Barberà: 01-05: Himanshu Sharma & Swayams Mishra pursue the leader

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 09/07/2016

A total of 97 players are participating in the XXXIX Open Internacional de Barberà del Vallès "A" tournament and 31 of them are Indians! The Indian challenge was led by GM Shyam Sundar M. and GM Murali Karthikeyan, followed by an array of international masters and under-rated Indians. Himanshu Sharma is performing admirably. He scored a GM norm in the previous event and is tied for the second place with 4.0/5. A briefly illustrated report.

Barberà: 01-05: Himanshu Sharma & Swayams Mishra pursue the leader

The Indians, traditionally, have made a beeline for playing the Catalonian circuit, often going in groups to play and enjoy. The year 2016, though, saw Indians invade Spain. A total of 97 players are participating in the XXXIX Open Internacional de Barberà del Vallès "A" tournament and 31 of them are Indians! The group is second-highest by numbers, behind the Spanish themselves. The day is not far when the Indian contingent will make for the most number of players in a non-Indian tournament.

The Indian challenge was led by GM Shyam Sundar M. and GM Murali Karthikeyan, followed by an array of international masters and under-rated Indians. The tournament is led by IM Cristobal Henriquez (2491) of Chile.

IM Himanshu Sharma (2389)

Himanshu Sharma is performing admirably. He scored a GM norm in the previous event and is tied for the second place with 4.0/5.

White to play

Himanshu found an accurate pathway to victory from here. Can you judge what it is?

[Event "Open Int Barbera"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.07.08"]
[Round "5.8"]
[White "Himanshu, Sharma"]
[Black "Gurevich, Daniel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B10"]
[WhiteElo "2389"]
[BlackElo "2459"]
[PlyCount "117"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Ne5 Nf6 5. d4 g6 6. Nd2 Bg7 7. c3 O-O 8. Bd3
Nc6 9. Ndf3 Nxe5 10. Nxe5 Nd7 11. Nxd7 Bxd7 12. O-O f6 13. Qb3 Bc6 14. f4 e6
15. Be3 Qd6 16. a4 Rae8 17. Qa3 Qc7 18. b4 e5 19. Qb3 e4 20. Be2 Rd8 21. c4 f5
22. b5 Be8 23. c5 g5 24. Qb4 g4 25. a5 Rf6 26. b6 Qb8 27. bxa7 Qxa7 28. Rfb1
Bc6 29. Qc3 Ra8 30. Rb6 Qb8 31. a6 Ra7 32. Rab1 Qc7 33. Qb3 bxa6 34. Rxc6 Rxc6
(34... Qxc6 35. Qb8+) 35. Qxd5+ Kh8 36. Qxf5 Qd8 37. d5 Rf6 38. Qh5 Raf7 39.
Bxg4 Rf8 40. d6 Qa5 41. Qd5 Rg6 42. h3 Qa4 43. c6 Qc2 44. Rc1 Qd3 45. Qxd3 exd3
46. c7 Rxd6 47. c8=Q d2 48. Bxd2 Rxd2 49. Qxa6 Bd4+ 50. Kh1 Rf2 51. f5 Be5 52.
Qh6 Bg7 53. Qe3 Rb2 54. Qe4 Rd2 55. Rd1 Rb2 56. Rd7 Rb6 57. Be2 Rbf6 58. Bd3
Rg8 59. g4 1-0

IM Swayams Mishra is also on 4.0/5.

Half a point behind them, IM Prasanna Rao, IM Anurag Mhamal, GM Murali Karthikeyan and GM Shyam Sundar M. are in close pursuit.

Today, we will focus on some of the lesser known players, though:

Young RA Harikrishnan (2138) is performing at 2582 and is at 3.5/5, undefeated.

[Event "XXXIX Open Internacional de Barberà del"]
[Site "C/ Torre d’en Gorgs, nº 40,"]
[Date "2016.07.05"]
[Round "2.21"]
[White "Harikrishnan, Amirthavalli Rangar"]
[Black "Shyam, Sundar M"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B51"]
[WhiteElo "2138"]
[BlackElo "2526"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2016.07.04"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nd7 4. d4 cxd4 5. Qxd4 a6 6. Bxd7+ Bxd7 7. c4 e5 8.
Qd3 b5 9. Nc3 bxc4 10. Qxc4 Qc8 11. Qd3 Qb7 12. O-O h6 13. Rd1 Rc8 14. b3 Nf6
15. Ba3 Bg4 16. Nd5 Be6 17. Nxf6+ gxf6 18. Qe2 Rc6 19. h3 Rg8 20. Kh1 Qc8 21.
Kh2 h5 22. Rac1 Rxc1 23. Rxc1 Qb7 24. Qc2 Kd7 25. Qd3 Be7 26. Nd2 f5 27. f3
fxe4 28. Nxe4 Bd5 29. Nc3 Bc6 30. Qh7 Rf8 31. Qf5+ Ke8 32. Ne4 Qd7 33. Nf6+
Bxf6 34. Qxf6 Rg8 35. Bxd6 e4 36. Rxc6 exf3 37. Rc8+ 1-0

Some choice tactics:

Dahale-Cruz: White to play

Umudova-Likhit: Black to play

Ortega-Likhit: White won a pawn.

You may comment the answers below and check if you got everything right.

Barcelona is a beauty, from whichever point you look!

Pairings for Round 06:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	IM	Gomez Garrido Camilo Ernesto	2541	4		5	IM	Henriquez Villagra Cristobal	2491	8
2	9	GM	Alvarez Pedraza Aramis	2484	4		4	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar	2545	1
3	3	GM	Grigoryan Karen H.	2536	4		4	IM	Swayams Mishra	2457	15
4	4	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2526	3½		4	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2389	24
5	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2513	3½		3½	IM	Anurag Mhamal	2392	23
6	21	FM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2403	3½		3½	GM	Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis	2501	6
7	19	IM	Aguero Jimenez Luis Lazaro	2415	3½		3½	IM	Oliva Castaneda Kevel	2493	7
8	60		Harikrishnan Amirthavalli Rangarajan	2138	3½		3½	IM	Prasanna Raghuram Rao	2475	11
9	64		Arjun K	2118	3½		3½	GM	Hansen Torbjorn Ringdal	2463	13
10	28	FM	Sos Andreu Eric	2361	3½		3½	FM	Li Di	2426	17

Check the complete pairings here.

Games in PGN