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For the first time in the Superstars tournament, part of the Fujairah Global Chess Championship, a sole leader has emerged. Pranav Venkatesh defeated Amin Tabatabaei with the white pieces to take the outright lead on 5½ points, one point ahead of a large, eight-player group of pursuers with two rounds to go.
Pranav and Tabatabaei had entered round seven as co-leaders. The Iranian grandmaster had followed an upset loss to Alexander Motylev in the opening round with three consecutive wins, saved a draw with black against Brandon Jacobson (analysed by GM Karsten Müller below) and defeated Sanan Sjugirov. His enterprising approach left him with only a single draw in the first six rounds, while his loss against Pranav now sees him among the players trailing the leader by a full point.
Also part of this chasing pack is Zhu Jiner, the lowest seed and sole female participant in the field. The 22-year-old, who has scored wins over Yuriy Kuzubov and Motylev, held Sanan Sjugirov to a 35-move draw with the black pieces in round seven. Zhu remains undefeated, and her consistent performance has lifted her in the live ratings to equal women's world champion Ju Wenjun, both standing at 2565.3 Elo. Given her low starting rating in Fujairah, even two draws in the remaining rounds would allow her to surpass Ju in the official list.
Zhu Jiner | Photo: Anna Shtourman
Another player in the trailing group is 16-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra, who will be Pranav's opponent in round eight. The youngster from New Jersey has already defeated Kacper Piorun and Raunak Sadhwani, and came very close to scoring another victory against Aydin Suleymanli in round seven.
After a sharp tactical struggle, Abhimanyu reached an ending with rook and two pawns against bishop and two pawns. With both players having less than one minute on their clocks, the youngster from New Jersey erred by playing 92…Rc1 in the following position.
This rook manoeuvre allowed White to save the game with 93.g7 Rxd1 94.g8Q Ra1+ 95.Kb6 d1Q, when the queen begins to give checks, and an eventual queen trade leads to a drawn rook versus pawn ending.
The winning method was 92…Ra8+ 93.Kb4 (93.Kb6 also loses) Rg8 94.b6 (94.Bc2 Rxg6 95.d1Q) Rxg6 95.Kb5 Rg1, positioning the rook to give decisive checks from behind.
Missing this line meant Suleymanli escaped with half a point after a marathon, 114-move encounter.
Abhimanyu Mishra | Photo: Anna Shtourman
Analysis by GM Karsten Müller (round 5)
Amin Tabatabaei | Photo: Anna Shtourman
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | PRANAV, V | 2597 | 5,5 | 29 | |
| 2 | GM | JACOBSON, Brandon | 2594 | 4,5 | 31 | |
| 3 | GM | SULEYMANLI, Aydin | 2609 | 4,5 | 30 | |
| 4 | GM | TABATABAEI, M. Amin | 2673 | 4,5 | 28 | |
| 5 | GM | MARTINEZ ALCANTARA, Jose Eduardo | 2636 | 4,5 | 28 | |
| 6 | GM | SJUGIROV, Sanan | 2636 | 4,5 | 28 | |
| 7 | GM | HONG, Andrew | 2580 | 4,5 | 28 | |
| 8 | GM | ZHU, Jiner | 2536 | 4,5 | 27,5 | |
| 9 | GM | MISHRA, Abhimanyu | 2610 | 4,5 | 26,5 | |
| 10 | GM | PRANESH, M | 2589 | 4 | 26,5 | |
| 11 | GM | NIHAL, Sarin | 2692 | 4 | 26 | |
| 12 | GM | SHANKLAND, Sam | 2670 | 4 | 26 | |
| 13 | GM | CHEPARINOV, Ivan | 2625 | 4 | 26 | |
| 14 | GM | ADITYA, Mittal | 2560 | 4 | 26 | |
| 15 | GM | DANESHVAR, Bardiya | 2625 | 4 | 25,5 | |
| 16 | GM | ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan | 2586 | 4 | 25,5 | |
| 17 | GM | PICHOT, Alan | 2581 | 4 | 25 | |
| 18 | GM | THEODOROU, Nikolas | 2646 | 4 | 24 | |
| 19 | GM | DONCHENKO, Alexander | 2616 | 4 | 24 | |
| 20 | GM | MOTYLEV, Alexander | 2595 | 3,5 | 26 | |
| 21 | GM | MURADLI, Mahammad | 2586 | 3,5 | 26 | |
| 22 | GM | DUDIN, Gleb | 2583 | 3,5 | 26 | |
| 23 | GM | LU, Shanglei | 2647 | 3,5 | 24,5 | |
| 24 | GM | SALEM, A.R. Saleh | 2640 | 3,5 | 24,5 | |
| 25 | GM | NARAYANAN, S L | 2595 | 3,5 | 24,5 |
