Aeroflot Open: Chigaev and Sasikiran on a roll

A tough crowd

The field at the Aeroflot Open tends to include, for the most part, ambitious young players and well-established strong grandmasters who have not quite gotten into the elite. This results in a highly competitive environment, a sort of survival of the fittest scenario.

After three rounds, some big names have fallen in the standings, while others simply have not been able to shine. That is the case of Vladislav Kovalev, the defending champion and recent winner of the Tata Steel Challengers — the Byelorrusian is on 1/3 after drawing his first two games and losing in round three against Uzbek prodigy Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Meanwhile, strong players like Ernesto Inarkiev, Eltaj Safarli and David Anton remain on 50%.

Defending champion Vladislav Kovalev | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

Nevertheless, some are looking their best at the Cosmos Hotel. Maksim Chigaev and Krishnan Sasikiran truly had a dream start in Moscow.

For Chigaev, the first two months of 2019 might be the beginning of a big breakthrough in his career, as he led the Tata Steel Challengers temporarily — he only lost against Benjamin Gledura — which propelled him to reach his highest-ever rating. On Friday, he faced young Nihal Sarin with the white pieces and did not shy away from pushing his queenside pawns when he deemed favourable:

Black has a solid setup and White's hopes lie on a queenside advance supported by the g2-bishop. With 12.b4 Chigaev put forth a plan that would eventually lead to game victory — his passed pawns on the queenside decided the struggle in his favour:

How to fight the Queen's Pawn Openings

After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4.

After the middlegame, both players were left with equal material, and Black even had a pawn on d2, but White's b and c-pawns were unstoppable. Maksim played 37.♖exd2, as Black cannot capture twice with the rooks without allowing the passer on the c-file to turn into a queen. Sarin resigned on move 40.

Chigaev during this year's Tata Steel Tournament | Photo: Alina l'Ami

A less surprising name at the top is Krishnan Sasikiran's. The 38-year-old from Madras was part of the strong Indian team during the last Olympiad in Batumi and has been part of Vishy Anand's team during the 2013 World Championship match. His latest achievement was to finish third at last year's Sunway Open in Sitges, after painfully losing the final sudden-death game against Ernesto Inarkiev in the fight for second place.

On board one, he was facing his young compatriot Aravindh with White. Aravindh messed up his position in a highly strategic middlegame and paid the price when Sasikiran crashed through tactically with a knight sacrifice:

The modern Grand Prix Attack

The Grand Prix Attack is one of White’s most enterprising weapons against the Sicilian Defence, and a favourite among club players and Grandmasters alike. This is an opening that must be treated with both caution and respect. Over the past few years Grandmaster Gawain Jones, arguably the world’s leading expert on the variation, has used the Grand Prix Attack to defeat a number of world class opponents, which demonstrates that underestimating its potential can cause casualties even at the highest level. This DVD will provide you with a comprehensive repertoire that explores all of Black’s ideas against the Grand Prix set up.

Black's pieces are simply too far away from his king, so 25.♘exg5 pops up naturally in any grandmaster's mind. After 25...fxg5 26.♘xg5 ♜xe1+ 27.♖xe1 ♛g8, the discovered attack on the queen with 28.d6 was decisive. 

Aravindh kept on fighting with 28...♝d5, but Sasikiran showed the winning combination: 29.♗xd5 ♞xd5 30.d7 ♝f6 31.♖e8 ♝xg5 32.♛c6, forking rook and knight while the queen is pinned on g8. (You can try these and other alternative variations on the diagram above). 

Krishnan Sasikiran, also known as 'Sasi' | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In other news, Estonian GM Kaido Kulaots defeated yet another Iranian star from the black side of a sharp Sicilian. Kulaots had taken down Parham Maghsoodloo in round one and now did the same with Alireaza Firouzja. Already in a losing position, Alireza put his rook on the dangerous open b-file, only to find out immediately that the Estonian had a killer queen transition:

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Firouzja resigned after 28...♛g6+, given that after 29.♕d3 ♛xd3 30.♔xd3 Black can exchange rooks on the b-file and fork king and bishop with ...♜xf3+. 0-1.

Standings after Round 3 (top 30)

All available games

Links

• Official site
• All stories on the 2019 Aeroflot Open  
• Full results (Chess-Results)