Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins El Llobregat Open in Barcelona

by André Schulz
12/10/2021 – After nine rounds three players shared first place with 7.0/9 each at the El Llobregat Open in Barcelona: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), Murali Khartikeyan (India), and Pere Garriga Cazorla, the best player from the host country. Abdusattorov then won the playoff and the tournament, Khartikeyan finished second. | Photos: Patricia Claros

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Before the final round, Nodirbek Abdusattorov was sole leader with 6.5/8. A draw against Jaime Santos Latasa in the last round sufficed the 17-year-old Grandmaster from Uzbekistan to share first. From the chasing group, Murali Karthikeyan won in round nine against Tomas Sosa (Argentina) and Pere Garriga Cazorla won against Sethuraman S.P. (India) to draw level with Abdusattorov.

Crucial for Abdusattorov's tournament victory was his win against Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan in round eight.

 

Material is equal bot White has the more active pieces and Black's pawn on a6 is markedly weaker than White's pawn on c4.

24.c4 Nc6 25.Kc3 a5 26.Rd1 Rfe8 27.Rd6 White is pressing.

27...Ne5 28.Rd5 Ng4 29.Bg3 29.Bb6!? Nxh2 30.Rdd7 Rf8 31.f3

29...h5 30.Rxh5 30.Rdd7! Rf8 31.Bd6

30...Re1 31.Rc7 Rc1+ 32.Kd4 Rd1+ 33.Kc5 Rxc7+ 34.Bxc7 Nf6 More active was 34...Nxf2 35.Bxa5 Ne4+ 36.Kc6 g5

35.Rh3 Rd2 36.Rf3

 

36... a4? This attempt to break through will soon fail. Better was 36...Ne4+ 37.Kb5 Nxf2 and Black can still fight for the draw.

37.Kb4 Rc2 38.Rf4 Nd7 39.Rd4 Rb2+ 40.Kxa4 Nc5+ 41.Ka3 Rc2 42.Bb6 Ne6 43.Re4 Abdusattorov demonstrates good technique.

43...Kf8 44.Be3 Ke8 45.Kb3 Re2 46.Re5 Kd7 47.Ra5 Kd6 48.h4 Re1 49.h5 f6 50.Kc3 Rh1 51.Kd3 Rh4 52.g3 Rg4

 

53.Ra6+ With a nice idea: After 53...Ke7 54.Rxe6+ Kxe6 55.Bf4 Black's rook is caught. White will follow up with 56.f3 and remain a piece up. 1–0

Behind the leading trio, eight players finished with 6.5/9. Four players made a Grandmaster norm: Pere Garriga Cazorla (Spain), Mahammad Muradli (Aserbaijan), Thomas Beerdsen (The Netherlands) , and the 15-year-old Aditya Mittal from India.

Kirk Ghazarian (USA), Theodor Kenneskog (Sweden), Samant Aditya (India), Beloslava Krasteva from Bulgaria made IM norms.

Deputy Mayor Eva Lopez and the Vice-President of the Catalan Chess Federation Ramon Caro awarded the prizes.

Guest of honour Anatoly Karpov also visited the editorial office of La Vanguardia, one of the most widely read newspapers in Spain, and played a game with director Jordi Juan Raja.

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  Tb1 
1 Abdusattorov Nodirbek 7,0 49,0
2 Karthikeyan Murali 7,0 46,0
3 Garriga Cazorla Pere 7,0 42,0
4 Erigaisi Arjun 6,5 47,5
5 Aditya Mittal 6,5 47,5
6 Meshkovs Nikita 6,5 46,5
7 Yuffa Daniil 6,5 46,5
8 Muradli Mahammad 6,5 45,5
9 Santos Latasa Jaime 6,5 45,0
10 Puranik Abhimanyu 6,5 43,0
11 Van Foreest Lucas 6,5 41,5
12 Sethuraman S.P. 6,0 48,0
13 Safarli Eltaj 6,0 47,5
14 Krzyzanowski Marcin 6,0 47,0
15 Beerdsen Thomas 6,0 46,5
16 Sosa Tomas 6,0 44,5
17 Fier Alexandr 6,0 44,0
18 Fedorchuk Sergey A. 6,0 43,5
19 Ponomariov Ruslan 6,0 43,5
20 Visakh N R 6,0 43,5

157 players

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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