Abhijeet Gupta on Hoogeveen 2015

Abhijeet Gupta on Hoogeveen 2015

The dynamics of winning a strong open event are pretty complex. The art of playing back to back rounds, sometimes even double rounds without a rest day, coping with unexpected pairings, engaging against uncomfortable opponents, must-win scenario against lower rated players, taking draws at the right moment to conserve your energy for the final games, strong opening preparation – these are some of the situations that strong players face all the time when playing open tournaments. The best way for us to learn how to play well in an open event is by following the games of players who are successful in such tournaments on a regular basis.

GM Abhijeet Gupta (2629) was the top seed at the 19th Hoogeveen’s International tournament held from the 17th to 24th of October 2015. In a tournament where 17 other grandmasters participated he won the event with a score of 7.0/9, half a point ahead of his nearest rivals. But this is not the only reason why ChessBase decided to interview him. Abhijeet has a knack of winning open events. It may be his playing style, but the number of open tournaments he has finished in first place is quite astonishing – Hoogeveen’s 2015, Commonwealth 2015, Azgamov Memorial 2014, Parsvnath International Open 2014, Commonwealth 2013, Al Ain Classic 2013, Kavala 2012, Philadelphia 2012, Dubai Open 2011, London Chess Classic 2011, the list goes on and on. And we must not forget that he was the World Junior Champion in 2008.

Abhijeet receiving the first prize at the Hoogeveen’s Open 2015

Even though Abhijeet was the top seed at the event he faced stiff competition from strong grandmasters like Erwin L’Ami, Benjamin Bok, Deep Sengupta, Jiri Stocek, Sebastian Bogner, to name just a few. After losing the second round to GM Ankit Rajpara it seemed as if this would be just another event for the talented Indian player. But he did not lose his ambition. Scoring 6.0/7 in the remaining rounds and beating strong players like Neelotpal Das, Jan Werle and Alexander Shabalov, he was able to win the title. In an exclusive interview Abhijeet talks about the Hoogeveen’s tournament, but the careful reader will find many of the secrets that help him win open tournaments on a regular basis.

Sagar Shah: Congratulations Abhijeet for winning the Hoogeveen International Open. Did you think it would happen after your loss in the second round?

Abhijeet Gupta: Thank you so much, Sagar. To be honest it’s always better to start badly in a tournament than to finish one! So I was lucky in that sense. Losing in the second round did wake me up, but as long as there is a theoretical chance to win the event I never lose hope.

SS: What went wrong for you in the second game against Ankit Rajpara?

AG: Well it was just a bad game from my side. I sort of misjudged his b4-b3 idea and never really recovered after that – was simply outplayed.

GM Ankit Rajpara not only beat the eventual winner but also played a very solid event
with two wins, six draws, and one loss

SS: After your loss to Ankit you won the next two games and faced Alexander Shabalov in the fifth round. What was your approach when playing a ferocious attacker like him?

AG: Shabalov has always been a difficult opponent for me. I had already lost twice against him before this game. I was bit apprehensive about what variation to choose when he played the King’s Indian Defence, but I relied on knowledge and skills, which prevailed in the end. By the way, the position that was reached on move 23 in the game was prepared to some extent by me prior to the encounter! This made it easier for me to outplay him.

Alexander Shabalov tried his best to muddy the waters, but Abhijeet kept complete control

SS: In game six you made a quick draw with Vishnu Prasanna with the black pieces. Did you notice that you had made an opening blunder just before you split the point?

AG: I had forgotten my theory and made a mistake of playing 13…Nd7 instead of 13…Ke7. I felt that even after I lose a piece I had some chances to hold, but the computer calmly refutes all of Black’s attempts. After my opponent played 14.Qb3 and offered a draw I accepted it. I wasn’t feeling too well before the game, and there were still three more games to go, so I didn’t really see the point of risking so much at that time.

GM Vishnu Prasanna must be kicking himself for missing the Rxc8 tactic

SS: In the seventh round it seemed like you completely outplayed GM Jan Werle, right out of the opening. Can you tell us more about that game?

