Sharjah Masters: Wang Hao is first among equals

Reporting the results barely does justice to just how tense the final round was. With six players tied for first, and four entering the final round tied for first, one imagines that it was hardly all about quick handshakes and scoresheet signing.

Video report of round nine

Daniel King speaks with Wang Hao, Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Adhiban Baskara and Martyn Kravtsiv | Powerplay Chess on YouTube

The one game between actual leaders was more a formality, and Wang Hao and Yuriy Kryvoruchko only made a half-hearted attempt, more seeing whether either was feeling frisky or not, before shaking hands after 28 moves in a virtually symmetrical position.

This left them both with 7.0/9, but also meant that should either Adhiban or Kravtsiv win their games, they might take sole lead themselves. That said, they were also playing black and both faced 2700 opponents, so the odds were in favor of this not happening.

Top seed Radoslaw Wojtaszek fught valiantly but was unable to get into full gear | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Top seed Wojtaszek got an edge, and was certainly playing for a win, since with 6.0/8 he absolutely needed the full point to have a chance for a place on the podium. This was good news for Adhiban, playing black, since it meant the game would be a live one with chances of his own. With 6.5/8, a draw would put him on parity with the leaders, while a win could mean sole first. The Indian ended up worse for a good part of the game, so when he drew it, it was not an unhappy result for him.

Baskaran Adhiban managed to take second in the end | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Finally came Naiditsch with 6.0/8 and Kravtsiv with 6.5/8, in a similar strategical situation as Wojtaszek and Adhiban. The Ukrainian played an excellent game and after a long battle reached a completely won opposite-colored bishop ending. The rolling phalanx of pawns should have been a no-brainer, but instead the nerves and prospect of sole gold (by then he knew the results of his rival co-leaders) caused him to crack, and let Naiditsch escape with a nice finesse.

Arkadij Naiditsch vs Martyn Kravtsiv

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Move	N	Result	Elo	Players

Position not in LiveBook

48.a3 Black has a crushing advantage, and the win should be fairly straightforward. g3? Almost anything was better than this howler. The most obvious choice was 48...h5 49.Kh2 Ke4 50.Bc7 g3+! with an important difference from the game: 51.fxg3 f3 52.Bb6 Kd3 53.Kg1 Ke2 49.fxg3 fxg3 50.h5! A very fine move that effectively saves the half point now. Kf4 If Black were to play 50...Kg5 with the intention of capturing the h5 pawn, White plays 51.Be3+ Kxh5 52.Kg2 and either the g3 or h6 pawn will fall with a tablebase draw. 51.Bc5 Kg4 52.Be3 Kxh5 53.Kg2 Kg4 54.Bxh6 Bc6+ 55.Kf1 Kf3 56.Bd2 e4 57.Be1 Ba4 58.Kg1 Bb5 59.Bb4 e3 60.Bd6 Bc6 61.Bc7 g2 62.Ba5 Ke2 63.Bb4 Kd1

64.a4! e2 64...Bxa4 65.Kxg2 65.Kf2 Bxa4 66.Kxg2= e1Q 67.Bxe1 Kxe1 ½–½

White	EloW	Black	EloB	Res	Year	ECO	Event	Rnd

Naiditsch,A

2702

Kravtsiv,M

2641

½–½

2017

D02

1st Sharjah Masters 2017

An epic battle that will leave Kravtsiv with a few regrets as he was poised to take sole first had he beat Naiditsch.

Arkadij Naiditsch resets the pieces as Martyn Kravtsiv signs his scoresheet | Photo: Maria Emelianova

S.P. Sethuraman was another Indian to take a piece from the podium pie as he won his last game against Akopian, which he presents below.

S.P. Sethuraman | Photo: Maria Emelianova

S.P. Sethuraman vs Vladimir Akopian

Coming in fifth place was Indian player Sethuraman, who knew that the only way to get a decent prize was to win his game, and win it he did, against Vladimir Akopian. Here he analyzes the final phase with Daniel King.

Chess Endgames 10: Rook and two minor pieces

Although the distribution of material with a rook and two minor pieces against a rook and two minor pieces is a very common one in practical play, there is very little literature on the subject apart from that dealing with questions relating to the bishop pair.

Sethuraman with Daniel King | Powerplay Chess on YouTube

The final player to join the group on 7.0/9 was Salem Saleh, the local hero. Salem had had a dodgy start with only 2.0/4 in the start, but gained steam quickly and finished with an immaculate 5.0/5 beating Ukrainian Areschenko in the final round.

