Qatar 2015 round two: Nine players on perfect score

Qatar Masters 2015: Nine players on perfect score

Report from Doha by Sagar Shah

Watch it live on Playchess!

In order to avoid financial budget constraints organizers often stage their tournaments in tourist off season of a particular region. Off seasons mean worse climate and also the fact that hotels are cheaper than what they would usually cost. However at the Qatar Masters 2015 no such half measures have been taken. The climate is perfect with a pleasant 18-20 degree Celsius temperature. The official hotel Torch is one of the best hotels, not only in Doha but in the entire country. The tournament hall is huge, well lit and spacious with individual table for every game being played. In short it is the perfect setting for any player to forget about all other worries and focus completely on the game.

After an explosive start on the first day where we witnessed many 2700+ players being beaten or held, the second round was comparatively quite sedate. The quality of the games, however, was quite high as many grandmasters faced off against each other on the top boards. The difference in Elo was still something around 150 Elo points, but top players like Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin, Wesley So know that when you are up against 2600+ opponents things cannot be taken lightly.

Daniel Naroditsky, Nils Grandelius and Salem Saleh discuss the strategy of how to tackle their 2750+ opponents! The three youngsters were up against Wesley So, Anish Giri and Segey Karjakin respectively

On the top board Vladimir Kramnik tried really hard for the full point,
won a pawn and was pressing throughout the game…

…but the reigning world problem solving champion Kacper Piorun
(which translates to Caspar Thunderbolt) defended tenaciously and secured the half point

Anish Giri played a highly complicated battle against GM Nils Grandelius. The game was filled with
interesting moments and the Dutch GM managed to outplay his Swedish opponent in the end.

He played 7.Nb3!? Magnus and Anish discuss the former’s game

Anish in the live commentary room with Peter Svidler

Sergey Karjakin could not break through the defences of UAE number one Salem Saleh

Which do you prefer? New tournament, new style: Salem in Abu Dhabi in August 2015
on the left and in the Qatar Masters on the right. No contest, right?

Wesley So played a positional masterpiece to beat Daniel Naroditsky with the white pieces

It’s White (Wesley) to play. Can you come up with the subtle idea that the American grandmaster
found in his game? Hint: it's little moves like this one that usually make a huge difference!

B. Adhiban and Siva Mahadevan (right) chat with Aravindh Chithambaram (left)
before the biggest clash of his life

The 16-year-old took on the reigning World Champion in the second round

It was not the first time that the two met over the board at the Qatar Masters 2015. In 2013, Aravindh played Magnus in a simultaneous exhibition and drew against the soon-to-become World Champion.

The game began with an offbeat opening 1.e4 c5 2.b3!? employed by Aravindh. The Indian grandmaster is known for playing unorthodox systems and had previously beaten Alexie Shirov with 1.b3. The thing which is most amazing about Carlsen and other top players is the humungous amount of knowledge they have related to any opening under the sun. Turns out that Carlsen had wanted to employ this system with the white pieces in the past, but had found 2…g6!? to be quite irritating. This is the same move suggested by his second Peter Heine Nielsen in the book Experts against the Anti Sicilians. Carlsen played 2…g6 and Aravindh was immediately thrown off balance. He thought for nearly forty minutes on his fourth move. After around 15 moves it seemed as if the game would end pretty soon. Magnus was not only ahead on time but also had a clearly better position. But Aravindh fought on. And he played so well that gradually he began outplaying the World Champion. As Carlsen described in his post-game interview the only thing left now was to try and trick his young opponent before they reached the 40th move time control. The Norwegian was able to do exactly that, and by the time the players reached 38th move, Aravindh was completely lost. His flag fell and the game was over.

Video by Vijay Kumar on the second round of the event. Be sure not to miss the interview with Magnus Carlsen, starting at 4 minutes and 22 seconds, in which he not only describes his game against Aravindh but also against Nino Batsiashvili from the first round

After he had finised Magnus kibitzed nearly every game that was in progress in the tournament hall.
It was truly an inspiring sight and shows how much the World Champion truly loves the game.

11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov has made a wonderful start to the tournament,
drawing against Samuel Shankland in round one and Nguyen Ngoc Truongson in round two

WGM Zhansaya Abdumalik showed that she was not someone who
could be dismissed – she scored a superb victory over GM Stefan Bromberger

Nino Batsiashvili, who drew her game against the World Champion in the first round,
couldn’t continue her momentum and lost against Harikrishna Pentala

An important battle in the second round was the clash between Hou Yifan and Harika Dronavalli –
they tried to play a creative and original game of chess, but in the end had to split the point

Mr. Cool Vladimir Fedoseev wriggled out from what seemed like
a completely lost cause against Ali Marandi

Viktor Bologan was the biggest casualty of round two as he lost to IM Daniil Yuffa. The Russian player showcased some high quality chess and scored what was quite a flawless victory.

Yes we will! The hero of round two: Daniil Yuffa.

What do you do if your Elo is below 2300 and you are not allowed to participate in the Qatar Masters? You set up a giant chess set outside the playing hall and don’t really care about ratings and results – just indulge and enjoy this royal game!

Pairings/Results of Round 2 on 2015/12/21 at 15:00

Football Match

After the round, at 10.p.m. there was a football match held in the grounds of the aspire zone. Even though it was quite late in the night everyone was sure that one player would turn up – Magnus Carlsen, who loves to indulge in any kind of sport! As it happened, many grandmasters arrived: Evgeny Tomashevsky, Dariusz Swiercz, Piorun Kacper, Mateusz Bartel, Pavel Tregubov, Alexandra Kosteniuk (yes she too played and we must say, she was quite good!), Benjamin Bok, Daniil Yuffa, Salem Saleh, Samy Shoker, Pontus Carlsson and a few others. Here are some exclusive pictures by Amruta Mokal, who went to the match and made sure that the ball didn’t hit her camera!

Daniil Yuffa and Magnus Carlsen battle it out on the soccer field for now.
Tomorrow they will be sitting across each other on the chess board.

…but Alexandra Kosteniuk made sure that the World Champion faced some stiff resistance

A beautiful couple! Kosteniuk and Tregubov made sure that they were on the same team

Accrobatic Salem Saleh is tackled by Bartel Mateusz (with Swiercz Dariusz watching)

Exhausted, but that was great fun! Mateusz and Salem.

Great camaraderie! A final group picture for posterity!

All photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Schedule for Playchess Commentary

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.