Qatar Masters: Five co-leaders on 3/3, Carlsen bounces back

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
10/14/2023 – Five players are sharing the lead with perfect scores after three rounds at the Qatar Masters in Doha. Arjun Erigaisi, Javokhir Sindarov (pictured), Narayanan S L, Rinat Jumabayev and Robby Kevlishvili are the co-leaders after Friday’s round. Due to the controversy surrounding Magnus Carlsen’s defeat and ensuing social media post on Thursday, the organizers put forth new anti-cheating regulations. Carlsen bounced back from the shocking loss by beating Al Muthaiah with the white pieces. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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New fair play measures

About half an hour before the start of round 3, the organizers of the Qatar Masters shared a post on X announcing new “fair play measures”. This was a reaction to Thursday’s controversy surrounding Magnus Carlsen’s comments after his upset loss against 23-year-old Kazakh grandmaster Alisher Suleymenov (rated 2512).

The new measures included:

  • Games are broadcasted with a 15-minute delay.
  • The refreshment area and toilets are exclusively reserved to the players and arbiters, to the exclusion of any other participants.
  • After the first 10 minutes of the game, only authorised personnel may carry a phone when in areas restricted to the players, and shall not use it in the playing area and refreshment area.
  • Pens that are provided for the games by the organizer are expected to be used and left at the board at the end of each game.
  • Items that trigger the security scanners during checks at the entrance of the playing venue (e.g. pens, wallets, watches …), may have to be left at the security checkpoint.

Even Vladimir Fedoseev, who in round 2 had left the board in a losing position with 94 minutes on his clock and not signed the scoresheet afterwards, showed up to play on Friday — he beat FM Khumoyun Begmuratov and now stands on 1/3 points. Apparently, he was satisfied with the new anti-cheating measures.

Out of the 21 players who entered the round with 2/2 scores, only five managed to score full points to remain atop the standings. Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri, seeded second and third in the tournament, do not belong to this group, as they signed draws with Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Aditya Mittal respectively.

The five co-leaders are now Arjun Erigaisi, Javokhir Sindarov, Narayanan S L, Rinat Jumabayev and Robby Kevlishvili. In this group, only Kevlishvili defeated a higher-rated opponent in round 3, as he got the better of Jakhongir Vakhidov with the white pieces.

Carlsen also won to join the large group with 2/3 points. His queen and knight turned out to be a stronger tandem than Al Muthaiah’s queen and bishop.

Carlsen vs. Muthaiah

The white king escaped the checks via the dark squares, and once it was safe on f4, Carlsen manoeuvred his knight to f6, with a mating attack.

50.Nf6+ Kg7 51.Nh5+ (double check) Kf8 52.Qd6+ Kg8 53.Qd8+ and Black resigned.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Qatar Chess Association

Co-leader Sindarov showed good endgame technique to beat veteran Gregory Kaidanov on Friday, and had also demonstrated his technical prowess in the previous round, when he got the better of Kazybek Nogerbek — find below expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller.

Sindarov, Javokhir26581–0Nogerbek, Kazybek2471
Qatar Masters 2023
Doha12.10.2023[Mueller,Karsten]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.Bd2 0-0 9.h3 h6 10.a3 Be6 11.Nc3 Bxb3 12.cxb3 Qd7 13.Rc1 Rac8 14.Re1 Rfe8 15.b4 Nd4 16.Nxd4 exd4 17.Ne2 c5 18.Ng3 Bf8 19.Nf5 Kh7 20.bxc5 dxc5 21.g4 g6 22.Ng3 c4 23.Kg2 Rc6 24.Qf3 Rec8 25.Bb4 Bg7 26.Ne2 Qd8 27.e5 Ne8 28.Qe4 Re6 29.f4 a5 30.Bd2 Nd6 31.Qd5 cxd3 32.Nxd4 Nc4 33.Qxd8 Rxd8 34.Nxe6 fxe6 35.Rxc4 bxc4 36.Bxa5 Rb8 37.Bc3 Bf8 38.Ra1 Rb3 39.Kf3 Bc5 40.Ke4 Kg8 41.a4 Rb7 42.a5 Rd7 43.Kf3 Kf7 44.a6 Ba7 45.Bd2 Ke8 46.Rc1 Rd4
The principle of two inroads. Often one inroad can be defended. Then the attacker often opens a second one: 47.h4!? The battering ram comes. Bb6 47...h5 48.gxh5 gxh5 49.Rg1 Kf7 50.Rg5 c3 51.bxc3 Ra4 52.Rxh5 Rxa6 53.Ke4+- 48.h5!? White opens a second front. gxh5 49.gxh5 Kf7 50.Ra1 Rd7 51.Ra4 Rc7 52.Be3 Rd7 53.Bd2!? Good technique. The direct 53.Bxb6 wins as well due to d2 54.Ra1 d1Q+ 55.Rxd1 Rxd1 56.a7 Ra1 57.Ke4+- 53...Rc7 54.Rb4 Ba7 54...Ba5 is met by 55.Rb7+- 55.Rb7
The winning invasion starts. First the rook, then the bishop comes. 55...Rxb7 56.axb7 Ke7 57.Bb4+ Kd7 58.Bd6 58.Bd6 d2 59.Ke2+- 1–0

Standings after round 3

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Erigaisi, Arjun 3 6
2 Sindarov, Javokhir 3 12
3 Narayanan.S.L, 3 13
4 Jumabayev, Rinat 3 25
5 Kevlishvili, Robby 3 43
6 Nakamura, Hikaru 2,5 2
7 Giri, Anish 2,5 3
8 Gukesh, D 2,5 4
9 Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2,5 5
10 Salem, A.R. Saleh 2,5 16
11 Yakubboev, Nodirbek 2,5 19
12 Karthikeyan, Murali 2,5 20
13 Kuybokarov, Temur 2,5 26
14 Vokhidov, Shamsiddin 2,5 28
15 Aditya, Mittal 2,5 30
16 Fawzy, Adham 2,5 40
17 Yilmazyerli, Mert 2,5 41
18 Madaminov, Mukhiddin 2,5 61
19 Vaishali, Rameshbabu 2,5 75
20 Laxman, R.R. 2,5 144

...158 players

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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