Abu Dhabi 2019 R02+03: A day of epic survivals and impossible reversals!

by Satanick Mukhuty - 04/08/2019

Chess is a difficult game, from time to time even the strongest of players lose their way in its fathomless depths! Day two of 26th Abu Dhabi Masters had double rounds and saw quite a few encounters of dizzying ups and downs. In the second round Raunak Sadhwani escaped a sure loss by the skin of his teeth as his opponent Andrey Esipenko missed his footing in what was a decisive attack. Elsewhere, in the same round, IM Akash Pc Iyer gave the newly crowned Biel Master champion M.amin Tabatabaei a massive scare before himself blundering into a draw. But the most topsy-turvy battle of the day was in store for the next round, between the 13-year-old talent Pranav V. and Grandmaster Venkatesh M.R. In this report we bring to you all the excitements.

Raunak Sadhwani's lucky bullet dodge!

In the second round of the event Raunak Sadhwani (2493) was up against the under-18 World no. 1, Andrey Esipenko (2625) | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Beginning with the exchange variation of Ruy Lopez, the game entered uncharted territory as early as move ten. The 14-year-old Indian IM pushed hard and even created some chances against his higher rated Russian opponent but somehow failed to capitalize on them. After twenty-eight moves quite a double-edged position was reached where kings of both sides felt a bit exposed.

Raunak Sadhwani - Andrey Esipenko, Round 2

Position after 28...Qxa2: The b3 knight is en prise, what should White play?

In the above position 29.Nd2, threatening to go Ra1 next, is a fine move. Black can't capture the b2 pawn as then Rb1 pins the queen. Hence, after something like 29...Qa4 30.Ra1 Bd7 31.Qd5 Qc6 we get a position which is roughly balanced. In the game however, Raunak played the move 29.Re3?! supporting the knight on b3 and this was the first critical mistake that allowed Black to seize a serious advantage.

Can you see why 29.Re3 is a bad move?

Esipenko correctly realized his opponent's mistake and went 29...Bd6! threatening to play Rxe3 and pick up the knight on b3 next. Once again, Nd2 would have been the best move in the position, even though after 30.Nd2 Bxf4 31.Qxf4 Qa4 Black has a strong initiative. The game continuation 30.Rxe8+ Rxe8 31.Nxc5 Rg8+ 32.Kf2 Qxb2+ only worsened White's position.

Position after 32...Qxb2+: With the menacing bishop pair, the rook on the open g-file, and the queen on the second rank, Black is completely winning!

But as they say, a won game is the most difficult to win! Things took a strange turn at this point when White played the move 33.Rd2 as Black simply lost the thread of the attack and went 33...Qa1

33...Qa1, supporting the pawn on a6, is one of those moves which looks sensible at first glance. But this allows the simple 34.Bg3 which takes away most of Black's initiative.

The right move would have been 33...Qc1 keeping the f4 bishop to the defense of the white rook and preventing Bg3. Nxa6+ isn't an issue as Qg1+ followed by Rg2 is a much bigger threat! 34.Bg3 Qc3 was played and now White found a nice way to even things out once and for all.

Position after 34...Qc3: It is White to move and equalize!

Fortune favours the brave! Raunak was spot on to find 35.Nxa6+ Kb7 36.Rxd6 cxd6 37.Qxh7+ Kxa6 38.Qxg8 and this immediately brought everything to perfect balance! The game ended with a perpetual after 57 moves.

M.Amin Tabatabaei survives a scare!

The recently crowned champion of Biel Masters 2019, Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei survived a massive scare in round two against IM Akash Pc Iyer in a topsy-turvy semi-slav encounter! Now it's time to see the highlights of this game!

Akash Pc Iyer - M.Amin Tabatabaei, Round 2

In an already less known structure Black played the move 13.f3 and a completely new position was on board!

13.Be2, 13.a4, 13.Nb5 etc have been played before and they all give Black a slight edge. The new move 13.f3 wasn't any improvement rather it only incurred more weaknesses on the kingside.

Position after 17.Bxf3: Black has a tangible edge with his control of h-file and bishop pair nicely cutting across the board. But he has to be careful, any premature liquidation in the center will bring his king undue harassment.

