The AICF-AAI Cup is taking place in New Delhi from December 21st (first round)
to 30th, 2012. The games start at 02:00 p.m. local time = 03:30 a.m. (on the
previous day) in New York, 08:30 a.m. London, 09:30 a.m. European time, 11:30
a.m. Moscow and 16:30 p.m. Beijing. You can find the starting time at your location
here.
The tournament site is providing a live
broadcast of the games and live
video feed. Naturally the games are also being broadcast on Playchess.com.
Round eight: Abhijeet Gupta holds Wojtaszek
Former junior world champion Abhijeet Gupta held top seed Radoslav Wojtaszek
of Poland to an easy draw in the eighth round of AICF-AAI Cup. The day did not
produce any decisive game, like the first round, and the lead positions remained
unchanged. Anton Korobov survived some anxious moments before signing peace
with Krishnan Sasikiran while Parimarjan Negi pressed for some time before splitting
the point with Evgeny Alekseev of Russia.
Gupta (above) came up with a strong opening novelty on his 11th move, one that
put Wojtaszek in a long thought out of a Grunfeld Defense. Playing white, the
Polish grandmaster went for the most principled continuation that netted him
two pawns temporarily. But Gupta had prepared it much deeper. Recovering one
pawn he went to a pawn-less endgame where the activity of his pieces ensured
sufficiently play. Wojtaszek felt the heat when he fell slightly worse in the
endgame. However, the game was never quite out of the boundary of a draw and
the peace was signed in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame. The game was drawn
in 56 moves.
GM Krishnan Sasikiran (above) was in his elements and pressed right after the
opening. From the black side of a Nimzo Indian the Indian went for a kingside
attack and fell just a little short in the middle game as Korobov found a precise
defense. Sasikiran thought he missed out on his chances in the middle game when
he allowed a favourable liquidation, thereby giving Korobov an easy defense.
Parimarjan Negi (above) faced the topical Berlin Defense by Evgeny Alekseev,
who played black. The Indian star chose to play a symmetrical middlegame with
lots of pieces on board, instead of trying out long drawn endgames typical of
the opening. The result was a pleasant position, but Alekseev kept himself in
the hunt with some timely exchanges that maintained the balance. Parimarjan
drew via repetition of moves.
Video report by Vijay Kumar
Round nine: Korobov shoots ahead
Grandmaster Anton Korobov of Ukraine (above) shot ahead of the field by defeating
Indian GM Parimarjan Negi in the ninth and penultimate round of AICF-AAI Chess
Cup, now drawing to a close at the AAI Institute.
A hoodie, Parimarjan? Do you know Geraldo's theory on the subject?
For the first time in this tournament, Korobov came up with an early opening
surprise going for the King pawn advance on move one. Negi went for his pet
Sicilian Najdorf but the Ukrainian had prepared some dangerous lines. To his
credit, Negi came out of the opening unscathed and was able to manage things
with a timely pawn sacrifice, breaking the center open. However the Indian went
wrong in wild complexities with the clock ticking away and Korobov grabbed the
full point after gaining three pieces for his queen.
Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta was unfortunate not to score a
full point against Evgeny Alekseev out of a Catalan. With precise play Gupta
exerted pressure and Alekseev found himself in a very difficult knight and pawns
endgame after the first time control. However, just after attaining a winning
position Gupta miscalculated and gave enough chances to Alekseev, who fought
back. The game lasted over six hours and was fought till all the pieces got
traded.
Krishnan Sasikiran (above) could not pose any problems to Radoslav Wojtaszek,
who played a topical variation in the Catalan and equalized without much problem.
The pieces got traded in a heap and the players arrived at an opposite coloured
Bishop endgame which was just a draw. Peace was signed after 41 moves.
Video report by Vijay Kumar
Here are the games of rounds eight and nine in our JavaScript player:
Current standings
With just one round to go Korobov has emerged as the sole leader on 5.5 points,
and Alekseev remains on his toes a half point behind. Sasikiran and Wojtaszek
share the third spot on 4.5 points apiece while Abhijeet Gupta inched himself
up to four points, a half point more than Negi. The final match will start at
ten a.m local time on Sunday, and the prize-giving ceremony of this Rs. 1.2
million tournament will be held at 6:30 p.m.
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