneshwar

The players went running from the bus to the tournament hall. The round began 15 minutes late and for the first 30 minutes the air condition was not working! You could see players using the scoresheet to fan themselves!

Diptayan Ghosh managed to outwit CRG Krishna in a complicated middlegame. With 7.0/9 Diptayan has chances of a podium finish. He plays against GM Levon Babujian.

R.R. Laxman continued his good run in the event with a win over S. Vikramjit Singh. He is now on 7.0/9 and takes on Sahaj Grover.

Very popular in the playing hall is GM Niaz Murshed!

This playing hall will witness battles for one last time on 2nd of June 2017 from 9.30 a.m. onwards

Download the games from the ChessBase India website (Live games will not be broadcast live for the last round because 9.30 a.m. is too early for the playchess experts in Germany.)

Previous reports on KIIT International 2017:

10th KIIT International about to begin

01: Chandreyee Hajra stuns Padmini Rout

02+03: Ten players on perfect score

04: CRG Krishna shows his class; beats the top seed

05+06: The story of two brilliant combinations

07: All rook endgames are drawn

08: Nitin and Nguyen Duc Hoa lead with 7.0/8