Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 4: How Karthikeyan's pawn grab could cost him the game!

by Satanick Mukhuty - 05/08/2019

It could have been a big blow to the Indian contingent in round four of the 26th Abu Dhabi Masters as Karthikeyan Murali made a reckless pawn grab and found himself in a lost position against Tahbaz Arash of Iran. Fortunately, the latter failed to find the most critical continuation which allowed the Indian Grandmaster to turn the tables and come out victorious in the end. After four rounds of the event Georgian Grandmaster Jobava Baadur has emerged as the sole leader with a score of 4.0/4. Six Indians led by Deep Sengupta share 3.0/4 each. In this report we bring you photos, analysis, and more.

A mistake that didn't blow up!

Things could have gone really wrong for Karthikeyan Murali in round four, but he had it all under control in the end! | Photo: Rupali Mullick

In the fourth round of 26th Abu Dhabi Festival the top-seed among Indians Karthikeyan Murali was up against the Iranian International Master Tahbaz Arash. The game opened with a Sicilian Dragon and soon turned double-edged with the kings castling on opposite sides of the board. Let us check out what happened next!

Karthikeyan Murali - Tahbaz Arash, Round 4

With 14.Qg5 White offers an exchange of queens but after 14...Qxg5 15.hxg5 Nd7 16.Nd5 White maintains a nagging edge. Hence, in the game Black played the move 14...b5, intending to open up lines with a pawn sac!

Karthikeyan grabbed the pawn immediately with 15.Qxb5 this seemed tad reckless with the bishop still on g7 breathing down the long diagonal.

After 17.Bb5?! Black really had the chance to seize a decisive advantage. Can you find how?

The best move for Black would have been 17...a6! after 18.Bxa6 Ra8 19.f3 Rcb8 the black rooks on a and b-files look menacingly strong and the c3 knight starts to feel uncomfortable.

This is how Black could have seized a dangerous initiative on the queenside. After 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.exd5 Bxd4 22.Qxd4 Bf5 Black's position looks all the better.

With all these lines beautifully opened up, White has a tremendous attack coming. On the other hand, Black's king is absolutely safe on g8

In the game however Tahbaz Arash missed all these potential variations and went for the meek 17...Qb7, after which came 18.Qxa7 Qxa7 19.Bxa7 and Black was simply down two pawns with not enough compensation.

White didn't have much trouble from here converting this position! The game went on for 54 moves before Black resigned.

Here is the full game with brief annotations:

Deep Sengupta drew the strong Armenian GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel. He is on 3.0/4 and has been paired up against the champion of Biel Masters 2019 Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei in the fifth round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

National triple-crown champion Aravindh Chithambaram drew GM Luka Paichadze with the black pieces. It was a short 21 moves game in closed Sicilian that quickly entered into an equal endgame | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Praggnanandhaa R. beat IM Rakesh Kumar Jena and faces 12th seed Yilmaz Mustafa in the fifth round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vaishali R. was held to draw by Sambit Panda | Photo: Rupali Mullick

GM Iniyan P. was held to a draw by FM Rathanvel V S | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Raunak Sadhwani defeated IM Sameer Kathmale with the Black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Under-18 World no.1 Andrey Esipenko defeated Soumya Swaminathan | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Raahil Mullick drew GM Kirill Shevchenko in round four | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Ankit Gajwa won against Priyanka K. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vantika Agrawal drew IM Inna Gaponenko | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Nandhidhaa P V beat Tabada Jobannie C. in the fourth round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Shyaamnikhil P beat Shantanu Bhambure | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Mary Ann Gomes drew Arjun C. Krishnamachari | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of round 4

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2656	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2592	23
2	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	2584	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2617	11
3	29	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2571	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2594	21
4	18	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	2599	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Ni Hua	2668	2
5	19	GM	Bai Jinshi	2599	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2668	3
6	22	GM	Can Emre	2593	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2636	7
7	12	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2614	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	25
8	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2574	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2612	13
9	31	GM	Paichadze Luka	2570	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	15
10	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	2607	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	2567	33
11	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2601	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Istratescu Andrei	2561	34
12	8	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2632	2	½ - ½	2½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2546	37
13	68	WGM	Ni Shiqun	2409	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2650	5
14	72	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2377	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2625	9
15	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	2625	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Muradli Mahammad	2454	55
16	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Tahbaz Arash	2482	49
17	20	GM	Petrov Nikita	2595	2	1 - 0	2	FM	Lee Jun Hyeok	2437	59
18	24	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2591	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Krishna C R G	2444	57
19	74	FM	Assaubayeva Bibisara	2375	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Idani Pouya	2581	27
20	30	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2571	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Laxman R.R.	2426	62

Standings after round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2584	4,0	0,0	2517	9,5
2	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2668	3,5	0,0	2562	10,5
3	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2656	3,5	0,0	2560	10,5
4	29	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2571	3,5	0,0	2532	10,0
5	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2592	3,5	0,0	2529	10,0
6	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2594	3,5	0,0	2512	10,0
7	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2636	3,5	0,0	2482	7,5
8	2	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2668	3,5	0,0	2423	7,5
9	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2574	3,0	0,0	2547	10,0
10	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2617	3,0	0,0	2545	11,0
11	12	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2614	3,0	0,0	2539	10,5
12	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	UKR	2607	3,0	0,0	2517	10,5
13	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	POL	2612	3,0	0,0	2511	9,5
14	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	POL	2625	3,0	0,0	2502	9,0
15	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2546	3,0	0,0	2495	9,0
16	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2607	3,0	0,0	2494	9,5
17	34	GM	Istratescu Andrei	ROU	2561	3,0	0,0	2491	8,5
18	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2601	3,0	0,0	2486	8,5
19	5	GM	Akopian Vladimir	ARM	2650	3,0	0,0	2486	8,0
20	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2612	3,0	0,0	2481	8,0

The fifth round of the event starts from 6:30 p.m IST. You can catch the live official broadcast here.

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