Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 8: Jobava wins again, Karthikeyan slips in the penultimate round

by Satanick Mukhuty - 10/08/2019

In the penultimate round of the 26th Abu Dhabi Chess Masters 2019 Karthikeyan Murali ended up losing to GM Yakubboev Nodirbek. It was a highly complex game in King's Indian defense where the Indian Grandmaster made a series of inexplicable errors handing over his winning advantage to the Uzbek player. Karthikeyan has thus slipped to the 11th place on the rank-list with 5.5/8. On the other hand, the in-form leader Baadur Jobava resumed his stellar run as he registered yet another victory against the polish Grandmaster Mateusz Bartel. In this report we bring you analysis, photos, and more.

Jobava back to winning!

After drawing against Ni Hua in the previous round, Baadur Jobava is back with his killing spree as he registered yet another victory in round eight against Mateusz Bartel | Photo: Rupali Mullick

It is interesting to note that around the year of 2012 Baadur Jobava's rating peaked to a massive 2734, only a stint of bad performances recently has brought him down into the 2500s on the Elo scale. However, in this ongoing Abu Dhabi Masters he has proven with his phenomenal domination that that's not his true strength. The Georgian Grandmaster won all his games in the first six rounds and now, after just one draw in the seventh round, is back with the victory rampage! The latest casualty being Bartel Mateusz from Poland. In this game Jobava opened with 1.b3 - the Nimzo-Larsen - and then opted for an unusual double fianchetto set-up. Let's begin by looking at the highlights of this game!

Baadur Jobava - Bartel Mateusz, Round 8

Position after 7.Bg2: A fresh game after just seven moves! Black played 7...Be4 here and the light-squared bishops were traded off, things were totally equal at this point.

White's 16.Ba3 was an attempt to put more pressure on d6. The next step was pushing b4-b5 and opening up the b-file.

White's position started to look good around here with pressure building up along the sixth rank.

Black played the move 23...Nd4 ... What would you do here as White?

24.Rxa6 was an imprecision by Jobava, 24.Nxd6 would have been more punishing.

28...f4! was a good move. White had to be wary of f3+ now.

This was a critical moment in the game. 31...e4! would have been the best move here, the point being after 32.Nxd5 f3+ Black has excellent counterplay. In the game however 31...Nxg5 was played and this was a blunder.

Black's counterplay on the kingside just fizzled out and suddenly White's passed a-pawn started to look menacing. Rxf4 Ra8+ Bf8 a6 for instance looks devastating. In the game Qf5 was played which only quickened matters for White, allowing Qh5 followed by Rg6!

With the move 42.f5 Black had to call it a day. There was no way to stop the torrent of pawns!

Karthikeyan misses footing in King's Indian complexities

Karthikeyan Murali suffered a loss in the eighth round against Yakubboev Nodirbek of Uzbekistan. It was an intensely complicated game in King's Indian Classical variation where the Indian Grandmaster even had a decisive edge at one point but a series of mistakes towards the end ultimately turned the tables on him | Photo: Rupali Mullick

One of the most anticipated encounters of round eight was Deep Sengupta versus Aravindh Chithambaram. The game ended in a draw after a gruelling 72 moves long battle in the Italian | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Aryan Chopra beat the seventh seed Andrei Volokitin playing the French defense with black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Shyamnikhil P held GM Vaibhav Suri to a draw with the black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Shyamnikhil has been incredibly solid in the tournament. Not losing a single game and holding Grandmasters like Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Bai Jinshi to draws!

Praggnananddhaa R. defeated Venkatesh M.R. with the black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Akash Pc Iyer held GM Iniyan P. to a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	2584	6½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2612	13
2	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	2625	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Ni Hua	2668	2
3	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2574	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	14
4	18	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	2599	5½	0 - 1	5	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2617	11
5	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2656	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2571	29
6	8	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2632	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2594	21
7	22	GM	Can Emre	2593	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2625	9
8	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	2546	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	15
9	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	2607	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2592	23
10	30	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2571	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2601	17
11	1	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2686	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Paichadze Luka	2570	31
12	35	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	2556	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2668	3
13	38	GM	Sanal Vahap	2535	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Onischuk Vladimir	2640	6
14	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2636	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	36
15	19	GM	Bai Jinshi	2599	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Xu Yi	2531	39
16	20	GM	Petrov Nikita	2595	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	2507	45
17	24	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2591	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	53
18	40	IM	Nguyen Anh Khoi	2529	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	25
19	44	GM	Kuybokarov Temur	2511	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Idani Pouya	2581	27
20	5	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2650	4	1 - 0	4½	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2332	87

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2584	7,5	0,0	2593	41,5
2	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2574	6,5	0,0	2592	39,0
3	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2656	6,0	0,0	2575	43,0
4	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	POL	2625	6,0	0,0	2566	39,5
5	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2617	6,0	0,0	2556	43,0
6	2	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2668	6,0	0,0	2525	41,0
7	30	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2571	5,5	0,0	2557	39,5
8	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2668	5,5	0,0	2556	43,0
9	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2592	5,5	0,0	2551	41,5
10	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	UKR	2607	5,5	0,0	2551	37,0
11	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2612	5,5	0,0	2549	38,0
12	36	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2553	5,5	0,0	2547	36,5
13	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	POL	2612	5,5	0,0	2539	42,5
14	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2601	5,5	0,0	2530	38,0
15	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2546	5,5	0,0	2526	37,5
16	22	GM	Can Emre	TUR	2593	5,5	0,0	2526	36,5
17	18	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2599	5,5	0,0	2522	37,5
18	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2594	5,5	0,0	2519	39,0
19	9	GM	Esipenko Andrey	RUS	2625	5,5	0,0	2518	39,0
20	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2607	5,5	0,0	2501	38,5

The final round of the event begins today (10th August) at 11:30 a.m IST. You can follow it live on the official YouTube channel of Abu Dhabi Chess.

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