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World Rapid 11-15: Ivanchuk wins the title, Vidit wins hearts!

by Sagar Shah - 29/12/2016

47-year-old Vassily Ivanchuk won the World Rapid title by scoring 11.0/15. Somewhere in the same playing hall a boy not even half his age was winning hearts. 22-year-old Vidit Gujrathi won a lot of hearts at the event by beating world class opponents like Jobava, Wojtaszek, MVL, and Radjabov. We have analysis of Vidit's nerve-wracking encounter with Magnus Carlsen and also entertaining pictures, and complete results of Indian participants.

Photos by Maria Emelianova

Ivanchuk scored 11.0/15 and with the best tie-break became the World Rapid Champion!

Chuky began the day as the sole leader with 8.0/10. In the eleventh round itself he had a setback and lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Ivanchuk lost the first game of day three to Ian Nepomniachtchi

He then drew two of his games against Alexander Grischuk and Leiner Dominguez. The battle between two 1969-born people was set up in the penultimate round.

Everything was going well for the Indian until that fateful moment when he overlooked a knight fork!

Vishy has just moved his rook from f6-f5. I am sure you spotted why this is a huge error!
[Event "World Rapid 2016"]
[Site "Doha QAT"]
[Date "2016.12.28"]
[Round "14.3"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B41"]
[WhiteElo "2779"]
[BlackElo "2747"]
[Annotator "SHAH,SAGAR"]
[PlyCount "122"]
[EventDate "2016.12.26"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Qd3 O-O 8. Be2
Qc7 9. O-O Nc6 10. Nxc6 dxc6 11. Bg5 Be7 12. Be3 b5 13. Rac1 b4 14. Nb1 c5 15.
Nd2 e5 {Ivanchuk sees that Anand will take time to reroute his knight to the
d5 square. But the same goes for the knight on f6. It's quite far away from d4.
} 16. Qc2 Bb7 17. Rfd1 a5 18. f3 Nd7 19. Nf1 {The knight is aiming for e3 to
d5.} Nb8 {The black knight is going from c6 to d4.} 20. Bd2 Nc6 21. Ne3 Nd4 22.
Qd3 Bg5 23. Nd5 Qd8 {Black is already better because after the exchange of the
bishops, the knight on d5 can be picked up by the bishop on b7 but the knight
on d4 will remain untouched.} 24. Bf1 Ra6 25. Bxg5 Qxg5 26. Qe3 Qh5 27. Rd2 Rh6
28. h3 Kh8 29. Rf2 Qh4 30. f4 exf4 31. Qxf4 Qxf4 32. Rxf4 Re6 {Once again,
it's black who is pushing in this endgame.} 33. Bd3 f6 34. Ra1 Bc6 35. a3 Nb3
36. Rd1 Rb8 37. Rf2 Ree8 38. g4 Nd4 39. axb4 axb4 40. Ra1 h6 41. Ra5 {Vishy
has managed to activate his forces.} Nb3 42. Ra6 Nd4 43. Ra5 Nb3 44. Ra6 Bd7 {
Ivanchuk wants to play on, but he no longer has an edge here.} 45. Rd6 Rb7 46.
Nf4 (46. Nb6 $5 Be6 47. e5 $1 fxe5 48. Rxe6 $18) 46... Kg8 47. Ng6 Re6 48. Rd5
Be8 49. e5 $1 Bf7 (49... Bxg6 50. Bxg6 Rxe5 51. Rd8+) 50. Rd8+ Re8 51. Rxe8+
Bxe8 52. Be4 Ra7 53. Bd5+ Bf7 54. exf6 gxf6 55. Rxf6 {White has won a pawn and
is pushing in this position.} Bxd5 56. cxd5 Kg7 57. Rb6 Nd2 58. Ne5 Re7 59.
Rg6+ Kf8 60. Rf6+ (60. Nd3 $16) 60... Kg7 61. Rf5 $4 {One of the worst
blunders of Anand's career.} Rxe5 0-1

"Lev, you know I just picked up the Anish virus. Seven draws in last eight rounds!"

