Qatar Masters 2023 R5: S L Narayanan displaces India no.1 Gukesh, gains sole lead
GM S L Narayanan defeated the India no.1 and World no.8 GM D Gukesh to emerge sole leader at Qatar Masters 2023. The India no.8 got a great position early in the middlegame and kept posing difficult questions to his opponent. It liquidated into a queen endgame which only computer can play precisely and save the day. Gukesh is human and he erred which allowed Narayanan to win the game and move to 4.5/5. A dozen players are trailing him at 4/5 each. The World no.1 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR) bounced back by scoring a victory over GM Bharath Subramaniyam H. IM Vaishali R continues her impressive unbeaten run. She defeated 44th Olympiad Gold medalist, GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB) to move to 4/5. Today is a rest day. Round 6 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy
Vaishali continues her impressive run
There are four Indians among the dozen pursuers at 4/5. They are - GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM Aditya Mittal and IM Vaishali R. IM Sambit Panda completed his hat-trick by winning against his second GM in-a-row, Vugar Rasulov (AZE). Gukesh's loss momentarily pushed him to India no.2 and Vishy Anand is back to India no.1 in the live ratings.
S L Narayanan - Gukesh: 1-0
GM S L Narayanan (2651) was eliminated by GM D Gukesh (2758) at the FIDE World Cup 2023. This is their first rated game since then. It goes without saying that Narayanan was going to make the most out of this opportunity at the biggest open tournament currently.
The above position was the first critical moment of the game. Black had to make a decision - whether to allow the knight on d5 or not. Well, if you take a closer look, you can see Black cannot prevent it by any means. It wouldn't be an understatement to say Black is positionally lost here - just by looking the black queen and knight's placement. Even after 26...Bb8/Bc7 27.Nxd5 works Rxd5 28.Rxf7 Rxf7 29.Qxd5 and White is doing great. 26...cxd4 27.Nxd5 Re4 28.Rh3 Re5 29.exd4 Rf5 30.Rxf5 gxf5 31.Qf2 and the game liquidated into a queen endgame.
The nature of queen endgames is always complex and this one was no different. 38...Qxc4 39.h5 b5 40.Qe4+ Kg8 41.Qe8+ Kh7 42.g6+ fxg6 43.Qxg6+ computer might say it's equal but humans were playing that game and it was certainly not easy to defend. White's best bet to win the game was to use both of his passed d and h-pawns which is what he did.
White is about to promote the pawn and win the game. What is the best way to prevent it? Black played 52...Qh4+?? and went on to lose the game. It would have taken a computer-like precision to save the game for White.
Rudik - Giri
GM Anish Giri (NED, 2760) made a strange decision to sideline his queen 34...Qa7? to attack the d4-pawn. 34...Qe6 would have been a better choice. 35.d5 c5 36.Qe3 Ng6 37.Qxc5 and White went on to convert his advantage into a full point.
Vaishali - Vokhidov
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2578) captured the b3-pawn to force the exchange of rooks which was not the best idea. 20...Nxb3? 21.Qb4 Nxa1 22.Qxd6 Nc2 23.Rb1 Qd8 24.c5 Na3 25.Rb7 Nc4 26.Qxd8 Rxd8 27.c6 and IM Vaishali R (2448) went on to win the game using her passed a and c-pawns combining with her rook and knight.
Rasulov - Sambit
50.Be1 would have been fine for GM Vugar Rasulov (AZE, 2560). 50.Rxf5?? allowed IM Sambit Panda (2395) to score a victory. Find out how.
Schedule
There are one round every day from 11th to 20th October 2023 starting from 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Monday 16th October 2023 is a rest day. Only last round on 20th October starts at 12 p.m. local time, 2:30 p.m. IST.
Time control
Time control for each tournament game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Prizes
The total prize fund of the tournament is US$ 108250. The top three prizes are $25000, $15000 and $10000 each.
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Replay Round 5 games
Round 5 results
Standings after Round 5
Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | ||
1 | 13 | GM | Narayanan.S.L, | IND | 2651 | 4,5 | 13 | 2939 | |||
2 | 2 | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2780 | 4 | 2 | 2780 | |||
3 | 5 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | U20 | UZB | 2716 | 4 | 5 | 2712 | ||
4 | 6 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | U20 | IND | 2712 | 4 | 6 | 2782 | ||
5 | 7 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2707 | 4 | 7 | 2736 | |||
6 | 12 | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | U18 | UZB | 2658 | 4 | 12 | 2800 | ||
7 | 19 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | UZB | 2616 | 4 | 19 | 2726 | |||
8 | 20 | GM | Karthikeyan, Murali | IND | 2611 | 4 | 20 | 2693 | |||
9 | 23 | GM | Paravyan, David | FID | 2599 | 4 | 23 | 2705 | |||
10 | 25 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | KAZ | 2585 | 4 | 25 | 2772 | |||
11 | 30 | GM | Aditya, Mittal | U18 | IND | 2572 | 4 | 30 | 2747 | ||
12 | 37 | IM | Makarian, Rudik | U20 | FID | 2548 | 4 | 37 | 2686 | ||
13 | 75 | IM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | w | IND | 2448 | 4 | 75 | 2773 | ||
14 | 1 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2839 | 3,5 | 1 | 2636 | |||
15 | 4 | GM | Gukesh, D | U18 | IND | 2758 | 3,5 | 4 | 2629 |
Round 6 pairings
Links
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