Banjan

Dubai Rd. 8: Five players lead

The eighth round of the Dubai Open Chess Tournament saw bloody fights on the top boards. The seventh round leaders on the first table, GM Shabalov and GM Fedoseev settled for draws which allowed others to catch up.

Among the Indians, GM RR Laxman continued his superb showing with a win over compatriot GM Abhijeet Gupta. GM Laxman and GM Murali Karthikeyan now share the lead among the Indians at 5.5/6.

You may check the pairings for the ninth and the final round here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=9&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Dubai Rd. 7: Shabalov and Fedoseev lead, Indians play catch-up

The overnight leaders at the Dubai Open Chess Tournament settled for draws except GM Shabalov of USA and GM Fedoseev of Russia. They won their respective games to set up a top-board clash in the penultimate round. Shabalov and Fedoseev are on 6/7 points!

Amongst the Indian players, IMs Sayantan Das and Rathnakaran lead the way with 5.0/7 while the others are playing catch-up with 4.5/7. GM Sahaj Grover suffered an upset loss to Rakesh Kulkarni (2319) and is left behind at 3.5/9.

You may check out the pairings for round 8 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=8&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

Eight players tied for lead at Dubai Open, IM Rathnakaran leads the Indian charge

The 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament is getting heavier at the top with eight players sharing the lead at 5.0/6.

The Indian’s are having a tough time at this extremely strong open tournament with IM Rathnakaran being the sole Indian at 4.5/6. In a curious case, many Indian players have been pitted against each other for their seventh round games!

You may check out the complete pairings for the seventh round here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

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IM Sameer Kathmale beats GM Ehlvest, three lead with 4.0/4

GM David Howell, GM Nils Grandelius and GM Yuri Solodovnichenko won their respective games to share the lead with 4.0/4 at the ongoing 17th Dubai Open Chess Tournament, 2015.

The Indians had a fairly good day with IM Sameer Kathmale (2289) of Maharashtra, India managing to win against GM Jaan Ehlvest (2547) of USA. Amongst the other players from Maharashtra state, untitled players Rakesh Kulkarni and Abhishek Kelkar also had good outings as they held higher rated players to draws meanwhile Aniruddha Deshpande won against Egyptian IM Imed Abdelbabbi. The highest seed amongst Indians GM Abhijeet Gupta lost to the attacking Amerian GM Alexander Shabalov.

You may check the pairings for round 5 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=5&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

17th Dubai Chess Open begins with 39 Grandmasters, 31 Indians in fray

The 17th edition of the traditional Dubai Chess Open began at the Dubai Chess & Culture Club in the UAE. Over the years, this open tournament has been a breeding ground for many talented chess-players.

The top seed of the event GM David Howell seems to not have faced any problems after three rounds of play as he shares the lead with eleven other Grandmasters at 3.0/3.

Indians make up for 31 of the total 155 players playing which is even more than the players from the host country! GM Abhijeet Gupta (2629) leads the way for Indians at 2.5/3.

As can be expected, there were numerous noticeable upsets over the course of three rounds. In the following example, young Tamil Nadu youngster and former National U-11 champion Ram L. Arvind finds a cute win.

Black won with 1…Nh3! 2. gxh3 Qh1+ 3. Bg1 Qxf3+ 4. Bf2 Bh2! forcing mate.

You may check the pairings for round 4 here: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr168053.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=4&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984

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Doeberl Cup 2015: Three Indians in fray

Three Indian players are competing at the O2C Doeberl Cup Premier, 2015. GMs Surya Shekhar Ganguly, R.B. Ramesh and WGM AarthieRamaswamy had a sedate start to the event by drawing their first round games and winning the second.

The top-seed GM Loek van Wely had a rough first day where he lost to Australian IM Gary Lane (Elo. 2350).

In a notable coincidence, the husband-wife pair of Gm R.B. Ramesh and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy found themselves facing each other in the very first round. Though the game eventually did end in a draw, it was by no means a pre-arranged result as WGM Ramaswamy went all out with a classical bishop sacrifice.

Pairings for Round 3 (Top 12 boards) :

Bo.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Pts.	Name	Rtg
1	Wallis Christopher	2359	2	2	Zhou Weiqi	2627
2	Lane Gary W.	2350	2	2	Smirnov Anton	2410
3	Johansen Darryl K	2409	2	2	Zelesco Karl	2252
4	Morris James	2401	2	2	Yuan Ye	2114
5	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2619	1½	2	Litchfield Frederick	2013
6	Heberla Bartlomiej	2556	1½	1½	Puccini Jack	2265
7	Loh Zachary	2230	1½	1½	Ramesh R.B.	2472
8	Izzat Kanan	2434	1½	1½	Atzmon-Simon Barak	2127
9	Bliznyuk Andrey	2093	1½	1½	Tan Justin	2407
10	Stojic Dusan	2147	1½	1½	Bjelobrk Igor	2366
11	Li Zuhao Luke	2323	1½	1½	Press Harry	1828
12	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2042	1½	1½	Dale Ari	2321

Aeroflot Chess Rd. 6: Sasikiran loses, Adhiban wins

Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran lost to co-leader Russian GM Daniil Dubov to lose the lead at the Aeroflot Open, 2015. Playing the black side of a Ruy Lopez, Sasikiran was holding tight in a rook endgame until an unfortunate slip cost him the game.