With 9.0/15 Anand finished fifteenth. Not a bad performance but if the game against Ivanchuk had gone his way he might well have been fighting for the top honours.

In the last round Ivanchuk scored a win over Hrant Melkumyan and became the World Rapid Champion

Ivanchuk's performance

Final Ranking after 15 Rounds

Rk. SNo     Name FED RtgI Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3   TB4  n w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 10   GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2771 11,0 2747 129,0 0,0 7 15 11 8,19 2,81 20 56,2
2 12   GM Grischuk Alexander RUS 2767 11,0 2740 128,5 0,0 7 15 11 8,23 2,77 20 55,4
3 1   GM Carlsen Magnus NOR 2906 11,0 2701 127,5 0,0 7 15 11 11,52 -0,52 20 -10,4
4 5   GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2805 10,0 2738 130,5 0,0 8 15 10 9,00 1,00 20 20,0
5 13   GM Yu Yangyi CHN 2743 10,0 2724 122,5 0,0 7 15 10 8,11 1,89 20 37,8
6 3   GM Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 2812 10,0 2713 125,5 0,0 8 15 10 9,65 0,35 20 7,0
7 62   GM Anton Guijarro David ESP 2605 10,0 2669 112,0 0,0 8 15 10 6,67 3,33 20 66,6
8 51   GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2643 9,5 2758 125,5 0,0 7 15 9,5 5,77 3,73 20 74,6
9 11   GM Aronian Levon ARM 2770 9,5 2749 133,0 0,0 7 15 9,5 8,15 1,35 20 27,0
10 6   GM Dominguez Perez Leinier CUB 2803 9,5 2711 127,5 0,0 8 15 9,5 9,51 -0,01 20 -0,2

Alexander Grischuk and Magnus Carlsen also scored 11.0/15 but had to be content with the second and third spot respectively

Grischuk gets some special tips from his long time friend Baadur Jobava

Three wins in a row, the last one being against Ian Nepomniachtchi propelled Alexander to the second place

Magnus was not in the best of forms throughout the event and had to settle for a bronze

Vivacious Vidit

If someone were to ask, which Indian player would be best among his country mates, the answer would have been unanimously Vishy Anand. Especially because there was no Harikrishna. However, Vidit Gujrathi has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with. The boy from Nashik showed amazing performance and finishing half point ahead of Anand with 9.5/15. He ended on the eighth spot and gained 75 Elo points. His rapid rating is now 2718!

 

ChessBase India contacted Vidit after the event. "Today was a very mixed day. I started off poorly - 0.5/3. The way I lost was especially painful. It was a close game against Magnus and losing in a completely drawn game against Melkumyan was a pity. But I am happy with how I bounced back in the last two games. 2.0/2 and that too in a convincing way is something I am quite happy about."

Magnus Carlsen vs Vidit Gujrathi

[Event "World Rapid 2016"]
[Site "Doha QAT"]
[Date "2016.12.28"]
[Round "12.1"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B13"]
[WhiteElo "2840"]
[BlackElo "2689"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2016.12.26"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Ne5 {The only strong player who
has played this in a long game is Pentala Harikrishna.} Nf6 6. Bb5 Bd7 7. Nxd7
Qxd7 {White gets the bishop pair, but Black's play is natural and easy.} 8. c3
e6 9. O-O Bd6 10. Re1 O-O 11. Bd3 Qc7 12. g3 h6 13. f4 Rab8 14. a4 a6 15. Qe2
Rfe8 16. Qf1 {Magnus starts some outrageous manoeuvres. Meanwhile Vidit keeps
making simple and solid move.} Nd7 17. Nd2 f5 18. Nf3 Nf6 19. Be3 Ne4 20. Ne5
Rf8 21. Qg2 Nxe5 22. fxe5 Be7 23. Rf1 Bg5 24. Bxg5 hxg5 25. g4 $1 {Keeping the
pressure on Black.} Qe7 (25... fxg4 26. Bxe4 dxe4 27. Qxe4 $16) 26. a5 g6 27.
c4 Kg7 28. Rac1 Rbd8 29. cxd5 exd5 30. Kh1 Rd7 31. gxf5 gxf5 32. Bxe4 $6 {
A little bit too impatient.} (32. Qf3) (32. Rf3 $11) 32... dxe4 33. e6 Qxe6 (
33... Rd6 34. Rc7 $1 Qxc7 35. Qxg5+ Kh7 36. Qh5+ Kg7 37. Rg1+ $18) 34. Qxg5+
Kh8 (34... Qg6 35. Qh4 $16) 35. Rc5 Rg7 36. Qh4+ Rh7 (36... Kg8 $1 $11) 37. Qf4
e3 $6 {An oversight.} (37... Qf6 $14) 38. Re5 Qc6+ 39. d5 Qb5 (39... Qc5 $16)
40. Rg1 (40. Rxf5 $18) 40... Qxb2 41. Rxe3 $18 {White is just winning now.
Black king is just too weak.} Rc8 42. d6 Qf6 43. Re6 Qc3 (43... Qxe6 44. Qd4+
$18) 44. d7 Rf8 45. Re8 Qc6+ 46. Rg2 {Everything is controlled and Black must
resign.} 1-0

