Vivacious Vaishali crushes GMs in Reykjavik
After four rounds we had two Indian players on 4.0/4. They were Vidit Gujrathi and Abhijeet Gupta. In the next two rounds, both of them slowed down with two draws. On the other hand there were two Indians who raced upto 5.0/6 with two consecutive wins. One of them is Magesh Chandran who is playing a tournament after quite some time and the other is R. Vaishali, who is crushing experienced grandmasters with some really tenacious chess! Analysis of Vaishali's victories of Torre and Perelshteyn.
For quite some time R. Praggnanandhaa has been in the chess news all over the world. Of course, becoming the youngest International Master in the world is a brilliant achievement. One mustn't, however, forget how little Pragga began playing chess. It was only by looking at his elder sister Vaishali play the game. Vaishali would work on chess and go to her chess training centre, and the little boy started following her.
Vaishali, as I have always believed, is a special talent. She is fearless and a thoroughly practical player. It is for this reason she can inflict defeats on any opposition of any level. Recently she had been busy studying for her tenth standard examination, which is so very important in India. But as is often the case, she is in great form after having the burden of studying off her mind.
At the Reykjavik Open Vaishali lost the second round against GM Abhijeet Gupta. After that she scored two wins to reach 3.0/4.
[Site "Reykjavik ISL"]
[Date "2017.04.22"]
[Round "5.25"]
[White "Torre, Eugenio"]
[Black "Vaishali, R."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A45"]
[WhiteElo "2455"]
[BlackElo "2259"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "146"]
[EventDate "2017.04.19"]
Bd3 O-O 6. f4 c5 7. c3 b6 8. Ngf3 Ba6 $5 {Exchanging the all important d3
bishop.} 9. Bxa6 Nxa6 10. Ne5 Rc8 11. Bxf6 $5 {A very interesting decision.
Overall Black should not have any problems because both his minor pieces are
pretty good.} Bxf6 12. O-O Nc7 13. Qg4 Nb5 $1 {The knight makes its way from
b5-d6-e4.} 14. f5 exf5 15. Rxf5 Nd6 16. Rh5 Rc7 17. Qh3 h6 18. Qf3 cxd4 19.
exd4 Bg5 20. Rd1 Qf6 21. Qxf6 Bxf6 {Objectiviely White is better because of
his better pawn structure but the rook on h5 looks a little silly.} 22. Nef3
Nc4 23. Nxc4 dxc4 24. Re1 Rd8 25. Kf2 a6 26. Rf5 b5 27. a3 Rc6 28. Ne5 Re6 29.
Ng4 Be7 30. Rxe6 fxe6 31. Re5 Kf7 32. Re2 Bd6 33. Kf3 Ke7 34. g3 Rf8+ 35. Kg2 {
The position is now around even, but Torre tries to outplay his young opponent.
} Kd7 36. Nf2 Rf5 37. Nd1 h5 38. Ne3 Rf6 39. Rf2 Rxf2+ 40. Kxf2 e5 $1 {Black
gets rid of the weakness and what is left is a superior bishop over the white
knight.} 41. dxe5 Bc5 42. Kf3 Ke6 43. Ng2 (43. Ke4 Bxe3 44. Kxe3 Kxe5 45. h3 g5
46. g4 h4 47. Kf3 $11 {would end in a draw.}) 43... Kxe5 44. Nf4 g5 45. Nxh5
g4+ $1 46. Ke2 (46. Kxg4 Be3 47. Nf4 Bc1 48. h4 Bxb2 49. Ne2 Bxa3 50. h5 Bf8 {
And Black should win this.}) 46... Be7 47. Nf4 Bg5 48. Ng2 Ke4 49. Kd1 Be3 50.
Nxe3 $2 {The endgame was already very bad, but this just hastens the end.} Kxe3
51. Ke1 a5 52. Kf1 Kd3 53. Kf2 Kc2 54. h4 gxh3 55. g4 Kxb2 56. g5 h2 57. Kg2
h1=Q+ 58. Kxh1 b4 59. axb4 axb4 60. g6 bxc3 61. g7 c2 62. g8=Q c1=Q+ 63. Kg2 c3
{That's a winning endgame.} 64. Qb8+ Ka1 65. Kh3 c2 66. Qa8+ Kb1 67. Qe4 Qa3+
68. Kh4 Kb2 69. Qe2 Qa4+ 70. Kh5 Qa5+ 71. Kg6 Qd5 72. Qf2 Qe6+ 73. Kh5 Kb1 {
An excellent game by Vaishali.} 0-1
This victory wasn't enough to satiate Vaishali's hunger of beating grandmasters. In the sixth round she scored a fine win with the white pieces against GM Eugene Perelshteyn. And have a look at the game, it was a completely off beat opening where Vaishali managed to outplay her opponent on sheer middlegame strength.