AG: The problem for Jan was that he ended up in a really passive position out of the opening, where Black literally doesn’t have any active plans. These positions are always difficult to play. I managed to find this natural plan of pushing my h-pawn to h6 and probably already after that I am much better.

Jan Werle lost to Abhijeet and L’Ami but was able to beat strong
players like Deep Sengupta and Debashis Das to finish fourth

SS: What was your approach to the final round? How did you beat your grandmaster opponent in just 20 moves?

AG: I just wanted to get a normal position out of the opening, try to play a long game and see how it goes from there. But Neelotpal Das really messed it up in the opening, and by move 15 I was already winning. I had prepared 9.Ne5! at home. If White can get away with 9…Qxd4 then the knight jump to e5 has to be good, as I get a better version in all lines compared to 9.0-0. I think 9.Ne5 is a strong move. Besides the second round game I showed pretty decent chess in this tournament. So it’s difficult to choose my favourite game, but if I had to, I would probably go for this last round battle because it enabled me to win the event.

Right out of the opening GM Neelotpal Das (right) was on the backfoot
and was a victim of Gupta’s excellent home preparation

SS: You have a knack of winning strong open events: Hoogeveen 2015, Commonwealth 2015, Azgamov Memorial 2014 Parsvanath Open 2014, Commonwealth 2013, Al Ain Open 2013, World Juniors 2008. The list is endless. Do you think you have specific way of approaching crucial games that helps you to win these events?

AG: To be honest in the last 18 months I have lost many more final round games than I have won! So ideally it’s not as high as I would like it to be. Generally the best thing you can do while approaching these crucial games is to just forget about the tournament situation, and go play your natural stuff, but I can tell you from my own experience that it’s easier said than done. I just try to follow this – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t!

Things worked out well for Abhijeet as he not only won €3,000 but also
the chance to pose with this beautiful painting. Yes, only pose, it was not a prize!

SS: You have excellent results in the Catalan Opening from the white side. In Hoogeveens too you were able to beat Jan Werle and Neelotpal Das. Can you tell us the secret of how you achieved this expertise?

AG: I am glad that you feel like that, but in general it all depends on how much work you have put in a particular position. I did some homework in the Catalan, and luckily for me it paid dividends in this event.

SS: What are your next tournaments?

AG: I am going to play in the inter-Petroleum tournament where I will be representing Bharat Petroleum Company Limited (BPCL) and after that I will be playing in a couple of opens in Philippines.

SS: What are your aims in the near future and also your ultimate goal in chess?

AG: I don’t have an ultimate aim because I feel it’s always too far-fetched. Instead I try to work towards small and doable goals first. Right now my aim is to get back into the top 100 and try to play as consistently as I can.

SS: Thanks a lot Abhijeet, for sharing your invaluable knowledge with the readers of ChessBase.

AG: Always a pleasure, Sagar!

GM Deep Sengupta (2580) from India finished as the runner-up in the tournament. Deep played a fine event scoring 6.5/9. He lost his sixth round game against GM Jan Werle, but he got the better of strong opponents like Alexander Shabalov (2522), Debashis Das (2501), and Stelios Halkias (2534). Deep sent us his game against GM Alexander Shabalov with the words, “I like this game very much because it was a fine victory with very few errors.”

Final standings of the Hoogeveen Open

Click for complete standings

The excellent pictures in this report have been taken by Frans Peteers. Frans was born in 1957 and works as a teacher of ICT in Goes (The Netherlands). He is an experienced International Arbiter and sometimes combines this with taking pictures at chess tournaments like the HZ Tournament in Vlissingen and Hoogeveen Open. On his Flickr site you can find more than 26,000 pictures of anything he comes across. He tries to take pictures out of the ordinary with large apertures (big lens openings) so that you get a small depth-of-field and a nice bokeh. You can see some of his portfolio at his official website. For all the pictures taken by Frans from the Hoogeveen 2015 click here. As of now we leave you with four amazing captures by him:

Oh my God, I left the geyser on!

Well, that's one way to smuggle openings prep into the playing hall – really, nobody will notice

Making the neurons work as hard as they can

Timman's my hero – and he is sooo funny!

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.