Michal Krasenkow wins Sheikh Russel tournament in Bangladesh

by Johannes Fischer
11/1/2021 – With an impressive finish Michal Krasenkov won the strong Sheik Russel tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that ended 27 October. In the last three rounds the Russian-born Polish GM scored 3.0/3, which helped him to finish sole first with 7.0 out of 9. Six players followed half a point behind and shared second to seventh place. | Photo: Alina l'Ami (Archive)

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A Grandmaster tournament in Bangladesh

With 166 million inhabitants, Bangladesh is one of the most populous countries in the world.

1. China 1.41 billion inhabitants
2. India 1.39 billion
3. USA 330 million
4. Indonesia 272 million
5. Brazil 212 million
6. Pakistan 212 million
7. Nigeria 211 million
8. Bangladesh 166 million
9. Russia 146 million
10. Mexico 128 million

As a chess country, however, Bangladesh is further down the list and on the FIDE ranking list of countries Bangladesh is in 70th place.

The best players of the country are Al Rakib Mollah Abdullah, Ziaur Rahman, Niaz Murshed, Enamul Hossain, and Bin-Sattar Reefat. They are all Grandmasters, but none of them has a current rating of more than 2500 Elo, and you need a rating of only 1930 to make it to the top 100 in Bangladesh.

But the "Sheikh Russel Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2021" that took place from 19 to 27 October in Dhaka, the capital of the country, might give new impulses to the chess scene in Bangladesh. The prize fund of 55,000 USD was substantial and attracted a number of Grandmasters. First prize was 10,000 USD.

The sponsor of the event was Saif Powertec Ltd, one of the largest companies in the country. It operates in the field of power engineering and produces e.g. solar systems and car batteries.

About a 100 players took part in the tournament, 44 of them from the host country and 28 from India. Top seed was Sergey Tiviakov, but in the end it was Michael Krasenkow who finished first. But the Russian-born Grandmaster who now lives in Poland, started the tournament with a slight disappointment: in round one he only drew against the untitled and much lower-rated Indian Sanket Chakravorty (Elo 2288).

After two wins in rounds two and three, another setback followed: Krasenkov lost a sharp and theoretically interesting game against Masoud Mosadeghpour from Iran.

 

But after another win in round five and a draw in round six, Krasenkov picked up the pace and finished the tournament with three wins to become sole first with 7.0/9.

Particularly important and impressive was Krasenkov's last-round win with Black against the young Azerbaijani Vugar Rasulov. A theoretically interesting line of the Sveshnikov Sicilian led to an interesting position with an unusual pawn structure and opposite-coloured bishops that offered a lot of hidden tactical possibilities.

When the tactical complications were over, Krasenkow had the better endgame, which he converted despite stubborn and creative resistance by Rasulov.

 

The Triangle Setup - A complete defense to 1.d4

The polish GM Michal Krasenkow presents a repertoire based on the Noteboom and the Stonewall. Black's set-up may lead to a whole range of different and interesting positions, which help the black player to broaden his strategic and tactical understanding.

The Semi-Slav defense (1.d4 d5 followed by ...e7-e6 and ...c7-c6) is one of the most popular opening set-ups for Black. Black can follow two entirely different concepts.

The Indian Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, who after six rounds was leading by one point with 5.5 out of 6, fared less well in the final rounds of the tournament. With two draws and one loss he scored only one point in the last three rounds and ended up in second to seventh place, which he shared with six other players, who all had 6.5/9.

Srinath Narayanan | Photo: ChessBase India

Final standings after 9 rounds

Rk. SNo     Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB2   TB3  Rp K rtg+/-
1 4
 
GM Krasenkow Michal POL 2578 7,0 43,5 47,0 2626 10 5,6
2 3
 
GM Bernadskiy Vitaliy UKR 2580 6,5 50,0 54,5 2636 10 6,8
3 7
 
GM Narayanan Srinath IND 2540 6,5 48,5 52,5 2641 10 12,5
4 18
 
IM Mitrabha Guha IND 2479 6,5 46,5 51,0 2632 10 19,1
5 10
 
GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 2518 6,5 46,0 50,0 2595 10 9,7
6 13
 
IM Mousavi Seyed Khalil IRI 2510 6,5 46,0 49,5 2622 10 13,9
7 22
 
GM Rasulov Vugar AZE 2452 6,5 44,5 49,0 2589 10 17,1
8 17
 
GM Mosadeghpour Masoud IRI 2486 6,0 50,0 53,5 2615 10 16,2
9 2
 
GM Asadli Vugar AZE 2585 6,0 49,0 54,0 2579 10 -0,5
10 33
 
IM Koustav Chatterjee IND 2431 6,0 47,5 51,0 2597 10 21,1
11 6
 
GM Iskandarov Misratdin AZE 2552 6,0 46,0 50,5 2566 10 1,8
12 25
 
GM Malakhatko Vadim BEL 2444 6,0 45,0 48,5 2530 10 11,0
13 38
 
GM Laxman R.R. IND 2411 6,0 44,5 47,0 2556 10 18,8
14 23
 
IM Aditya Mittal IND 2447 6,0 42,0 45,5 2538 10 11,6
15 15
 
GM Sumets Andrey UKR 2497 6,0 42,0 45,5 2526 10 4,1
16 12
 
GM Visakh N R IND 2515 6,0 42,0 45,5 2509 10 -0,2
17 24
 
IM Aronyak Ghosh IND 2445 6,0 41,5 45,5 2517 10 9,2
18 39
 
GM Murshed Niaz BAN 2410 6,0 41,5 45,0 2472 10 9,1
19 20
 
GM Rios Cristhian Camilo COL 2457 6,0 40,5 44,0 2474 10 2,6
20 16
 
  Pranav V IND 2489 6,0 39,5 42,0 2452 10 -3,3
21 9
 
GM Stany G.A. IND 2522 5,5 43,5 48,0 2476 10 -5,0

...

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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