Michal Krasenkow wins Sheikh Russel tournament in Bangladesh

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

...

Games

Links

• Tournament page...
• Chess-results...