In the end, Wang Hao’s superb campaign also gave him the best tiebreak, and he took first, while Adhiban came in second, and Kravtsiv took third.

The top female prize went to Harika Dronavalli, easily the highest rated in the event. In the final round she drew Mikhaylo Oleksiyenko, rated 2643 and finished with 6.0/9.

Harika Dronavalli extends a hand to Mikhaylo Oleksiyenko | Photo: Maria Emelianova

A special mention to WFM Srija Seshadri, rated 2166, who scored 5½/9 with a 2428 performance!

WFM Srija Seshadri | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Matthias Bluebaum vs Ahmad Asgarizadeh

Matthias Bluebaum came into the final round higher rated and determined to win with white. Win he did in very short time, and he presents his miniature here.

Matthias Bluebam with Daniel King | Powerplay Chess on YouTube

Meet the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2

Rustam Kasimdzhanov, the FIDE World Champion in 2004, has been extremely successful with the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2 with White and with Black. In over 4 hours of video, Rustam Kasimdzhanov explains all the important ideas, strategies and tricks helped by sample games in which the white side is represented, e.g., by Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Ivanchuk as well as the author himself.

After the round, kids gather around to analyze and play. Kids who score 2520 performances it should be noted, such as IM Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

IM Praggnanandhaa (in stripped shirt) | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Group photo with organizers, arbiters and winners

Group photo with organizers, arbiters and winners (click or tap to expand) | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Final standings

Rk	SNo	Ti.	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB	rtg+/-
1	5	GM	Wang Hao	CHN	2683	7,0	47,0	12,0
2	6	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2682	7,0	44,0	11,4
3	21	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	UKR	2641	7,0	44,0	14,3
4	2	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	UKR	2708	7,0	43,0	4,5
5	23	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2629	7,0	42,5	10,6
6	18	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2652	7,0	41,0	-1,9
7	4	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	AZE	2702	6,5	46,5	-1,0
8	16	GM	Fressinet Laurent	FRA	2662	6,5	45,0	2,6
9	17	GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2660	6,5	44,0	3,5
10	1	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2745	6,5	43,5	-3,8
11	45	GM	Pichot Alan	ARG	2556	6,5	43,5	8,2
12	28	GM	Adly Ahmed	EGY	2593	6,5	43,0	10,5
	47		Xu Yinglun	CHN	2540	6,5	43,0	14,1
14	13	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	ARM	2666	6,5	42,5	-6,3
15	36	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2576	6,5	41,5	9,9
16	15	GM	Mareco Sandro	ARG	2664	6,5	40,5	-0,9
17	8	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2680	6,5	40,5	-7,1
18	22	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	GER	2632	6,5	40,0	-0,9
19	54	IM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2503	6,5	39,0	16,5
20	12	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	VEN	2673	6,0	45,5	-9,3
21	11	GM	Akopian Vladimir	ARM	2675	6,0	44,5	-5,3
22	7	GM	Areshchenko Alexander	UKR	2682	6,0	42,5	-6,0
23	19	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	UKR	2643	6,0	42,5	-8,2
24	50	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	IND	2526	6,0	42,0	6,8
25	31	GM	Gledura Benjamin	HUN	2588	6,0	41,5	4,6
26	73		Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2427	6,0	41,0	5,1
27	20	GM	Oleksiyenko Mykhaylo	UKR	2643	6,0	40,5	-9,7
	72	FM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2429	6,0	40,5	11,6
29	64	IM	Narayanan Srinath	IND	2472	6,0	40,5	14,4
30	59	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2480	6,0	40,0	5,1
31	65	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2455	6,0	39,5	10,5
32	27	GM	Bok Benjamin	NED	2596	6,0	39,5	-4,2
33	48	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2539	6,0	39,0	8,4
34	42	IM	Santos Latasa Jaime	ESP	2565	6,0	38,5	-13,2
35	55	IM	Stany G.A.	IND	2495	6,0	36,0	0,3
36	10	GM	Jones Gawain C B	ENG	2676	5,5	47,0	-8,9
37	57	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2483	5,5	44,0	4,8
38	79	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2405	5,5	42,5	18,1
39	38	GM	Svane Rasmus	GER	2570	5,5	41,5	-2,9
	49	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2534	5,5	41,5	-4,5

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