 

The way Vidit fought against the World Champion was tremendous

A huge sigh of relief on World Champion's face

"You are really strong!"

A huge heartbreak for Vidit was losing the Rook versus rook + bishop endgame against Hrant Melkumyan.
[Event "World Rapid 2016"]
[Site "Doha QAT"]
[Date "2016.12.28"]
[Round "13.8"]
[White "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Black "Melkumyan, Hrant"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B36"]
[WhiteElo "2689"]
[BlackElo "2633"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "188"]
[EventDate "2016.12.26"]
[EventType "rapid"]
1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. e4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Nxd4 7. Qxd4 d6 8.
Bg5 Bg7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. Be2 a5 11. O-O a4 12. Qe3 Qa5 13. Rac1 Be6 14. f4 Rfc8
15. b3 axb3 16. axb3 Qc5 17. Qxc5 Rxc5 18. Bf3 Ra3 19. Rb1 h6 20. Bh4 Bxc4 21.
bxc4 Rxc3 22. Rxb7 g5 23. Bf2 R5xc4 24. fxg5 hxg5 25. Rxe7 Rc7 26. Rxc7 Rxc7
27. h3 Nh7 28. h4 Be5 29. Rd1 Kg7 30. hxg5 Nxg5 31. Be3 Ne6 32. Bg4 Kf6 33.
Rf1+ Ke7 34. Bh5 f6 35. Rc1 Rb7 36. Kf1 Rb3 37. Bf2 Ng5 38. Bg6 Ne6 39. Bf5 Rb2
40. Bxe6 Kxe6 41. Rc4 Ra2 42. Be3 Bg3 43. Bd4 Bf4 44. Rb4 Rd2 45. Ra4 Be5 46.
Be3 Rb2 47. Bf2 Bc3 48. Rc4 Be5 49. Ra4 Kf7 50. Be3 Kg6 51. Bd4 Rd2 52. Be3 Rc2
53. g4 Rb2 54. Rc4 Ra2 55. Rb4 Rh2 56. Rb8 Rh4 57. Ra8 Kf7 58. Ra7+ Kg6 59. Ra8
Rh2 60. g5 Rh4 61. gxf6 Rxe4 62. Kf2 Kxf6 63. Kf3 Rh4 64. Bf2 Rb4 65. Ra2 Rb3+
66. Ke2 Kf5 67. Rc2 d5 68. Kd1 Bf4 69. Ra2 Ke4 70. Ra4+ Kf3 71. Ba7 Rc3 72. Ra1
d4 73. Bxd4 Rd3+ 74. Kc2 Rxd4 75. Rd1 {This should not be a difficult endgame
for Vidit to handle. However, as we shall see, when short on time even simple
things start looking complex.} Ra4 76. Kb3 Ra8 77. Kc4 Rc8+ 78. Kb5 Ke4 79. Rd7
Be5 80. Kb6 Bd4+ 81. Kb7 Rc1 82. Re7+ Kd5 83. Rd7+ (83. Re2 Rb1+ 84. Kc7 Be5+
85. Kd7 Rb7+ 86. Kd8 $11 {is the active way to defend.} Ke6 87. Rc2 $11) 83...
Ke5 84. Rc7 Bc5 85. Kc8 Kd5 86. Kd7 {Vidit has setup the second rank defence.}
Rb1 87. Kc8 Bd6 88. Rb7 Ra1 89. Kd7 Ra5 90. Kc8 (90. Ke8 $1 Ke6 91. Re7+ $11 {
is a common defensive technique.}) 90... Ke6 91. Rb6 Ra7 92. Rb5 $2 (92. Rc6 {
was the only move to draw the game.}) 92... Rc7+ 93. Kd8 Rc6 94. Rb7 Ra6 0-1

