Aeroflot Open: Sasikiran's streak stalls

by André Schulz
2/26/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran, who had led the Aeroflot Open confidently after six rounds, lost in the seventh round to strong Armenian youth GM Haik Martirosyan and was overtaken by GM Kaido Kulaots. The trio now has a half point lead over four other grandmasters with two rounds left to play. | Photo: Mohammad Kheirkhah / ruchess.ru
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.

Tournament wide open again

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.

Annotations by IM Sagar Shah
 

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 Martirosyan

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.

Annotations by IM Sagar Shah
 

IM Sagar Shah explains the game for ChessBase India

Standings after Round 7 (top 20)

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

Results (top 20)

Name Pts. Res. Pts. Name
Martirosyan Haik M. 4½ 1 - 0 5½ Sasikiran Krishnan
Wei Yi 4½ 0 - 1 4½ Kulaots Kaido
Chigaev Maksim 4½ ½ - ½ 4½ Tabatabaei M.Amin
Deac Bogdan-Daniel 4 ½ - ½ 4 Wang Hao
Petrosian Tigran L. 4 1 - 0 4 Nabaty Tamir
Anton Guijarro David 4 ½ - ½ 4 Lupulescu Constantin
Sarana Alexey 4 1 - 0 4 Narayanan.S.L
Fier Alexandr 4 ½ - ½ 4 Zhou Jianchao
Fedoseev Vladimir 3½ ½ - ½ 4 Vaibhav Suri
Jumabayev Rinat 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Dubov Daniil
Donchenko Alexander 3½ 0 - 1 3½ Inarkiev Ernesto
Yakubboev Nodirbek 3½ 0 - 1 3½ Korobov Anton
Maghsoodloo Parham 3½ 1 - 0 3½ Gordievsky Dmitry
Sychev Klementy 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Sjugirov Sanan
Zvjaginsev Vadim 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Xu Yi
Aleksandrov Aleksej 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Paravyan David
Grachev Boris 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Antipov Mikhail Al.
Puranik Abhimanyu 3½ 0 - 1 3½ Khismatullin Denis
Firouzja Alireza 3½ 1 - 0 3½ Sargsyan Shant
Sadhwani Raunak 3½ ½ - ½ 3½ Van Foreest Jorden

...101 players

All games

 

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

Links

Topics: Aeroflot Open 2019, Haik Martirosyan, Kaido Kulaots, Krishnan Sasikiran, Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wei Yi
André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register

Lavanda Lavanda 2/28/2019 05:44
"Here White gave up" Actually Wei Yi resigned after Kulaots played Kd3: you can clearly see that in the live stream at 5:28:53, no idea why the last move was omitted in the live broadcast.
VVI VVI 2/28/2019 03:16
Sasikiran choked. Didn`t he lose to this lower rated player in the recent Olympiad?
1