A good way for Black to consolidate in the above position would have been 17...Bh2 18.Rh1 a6 19.Nc3 Rh3 pushing White backwards. But Black played the move 17...Rh4 instead and this allowed White exactly what he needed.

17...Rh4 looks natural, pressurizing the g4 pawn but do you see what Black missed here?

Perhaps the most difficult thing in chess is keeping track of opponent's counter-resources. 17...Rh4 allowed White to break with 18.e4, after 18...Bh2 19.Re1 things turned in favour of White.

With White's rook eying the e-file and and the b5 knight hitting c7, Black suddenly seems to have gone on the back foot.

After going through some more ups and downs; this was the position, when Black played 26...Nh3 threatening Rf2#, that the moment of truth arrived.

White is thoroughly crushing here. The mate threat on f2 can be simply thwarted with 27.Re2 but what White did was a nasty the blunder. The game followed 27.Qf6+ Ke8 28.Qh8+?? Nf8 and White's initiative vanished in thin air.

Can you see what has gone wrong for White with 28.Qh8+ Nf8 ??

29.Ne6+ isn't a threat as White is still facing Rf2#, hence 29.Re2 instead seems like a reasonable try but now comes 29...Qf5! with the deadly threat of Qxf3+ and this forces White to end things with Nf6+ Ke7 Nd5+ Ke8 perpetual - a sad miss by the Indian IM!

Round 3: Pranav V causes a crazy upset!

13-year-old Pranav V. faced compatriot GM Venkatesh M.R. in round 3, what ensued was a wildly chaotic skirmish! | Photo: Rupali Mullick

The amount of complications this game saw is reflected in the following position where White has his pair of rooks doubled on the seventh rank and Black his on the f-file. But the matter of fact is, White's rooks on the seventh isn't really hitting a weakness while Black's provision of infiltrating the white king is very real.

Pranav V - Venkatesh M.R., Round 3

White has just played 52.Ke1 - Can you guess the move Black played here?

Yes, Venkatesh M.R. blasted the kingside with 52.Nxg3+ hxg3 53.Rxf3 - this was decisive but in only the next three moves came an impossible reversal!

Position after 55.Qd3

It is hard to find a move that is not winning for Black here, but the Indian Grandmaster suffered an unfortunate brain fade moment and played 53...Rg2??

Do you see why 53...Rg2 is a horrifying blunder?

White immediately stopped Black's attack along f-file with 54.Rf7! and now Black was just left down a knight! The struggle continued till move 77 and it was in the following position Black gave up.

Position after 77.d6

The game overall underwent several other ups and downs apart from the one shown above. Replay the full encounter below:

Photo Gallery

Karthikeyan Murali was held to draw by IM Krishna C.R.G in the second round of the event | Photo: Rupali Mullick

In round 3, the encounter between Iniyan P and Karthikeyan Murali was much looked forward to. The game was agreed to a draw in thirty moves | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Praggnanandhaa won against compatriot Kushagra Mohan in the second round but was held to a draw by IM Oliver Dimakiling in round 3 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vaishali R. drew GM Jaime Santos Latasa in the second round but lost to GM Luka Paichadze in round 3 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Divya Deshmukh lost to GM Yakubboev Nodirbek in round 2 and beat compatriot Tarini Goyal in the third round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vantika Agrawal drew IM Mihnea Costachi in the third round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	43	GM	Kiriakov Petr	2514	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2668	3
2	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2656	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	2507	45
3	46	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2496	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2650	5
4	47	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2493	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2625	9
5	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	2625	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Tahbaz Arash	2482	49
6	50	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2480	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2617	11
7	12	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2614	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Costachi Mihnea	2471	51
8	52	IM	Vignesh N R	2466	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2612	13
9	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Krishna C R G	2444	57
10	56	IM	Gaponenko Inna	2446	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	15
11	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	2607	1	1 - 0	1	FM	Lee Jun Hyeok	2437	59
12	58	IM	Akash Pc Iyer	2443	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2601	17
13	60	GM	Socko Monika	2436	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Bai Jinshi	2599	19
14	61	IM	Aditya Mittal	2429	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2594	21
15	22	GM	Can Emre	2593	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	2418	63
16	65		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2416	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2592	23
17	67	WGM	Vaishali R	2411	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	25
18	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	2584	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Agmanov Zhandos	2402	69
19	68	WGM	Ni Shiqun	2409	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Idani Pouya	2581	27
20	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2574	1	1 - 0	1	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2360	81