 

Hrant Melkumyan is happy after winning that drawn endgame

Vidit didn't give up and scored two back to back wins against Vladimir Onischuk and Teimour Radjabov. In the end Vidit scored 8 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses. Highly fighting chess.

Vidit Gujrathi's performance

Vidit's performance which netted him 76 rating points and propelled him 2700+ in the rating charts

With four points out of the last five rounds Adhiban finished with a respectable 8.5/15

Women's section

Anna Muzychuk lead right from the start and won the event with an extra point over her nearest rivals

Starting as the second seed Anna went unbeaten and scored 9.5/12 to clinch the gold

Alexandra Kosteniuk won the silver medal

Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia won the bronze

Humpy played well on the last day, scored 7.0/12, and finished tenth

Harika scored 6.5/12 and finished sixteenth

Final Ranking after 12 Rounds

Rk. SNo     Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3   TB4  n w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 2   GM Muzychuk Anna UKR 2570 9,5 2491 74,5 0,0 5 12 9,5 7,44 2,06 20 41,2
2 3   GM Kosteniuk Alexandra RUS 2553 8,5 2489 77,0 0,0 6 12 8,5 7,18 1,32 20 26,4
3 5   GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2549 8,0 2455 76,5 0,0 6 12 8 7,66 0,34 20 6,8
4 21   IM Khademalsharieh Sarasadat IRI 2386 7,5 2499 76,5 0,0 5 12 7,5 4,54 2,96 20 59,2
5 6   GM Ju Wenjun CHN 2542 7,5 2463 75,0 0,0 6 12 7,5 7,45 0,05 20 1,0
6 27   WGM Abdumalik Zhansaya KAZ 2323 7,5 2445 65,5 0,0 5 11 6,5 4,10 2,40 20 48,0
7 1   GM Lagno Kateryna RUS 2594 7,0 2488 76,5 0,0 6 12 7 7,87 -0,87 20 -17,4
8 4   GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2552 7,0 2449 70,0 0,0 6 12 7 7,92 -0,92 20 -18,4
9 28   WGM Saduakassova Dinara KAZ 2321 7,0 2449 69,5 0,0 6 12 7 4,60 2,40 20 48,0
10 10   GM Koneru Humpy IND 2486 7,0 2419 72,5 0,0 6 12 7 7,36 -0,36 20 -7,2

Performance of Indian players

SNo   Name RtgI FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pts. Rk. K rtg+/- Group
10 GM Koneru Humpy 2486 IND 1 0 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 0       7,0 10 20 -7,20 Women World Rapid
14 GM Harika Dronavalli 2464 IND 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 ½ 0 1       6,5 16 20 -13,80 Women World Rapid
7 GM Anand Viswanathan 2802 IND 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 9,0 16 20 -13,40 Open World Rapid
50 GM Adhiban B. 2645 IND 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 8,5 34 20 -3,60 Open World Rapid
51 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2643 IND 1 1 1 0 1 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 9,5 8 20 74,60 Open World Rapid
54 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2631 IND ½ ½ 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 9,0 21 20 19,00 Open World Rapid
71 GM Debashis Das 2571 IND ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 1 7,0 70 20 -5,60 Open World Rapid
75 GM Lalith Babu M R 2549 IND 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 0 7,5 60 20 -13,80 Open World Rapid
94 GM Neelotpal Das 2387 IND ½ 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 6,0 90 20 7,00 Open World Rapid

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