For six rounds, Krishnan Sasikiran was the "man of the hour" at the 17th Aeroflot Open in Moscow. With five wins and a draw, he led the field by a full point. But yesterday the triumphal procession of the Indian grandmaster ended abruptly against Armenian Haik Martirosyan. The two players followed the once very popular variation in the Fianchetto system of the King's Indian Defense and were still on theoretically known terrain through move 20. Then Martirosyan deviated with 20.e4:
Black had sacrificed an exchange on b2 and declined to recoup it playing 20...♝d4 21.♔h1 e5. Black certainly has compensation for the material deficit, but maybe not enough. Sasikiran tried to attack the white king, but White's counterattack was ultimately more effective.
Even after his defeat, Sasikiran analyzed the game with his opponent | Video: David Llada via ChessBase India
The name of the 18-year-old Haik Martirosyan is not so well known outside of his home country, but this may soon change. In 2016 he won the Under-16 World Youth Championship and last year he became Armenian national champion. These were good reasons for the Armenian Association to bring Martyrosyan onto the national team, where he earned an Elo performance rating of over 2700 at the last Chess Olympiad in Batumi where, coincidentally, he also faced Sasikiran.
Sasikiran lost his game against Martirosyan in Batumi as well | Photo: Niklesh Jain
What is no coincidence is how well Martirosyan is playing in the Aeroflot Open. Martirosyan and Kaido Kulaots, who's having a remarkable tournament himself, are now tied with Sasikiran. At the second table, the Estonian Grandmaster Kulaots landed a big blow against the Chinese young star Wei Yi.
Here White gave up.
Wei Yi | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
What of the other well-known youngsters? Nihal Sarin has 4 points with an above average Elo of 2651. Yesterday he won the prestigious duel against his young Indian GM colleague Praggnanandhaa.
IM Sagar Shah explains the game for ChessBase India
| 1 | 62 | GM | Kulaots Kaido | EST | 2542 | 5,5 | 4 | 2646 | |
| 2 | 11 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | IND | 2678 | 5,5 | 4 | 2604 | |
| 3 | 28 | GM | Martirosyan Haik M. | ARM | 2616 | 5,5 | 3 | 2543 | |
| 4 | 43 | GM | Tabatabaei M.Amin | U18 | IRI | 2590 | 5,0 | 4 | 2600 |
| 5 | 41 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L. | ARM | 2595 | 5,0 | 3 | 2594 | |
| 6 | 21 | GM | Sarana Alexey | RUS | 2630 | 5,0 | 3 | 2561 | |
| 7 | 30 | GM | Chigaev Maksim | RUS | 2613 | 5,0 | 3 | 2559 | |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Wang Hao | CHN | 2714 | 4,5 | 4 | 2594 | |
| 9 | 9 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2687 | 4,5 | 4 | 2575 | |
| 10 | 7 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2692 | 4,5 | 4 | 2574 | |
| 11 | 29 | GM | Zhou Jianchao | CHN | 2615 | 4,5 | 4 | 2571 | |
| 12 | 47 | GM | Vaibhav Suri | IND | 2575 | 4,5 | 4 | 2547 | |
| 13 | 25 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2621 | 4,5 | 4 | 2516 | |
| 14 | 53 | GM | Fier Alexandr | BRA | 2561 | 4,5 | 3 | 2649 | |
| 15 | 35 | GM | Deac Bogdan-Daniel | U18 | ROU | 2603 | 4,5 | 3 | 2644 |
| 16 | 32 | GM | Lupulescu Constantin | ROU | 2610 | 4,5 | 3 | 2625 | |
| 17 | 1 | GM | Wei Yi | CHN | 2733 | 4,5 | 3 | 2586 | |
| 18 | 15 | GM | Anton Guijarro David | ESP | 2642 | 4,5 | 3 | 2552 | |
| 19 | 12 | GM | Maghsoodloo Parham | IRI | 2666 | 4,5 | 3 | 2551 | |
| 20 | 26 | GM | Firouzja Alireza | U18 | IRI | 2618 | 4,5 | 3 | 2521 |
...101 players
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