Results of round 3

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2668	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2574	28
2	27	GM	Idani Pouya	2581	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2656	4
3	29	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2571	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Socko Bartosz	2625	10
4	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2617	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2571	30
5	34	GM	Istratescu Andrei	2561	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2614	12
6	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	2546	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Zubov Alexander	2607	16
7	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2594	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Sanal Vahap	2535	38
8	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2592	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Bajarani Ulvi	2515	42
9	39	GM	Xu Yi	2531	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Jobava Baadur	2584	26
10	2	GM	Ni Hua	2668	1½	1 - 0	2		Senthil Maran K	2222	118
11	5	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2650	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	36
12	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2636	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2496	46
13	9	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2625	1½	½ - ½	1½	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2482	48
14	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2612	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2493	47
15	41	GM	Iniyan P	2517	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	14
16	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Vignesh N R	2466	52
17	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2601	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Alavi Sayed Javad	2454	54
18	56	IM	Gaponenko Inna	2446	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	2599	18
19	19	GM	Bai Jinshi	2599	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Akash Pc Iyer	2443	58
20	57	IM	Krishna C R G	2444	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Petrov Nikita	2595	20

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2656	3,0	0,0	2544	4,5
2	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2617	3,0	0,0	2526	4,0
3	29	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2571	3,0	0,0	2501	5,5
4	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2594	3,0	0,0	2482	4,0
5	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2584	3,0	0,0	2467	4,0
6	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2592	3,0	0,0	2466	4,0
7	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2668	2,5	0,0	2544	6,0
8	12	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2614	2,5	0,0	2516	5,5
9	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2574	2,5	0,0	2514	5,5
10	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	UKR	2607	2,5	0,0	2492	6,5
11	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	POL	2612	2,5	0,0	2480	4,5
12	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2607	2,5	0,0	2456	4,5
13	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2601	2,5	0,0	2449	4,0
14	19	GM	Bai Jinshi	CHN	2599	2,5	0,0	2440	3,5
15	34	GM	Istratescu Andrei	ROU	2561	2,5	0,0	2437	4,0
16	22	GM	Can Emre	TUR	2593	2,5	0,0	2427	4,5
17	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2636	2,5	0,0	2427	4,0
18	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2546	2,5	0,0	2426	5,0
19	25	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	ESP	2586	2,5	0,0	2414	4,5
20	18	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	RUS	2599	2,5	0,0	2407	3,5

