Raunak beats Fabiano

by Shahid Ahmed
7/13/2020 – Most of the top players cannot take part in over-the-board tournaments, due to the pandemic. But they are often seen in various titled online events. Like in an online blitz tournament on chess.com, where only titled players from all over the world are allowed to take part. Indian GM Raunak Sadhwani made the most of the opportunity and beat the former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana. The game is instructively commented by a video by IM Sagar Shah - with quiz questions and points.

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India's 65th GM beats former World Champion Challenger

By Shahid Ahmed

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic all over-the-board tournaments have either been cancelled or postponed. However chess is such a sport that can still be played online without huge modifications, in fact slim to none would be the right thing to say. Thanks to various online platforms, players from all over the world can now play against the stronger opponents from the comfort of their home. Since most of the top players are not taking part in any over-the-board tournaments, they are often seen in various titled tournament events. Indian GM Raunak  Sadhwani made the most of the opportunity and beat the former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana (and had a a winning position against Anish Giri). What is sopecial about this result: Raunak is all of fourteen years old!

Every Tuesday an online blitz tournament takes place on chess.com, where only titled players all over the world are allowed to take part. Last Tuesday (7th July) GM Raunak Sadhwani started the day well and got a winning position against Anish Giri in Round four. However Giri somehow managed to save the day. Caruana won the Swiss League with 9.0/10 and Raunak finished eighth with 8.5/10. But Raunak eliminated Caruana in the one-game mini match after Caruana misplayed in a completely winning position.

Anish Giri praised Raunak's win over Caruana and said Raunak's loss against him was an "unlucky defeat"

We now bring you analysis by IM Sagar Shah, the founder and CEO of ChessBase India. It is very instructive to follow his comments on this YouTube video and learn more about the ideas and thought processes of top players. If your screen is large enough you can at the same time follow the game on our replay board below the video.

If you have any "but why not?" or "what if?" questions that Sagar doesn't address, simply pause the video and ask the enigine on the replay board (fan icon below the chess diagram). If both the video and the relayer do not fit on your screen, try pressing Ctrl- (Ctrl Minus) a couple of times to compress the display (Ctrl-0 will restore the display to its original size).

In addition you should also pause the video when Sagar poses his quiz questions. Jot your answer on a piece of paper and award yourself the points he awards if you were right. Thinking is fun! So enjoy watching the dramatic game Raunak-Fabio, with Sagar commenting:

[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2020.07.08"] [Round "?"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Sadhwani, Raunak"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A80"] [WhiteElo "3009"] [BlackElo "2946"] [Annotator "Shahid"] [PlyCount "120"] [EventDate "2020.??.??"] [TimeControl "180+1"] 1. d4 f5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bg5 d5 4. e3 Be6 5. Bd3 Nbd7 6. Nf3 g6 7. h4 Bg7 8. Ne2 Nh5 9. Nf4 Nxf4 10. Bxf4 h6 11. c3 Bf7 12. Qb3 Qc8 13. c4 c6 14. cxd5 Bxd5 15. Bc4 Bxc4 16. Qxc4 Nb6 17. Qb3 Nd5 18. Ne5 Bxe5 19. Bxe5 O-O 20. O-O Kh7 21. Rae1 h5 22. f3 Qd7 23. Qc2 Nf6 24. b4 a5 25. bxa5 Rxa5 26. Qf2 Rfa8 27. Re2 Qe6 28. Rb1 b5 29. Rbb2 Nd5 30. Rb3 c5 31. e4 fxe4 32. fxe4 Nb4 33. Rf3 Kg8 34. Qg3 (34. Qe3 $142) 34... cxd4 35. Bxd4 (35. Ref2) 35... Rxa2 36. Rxa2 (36. Rf6 $3 $18 exf6 (36... Qxf6 37. Bxf6 exf6 38. Qxg6+ $18) 37. Qxg6+ Kf8 (37... Kh8 38. Bxf6+) 38. Bc5+) 36... Nxa2 37. Rf6 Qxe4 38. Rxg6+ Kf7 39. Rg7+ Ke6 40. Bc5 Re8 41. Qb3+ Qc4 42. Qe3+ Kd5 43. Rg5+ Kc6 44. Ba7 (44. Qf3+ Kc7 45. Bf2) 44... Qc1+ 45. Qxc1+ Nxc1 46. Rxh5 Ne2+ 47. Kf2 Nf4 48. Rf5 e5 49. Be3 Nd5 50. Bc1 e4 51. Bb2 e3+ 52. Ke2 Rg8 53. Rg5 Rf8 54. Bd4 Rf2+ 55. Ke1 Rc2 56. Rg6+ Kd7 57. Rg7+ Ke6 58. Rg6+ $2 Kf5 59. Rg8 Ke4 60. Rg4+ Kd3 {RaunakSadhwani2005 won by resignation} 0-1

As you probably know, in our replay board above there are a large number of functions you can use to really understand the game and the analysis. The biggest advantage is that you can start an engine (fan icon) that will help you to analyse. You can get multiple lines of analysis by clicking the + button to the right of the engine analysis window. The "!" key, incidentally, shows you the threat in any position, which is incredibly useful in the case of unclear moves.

There is one more thing you can do. It is a lot of fun, but also a serious challenge: Click on the rook icon below the notation window. This will allow you the play the above position against Fritz, at your level of playing strength (e.g. "Club Player"), right here on the news page. Note that your analysis, in which you can delete, move or promote lines, is stored in the notation as new variations. In the end you will find the game with your analysis in the cloud. So nothing is ever lost,

And here is the unlucky game Raunak played against world's to ten GM Anish Giri:

[Event "SCC Grand Prix: Titled Tuesday Blitz"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2020.07.07"] [Round "4"] [White "Giri, Anish"] [Black "Sadhwani, Raunak"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E11"] [WhiteElo "2770"] [BlackElo "2913"] [Annotator "Shahid"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2020.??.??"] [EventType "blitz"] [TimeControl "180+1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nf3 e6 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Qe7 6. Nc3 d6 7. d5 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 Nb8 9. Bg2 e5 10. O-O O-O 11. c5 Na6 12. cxd6 cxd6 13. Nd2 Bg4 14. h3 Bh5 15. Re1 Rac8 16. Nf1 Bg6 17. e4 Nc5 18. Nd2 Nfd7 19. Re3 f5 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Qe2 Qf7 22. g4 Bg6 23. Nc4 Qe7 24. b3 Rf4 25. Rf1 Rcf8 26. Rg3 Qf6 27. Bd2 Rd4 28. Rf3 Bd3 29. Qe3 Rf4 30. g5 Rxf3 (30... Qf7 31. Nxd6 Rxf3 32. Qxf3 Qxf3 33. Bxf3 Rxf3 $19) 31. gxf6 Rxe3 32. fxg7 Kxg7 (32... Rf6 33. Bxe3 Bxf1 34. Kxf1 b5 35. Nd2 Kxg7 $19) 33. Bxe3 Bxf1 34. Kxf1 Rf6 35. Bg5 Rg6 36. Be7 Nd3 37. Nxd6 Kg8 38. Be4 Rg7 39. Nf5 Nf4 40. Nxg7 Kxg7 41. d6 b6 42. Bf5 Nb8 43. d7 { AnishOnYoutube won by resignation} 1-0

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Shahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.

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