Stany's gem from Malakoff
After an excellent performance, very often we see players slumping and producing sub-par results. Most often it is due to complacency and a feeling of satisfaction. But things were quite different for Stany. After making his maiden grandmaster norm in Lucopen, the youngster from Karnataka kept up the momentum and won the Malakoff Open 2016. He sent us a gem of a game against Vladimir Sveshnikov which we now present to you.
The stage was set. It was the penultimate round of the Malakoff Open 2016. There were only two leaders with a score of 6.0/7. The Indian International Master Stany.G.A was up against his Lithuanian opponent Vladimir Sveshnikov. The winner of this game would almost in all certainty win the tournament. Sveshnikov is a Sicilian player. But when Stany opened the game with 1.e4, he pushed his c-pawn only upto the c6 square. It was clear that Stany's reputation as a fierce attacker was well known to his opponent and Vladimir was trying to play it safe. However, little did he know what he was in for! As is usual for the Indian he gained space in the centre and in the opposite side castling position, launched a tremendous attack on the opponent. Before Sveshnikov could come to grips with what had transpired, his king was checkmated! What a beautiful attacking game.
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.04.23"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Stany.g.a"]
[Black "Sveshnikov, Vladimir"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2443"]
[BlackElo "2366"]
[Annotator "Stany.g.a"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2007.11.13"]
of the tournament. I tried to control my emotions and was just prepared to
play a good game.} 1. e4 c6 {My opponent is a sicilian player but occasionally
plays Caro kann or Alekhine Defence.} 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6.
Be3 Qb6 7. Nc3 c4 $5 {I was aware of 7...Nc6 or 7...Qb2 lines. So c4 came as a
surprise} 8. Rb1 Bb4 9. Bd2 (9. O-O {i thought allowing Bc3 and getting double
pawn was similar to french defence line But in that opening White will have
bishop on c1 and rook on a1 which would allow him to play a4-Ba3 but here I
have already moved my bishop and rook. so I decided to play Bd2.}) 9... Bxc3
10. Bxc3 Nc6 11. b3 cxb3 12. Rxb3 Qc7 {till here my opponent played very fast
and he had 1 hour 33 minutes on his clock.} 13. Qb1 $1 {I think this was the
key move. Now my opponent started to think. My idea was to force him play Rb8
after which Bb2-Ba3-Bd6 looks very powerful.} O-O-O $2 {Completely unaware of
the dangers to come.} (13... Rb8 {was forced according to me.} 14. O-O Nge7 15.
Bb2 O-O 16. Ba3 $14 {I had seen till here.}) (13... b6 14. Bb5 Nge7 15. Bb4) (
13... Na5 14. Ra3 Nc4 15. Qb5+) 14. O-O Nge7 15. Qb2 Bg4 16. Rb1 Rd7 17. Ba6 $1
{After the game he told me that he was only thinking about Qa3 but had
completely missed this move.} Nd8 (17... bxa6 18. Ba5 $1 {The point of 17.Ba6}
Qxa5 19. Rb8+ Kc7 20. Qb7#) 18. Bb4 {The second blow. Threatening Bd6 or Be7.}
bxa6 (18... Bxf3 19. Bxe7 Rxe7 20. Rc3 Nc6 21. Bxb7+ Qxb7 22. Rxc6+ Qxc6 23.
Qb8+ Kd7 24. Rb7+ Qxb7 25. Qxb7+ Kd8 26. Qb8+ Kd7 27. Qxh8 $18) 19. Bd6 (19.
Ba5 $2 {I was going to make this move thinking that it would lead to
spectacular mate but luckily I realised that it's a blunder} Qxa5 20. Rb8+ Kc7
21. Rc8+ {i thought Qb8 is mate next!} Nxc8 22. Qb8+ Kc6 {I was missing this
move while calculating. Once I saw this I decide to play 19.Bd6.}) 19... Rxd6
20. exd6 Qxd6 21. Ne5 Be2 (21... Nec6 22. Rc3 Qc7 23. Nxc6 Nxc6 24. Rxc6 Qxc6
25. Qb8+ Kd7 26. Rb7+ $18) 22. Rb8+ Kc7 23. Qb7+ {And the final one} Nxb7 24.
R1xb7# {my opponent was kind enough to play until mate!} 1-0
A draw in the last round ensured that Stany won the tournament with 7.5/9, half a point ahead of others. He received 1500 Euros for his victory and his Elo rating has shot upto 2476! With two GM norms and 24 Elo points left, the youngster from Karnataka seems all set to become a grandmaster pretty soon.
Final Standings after nine rounds
The complete list of standings
Till date Stany has played four tournaments in France (Liffre, Sautron, Lille and Malakoff) and has either finished clear first or joint first in them. There definitely seems to be a French connection! This time he is taking back with 2500 Euros as prize money. So what is Stany going to do with Rs.189879.08 that he was won?!! "I am going to save the money and use it to play in stronger events in future."
In our previous article based on Stany's success in Lucopen,Lille, the 23-year-old had told us how working with IM Saravanan had helped him improve as a player. He further added, "We are working to broaden my opening repertoire. I always used to play limited openings. He suggested me to play Grunfeld. I prepared the opening with him before this trip and it is working well for me." Stany is looking forward to another trip to Europe in July and will most probably play in Biel in Switzerland and Vlissingen in Netherlands.
ChessBase India congratulates all the Indian players for their excellent performance at the Malakoff Open 2016.