Sasi (Black) to play and reach the time control... — Sasi (Black) to play and reach the time control…

Reaching the time-control, white had just played 40.Ra3 with the point that 40…Rxc2? 41.Rc3 Rxg2 42.Rg3+ and the b pawn queens. Hence, black should have played something like 40…Kf6! where he holds. Instead, Sasi went captured on c2 and ended up losing after 40…Rxc2 41.Rc3 Rd2 when the b-pawn is simply too fast.

Dubov shares lead with Nepomniachtchi

Sasi’s slip proved costly for him, enabling GM Dubov to share the lead with GM Nepomniachtchi who won his game.

Meanwhile, GM Adhiban registered a very important victory with the black pieces agains GM Korobov of Ukraine where he nursed his advantage to a winning rook endgame. This win took his tally to a commendable 4.5/6 in the super-strong field.

The other Indians in the fray had a bad day with GM Sethuraman, GM Vishnu Prasanna and IM Swayams Mishra drawing their games. GM Ankit Rajpara had to face defeat despite playing the white pieces while GM Gujrathi lost defending with black pieces. GM Sandipan Chanda too slipped to suffer another loss.

Results of Indian players in Group A

Name	Rtg	Result	Name	Rtg
Dubov Daniil	2627	1 – 0	Sasikiran Krishnan	2682
Korobov Anton	2694	0 – 1	Adhiban B.	2646
Jumabayev Rinat	2572	1 – 0	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2625
Mozharov Mikhail	2555	½ – ½	Sethuraman S.P.	2623
Swayams Mishra	2440	½ – ½	Goganov Aleksey	2598
Kotronias Vasilios	2565	½ – ½	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2477
Ankit R. Rajpara	2477	0 – 1	Yilmaz Mustafa	2570
Sandipan Chanda	2569	0 – 1	Asgarizadeh Ahmad	2412

(winners are in bold)

All standings

Dull day for Indians at Aeroflot Open, 2015

The Indian chess-players had a dull day in the fifth round of the Aeroflot Open, 2015. The Aeroflot has traditionally been a very strong event with many of the best grandmasters competing in Moscow, Russia.

Sasikiran & 3 others lead

At the end of five rounds, four players viz., GM Ian Nepomniachtchi , GM Jorden Van Foreest, GM Daniil Dubov and GM Krishnan Sasikiran lead the pack with 4.0/5. Indian star GM Sasikiran settled for a draw with white pieces after 29 moves with co-leader GM Van Foreest. GM Nepomniachtchi and GM Dubov had to win their respective games to join the leaders.

The other Indians in the fray had a dour outing.

Adhiban, Gujrathi, Rajpara & Swayams draw

Grandmasters Adhiban, Gujrathi, Rajpara drew their respective games with players rated lower to them. IM Swayams Mishra held fort against higher rated GM Pavel Pnkratov of Russia to earn a draw.

Sethuraman, Chanda & Prasanna lose

GMs Sethuraman, Chanda and Vishnu Prasanna had to concede losses to players rated higher than them. India’s National champion GM Sethuraman lost to Hungarian star GM Richard Rapport while GM Sandipan Chanda fell to Russian GM Aleksey Goganov. GM Prasanna had to accept defeat against UAE’s strongest player GM Salem A.R. Saleh.

Results and pairings for Indian players: http://chess-results.com/tnr164197.aspx?lan=1&art=25&fedb=IND&wi=821

You can watch the live broadcast of the games in your FollowChess App.

Harika bows out, Russia vs. Ukraine Finals

In a nail biting finish to the tiebreakers of the semi-final match-ups at the Women’s World Chess Championship at Sochi, Ukranian Mariya Muzychuk was able to fend off the Indian challenge from Dronavalli Harika. In the other clash between Russian Natalia Pogonina and Swedish legend Pia Cramling, the Russian star was able to out-run her older opponent.

Indian star GM Dronavalli Harika taking on Ukranian GM Mariya Muzychuck (Photo: A. Karlovich)

Russian GM Natalia Pogonina (Photo: A. Karlovich)

Russian GM Pogonina played a marathon game with the white pieces in the second rapid tiebreak game after drawing the first duel to win and qualify for the finals. Thus, she maintains her amazing series of comebacks and had to wait to see who her opponent for the finals would be.

The clash between Indian GM Dronavalli Harika and Ukranian GM Mariya Muzychuk proved to be a dramatic showdown. They played the tiebreak rapid games after drawing both their classical encounters. In the first game with the white pieces, Harika had an assured advantage against Muzychuk’s Dutch defence to which she replied with a double-fianchetto set-up. Unfortunately, she let her advantage slip and ended up losing. Requiring a win with the black pieces in the second tiebreak rapid game, Harika came back strongly in the late middlegame and won, drawing level with her Ukranian opponent.

In the second tiebreak, with a time control of ten minutes each plus ten seconds per move, Muzychuk was able to hold Harika to a draw with black pieces and managed to beat her with white in the second game, thus winning the match-up and moving to the finals.

This sets up an exciting Russia vs. Ukraine duel in the Finals of the Women’s World Chess Championship with GM Natalia Pogonina taking on GM Mariya Muzychuk.

Stay tuned for more updates. You may follow the broadcast of games on your FollowChess App.

Official website: http://sochi2015.fide.com/en/main-page