[Site "Reykjavik ISL"]
[Date "2017.04.23"]
[Round "6.15"]
[White "Vaishali, R."]
[Black "Perelshteyn, Eugene"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "2259"]
[BlackElo "2509"]
[Annotator "Sagar,Shah"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate "2017.04.19"]
Bg7 9. Bf1 O-O 10. d4 Qc7 11. Bd3 cxd4 12. cxd4 e5 13. d5 Nc5 14. Bc2 a5 15. a4
Na6 16. Ra3 Nd7 17. Bd3 Nb4 18. Bb5 Nc5 19. Nb3 h6 20. Nxc5 bxc5 21. Bc4 Kh7
22. Bd2 Qd8 23. Rae3 f5 24. exf5 gxf5 {Black has a nice position and already
is slightly better.} 25. Bc3 Qd7 $6 (25... Ra7 {was better. In any case giving
the knight the h4 square was not a good idea.}) 26. Nh4 $1 Ba6 27. b3 (27. Bxa6
Rxa6 28. g4 $1 f4 (28... fxg4 29. Bxb4 cxb4 30. Qd3+ $18) 29. Re4 $16) 27...
Bxc4 28. bxc4 Qf7 29. Rg3 f4 30. Rg6 f3 31. Qb1 $1 {This is just game over!}
Kg8 32. Nxf3 Rad8 33. Bd2 Qf5 34. Bxh6 Kh7 35. Rxg7+ Kxh6 36. Qxf5 Rxf5 37. Rg4
Rb8 38. Rb1 Rbf8 39. Rb3 Rf4 40. Nxe5 $1 {Very alert for any tactical trick!}
Rxg4 41. Nxg4+ Kg5 42. Rg3 Rf4 43. Ne3+ Kf6 44. Rg4 Rxg4 45. Nxg4+ Kg5 46. Ne3
Nd3 47. Nd1 Ne5 48. Nb2 Kf4 49. h4 Ke4 50. h5 Kd4 51. h6 Kc3 52. h7 Ng6 53. f4
{A great win for Vaishali.} 1-0
Player overview for IND
| SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pts. | Rk. | Rp | K | rtg+/- | ||
| 8 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2670 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 10 | 2776 | 10 | 9,10 | |
| 14 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2607 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 4 | 2715 | 10 | 9,00 | |
| 25 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 2521 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4,5 | 28 | 2457 | 10 | -2,20 | |
| 29 | GM | Panchanathan Magesh Chandran | 2494 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5,0 | 2 | 2593 | 10 | 7,80 | |
| 30 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | 2491 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 60 | 2420 | 10 | -3,70 | |
| 38 | IM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2447 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4,5 | 30 | 2443 | 10 | 1,30 | |
| 41 | IM | Tania Sachdev | 2429 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 3,5 | 69 | 2336 | 10 | -5,40 | |
| 42 | IM | Saptarshi Roy | 2425 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 3,5 | 103 | 2215 | 10 | -14,00 | |
| 43 | FM | Sarin Nihal | 2424 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4,5 | 36 | 2483 | 10 | 5,30 | |
| 45 | GM | Sundararajan Kidambi | 2422 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4,5 | 25 | 2506 | 10 | 7,90 | |
| 50 | IM | Karavade Eesha | 2405 | IND | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3,5 | 81 | 2241 | 10 | -10,10 | |
| 60 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2349 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 3,5 | 78 | 2270 | 20 | -7,40 | |
| 64 | Garg Aradhya | 2315 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 3,5 | 79 | 2263 | 20 | -4,20 | ||
| 75 | FM | Rajdeep Sarkar | 2273 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 3,5 | 73 | 2302 | 20 | 6,80 | |
| 79 | WIM | Vaishali R | 2259 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5,0 | 3 | 2511 | 20 | 38,00 | |
| 186 | Gopakumar Siddharth | 1826 | IND | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 3,0 | 138 | 2041 | 20 | 29,20 |
View the rankings after round six
