Blitz day one: Indians sizzle at the start, fizzle towards the end!

Photos by Maria Emelianova

It was quite unexpected that Vassily Ivanchuk won the World Rapid title. However, nothing unexpected happened on the first day of the Blitz Championships 2016. Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen dominated the field and are currently leading with 10.0/12. The next pack of four players are 1.5 points behind them on 8.5/12. In blitz things change pretty quickly. The main reason being, there is hardly any time to recover. Once you start losing, it is quite possible that you would lose 3-4 games in a row and instead of being a leader, end up in the chaser's pack.

This is exactly what happened with Harika Dronavalli. She started off with a bang - 6.0/6. 1.5 points ahead of the rest of the field. She had beaten strong opponents like Kashlinskaya, Khademalsharieh, Ju Wenjun, Javakhishvili, Stefanova and Tan Zhongyi. She seemed untouchable. However, one slip against Kosteniuk, resulted in another defeat against Anna Muzychuk. And at the end of day one she was one point behind the leader with 6.5/9.

Harika - Khademalsharieh

In some games luck was also flowing Harika's way. From completely lost positions, she would come out unscathed. Take for example this one:

Harika - Javakhishvili

A variation against Fianchetto KID

This particular setup of the King's Indian yielded Harika three wins. The logic is pretty clear. White takes space, but has holes in his position. This requires careful play. Black on the other hand has less space, but is compact and always looking out for some tactical opportunity. Just the kind of opening you want to play in Blitz.

This opening is a big speciality of Surya Shekhar Ganguly. It is quite possible that he has taught Harika the finer nuances of this system. Anyway, have a look at these three games and decide whether you would like to include this opening variation in your repertoire. For further study I would recommend checking the games of Ganguly (14 of them in Mega-Database 2017) and also two classics by David Bronstein - Zita vs Bronstein and Panno vs Bronstein.

The first round of the second day will witness Harika versus Humpy. It will be fun to follow this encounter! As of now with 6.5/9 for Harika and 6.0/9 for Humpy, both the girls have a chance of winning a medal.

Standings after nine rounds

Open section standings after 12 rounds

Anand as always was very solid on day one. He lost two games to Morozevich and Dubov, but scored wins against strong opponents like Wei Yi, Matlakov and Jakovenko. With 7.5/12, he is currently on the 14th position.

Vidit carried forward his form of the Rapid as he beat Onischuk, Moiseenko at the start followed by draws against Anand and Nakamura. However, that's where the fun ended. He lost four games in a row! Talk about the domino effect! He ended the day on 5.5/12.

Ganguly's performance was perhaps the most impressive. He beat Melkumyan, Matlakov, Wojtaszek and Howell. With five draws against strong opponents, he is currently on 6.5/12 and gaining 60 Elo points.

Debashis Das started the day on fire. He scored 3.5/5 with two wins and three draws. But then he lost six games in a row! Unbelievable! Credit goes to him that he didn't give up until the end and won the last round to end day one with 4.5/12.

Lalith Babu beats players like Kozul and Zhigalko and is on 6.5/12. Adhiban won against Ivanchuk and Leko and scored 6.0/12. Great result for Neelotpal as he beat strong opponents like Ghaem Maghami, Laurent Fressinet and Al-Sayed Mohammed.

Performance of Indian players