An overview of results of all Indian players after round 3

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	Pts.	Rk.	Group
14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	IND	1	½	½	2,0	36	Masters
15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	IND	1	½	1	2,5	12	Masters
24	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2591	IND	½	1	½	2,0	50	Masters
32	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2569	IND	½	1	½	2,0	52	Masters
36	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	IND	½	1	½	2,0	37	Masters
37	GM	Sengupta Deep	2546	IND	1	1	½	2,5	18	Masters
41	GM	Iniyan P	2517	IND	1	½	½	2,0	41	Masters
47	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2493	IND	1	½	0	1,5	61	Masters
48	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2482	IND	½	1	½	2,0	45	Masters
50	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2480	IND	1	0	0	1,0	108	Masters
52	IM	Vignesh N R	2466	IND	1	½	0	1,5	62	Masters
53	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	IND	½	½	½	1,5	97	Masters
57	IM	Krishna C R G	2444	IND	1	½	½	2,0	27	Masters
58	IM	Akash Pc Iyer	2443	IND	1	½	0	1,5	66	Masters
61	IM	Aditya Mittal	2429	IND	1	0	½	1,5	87	Masters
62	GM	Laxman R.R.	2426	IND	½	1	½	2,0	51	Masters
65		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2416	IND	1	0	0	1,0	115	Masters
66		Sankalp Gupta	2416	IND	0	1	½	1,5	98	Masters
67	WGM	Vaishali R	2411	IND	1	½	0	1,5	71	Masters
70	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2401	IND	0	1	0	1,0	122	Masters
72	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2377	IND	1	0	1	2,0	53	Masters
73	IM	Rakesh Kumar Jena	2375	IND	½	½	1	2,0	57	Masters
75	FM	Manush Shah	2373	IND	½	½	½	1,5	99	Masters
76	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2371	IND	1	½	½	2,0	24	Masters
77	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2367	IND	½	0	0	0,5	123	Masters
78	FM	Rathanvel V S	2367	IND	0	1	1	2,0	40	Masters
79	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2364	IND	0	0	½	0,5	131	Masters
80	IM	Kulkarni Rakesh	2360	IND	0	½	1	1,5	82	Masters
81	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2360	IND	1	0	1	2,0	26	Masters
82	FM	Dixit Nikhil	2358	IND	½	0	1	1,5	64	Masters
83	CM	Mullick Raahil	2355	IND	1	0	½	1,5	65	Masters
84	FM	Pranav Anand	2347	IND	0	0	1	1,0	112	Masters
85		Moksh Amit Doshi	2343	IND	0	½	1	1,5	86	Masters
86	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2332	IND	0	1	0	1,0	100	Masters
87	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	2332	IND	0	1	½	1,5	72	Masters
88	IM	Kathmale Sameer	2326	IND	0	1	½	1,5	70	Masters
89	FM	Krishnater Kushager	2324	IND	0	0	1	1,0	114	Masters
91		Pranav V	2316	IND	0	1	1	2,0	29	Masters
92	FM	Mithil Ajgaonkar	2314	IND	0	1	0	1,0	103	Masters
93		Srijit Paul	2304	IND	½	0	1	1,5	59	Masters
94	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2302	IND	0	0	½	0,5	135	Masters
95	FM	Pranesh M	2296	IND	½	0	1	1,5	68	Masters
96		Samant Aditya S	2295	IND	0	0	1	1,0	116	Masters
98		Bhambure Shantanu	2288	IND	½	0	1	1,5	69	Masters
99	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2287	IND	0	1	½	1,5	77	Masters
100	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2286	IND	0	½	0	0,5	138	Masters
101	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2284	IND	0	½	0	0,5	140	Masters
103		Ajay Krishna S	2280	IND	0	1	½	1,5	78	Masters
105	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2272	IND	½	0	½	1,0	102	Masters
106	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2271	IND	½	0	1	1,5	73	Masters
107	IM	Siva Mahadevan	2270	IND	0	½	1	1,5	60	Masters
108	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2259	IND	0	0	0	0,0	144	Masters
109	FM	Wagh Suyog	2253	IND	0	½	0	0,5	124	Masters
110	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2252	IND	½	0	1	1,5	74	Masters
113	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2244	IND	0	0	½	0,5	125	Masters
114	FM	Deshpande Aniruddha	2234	IND	1	0	½	1,5	75	Masters
115	WIM	Pujari Rucha	2232	IND	0	0	½	0,5	130	Masters
117	FM	Srihari L R	2227	IND	0	0	0	0,0	146	Masters
118		Senthil Maran K	2222	IND	1	1	0	2,0	25	Masters
120	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan	2213	IND	0	½	0	0,5	132	Masters
124		Priyanka K	2201	IND	0	½	0	0,5	133	Masters
126		Soham Datar	2192	IND	0	0	0	0,0	147	Masters
128	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2188	IND	½	½	0	1,0	110	Masters
130	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2173	IND	1	0	½	1,5	80	Masters
131		Arjun C Krishnamachari	2172	IND	0	½	0	0,5	136	Masters
132		Utsab Chatterjee	2163	IND	0	1	0	1,0	113	Masters
134	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2147	IND	0	0	1	1,0	118	Masters
137		Panda Sambit	2126	IND	½	0	1	1,5	83	Masters
143		Panesar Vedant	2102	IND	0	½	½	1,0	120	Masters
144		Srihari L	2101	IND	0	½	0	0,5	142	Masters
145	FM	Vatsal Singhania	2087	IND	1	0	0	1,0	109	Masters
146	WCM	Sharma Isha	2078	IND	0	1	0	1,0	121	Masters
147		Thrish Karthik	2075	IND	0	0	0	0,0	150	Masters
148	WFM	Salonika Saina	2068	IND	½	½	½	1,5	85	Masters
149		Soham Kamotra	2061	IND	1	½	0	1,5	76	Masters
150	WFM	Tarini Goyal	2038	IND	½	½	0	1,0	119	Masters

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