3/24/2017 – The Sharjah Masters 2017 was off to a rollicking start with about 180 players competing. While there were many upset draws, the one thing that stood out was the number of no-shows. The biggest upsets of the day were scored by the Indians—Viani Antonio Dcunha, Vignesh NR and Nihal Sarin. Illustrated report with video analyses by Daniel King.
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The Sharjah Masters 2017 began with 230 players. But the picture after the round began was strange—40 of the 230 players never arrived to play! This included six Indians and 15 grandmasters.
To make matters very interesting, the officials decided to enforce the accelerated pairings system in the first three rounds. This saw 2450 players take on the 2700s in the very first round. In the top 15 boards, there were 8 draws, 4 walkovers.
The time control is 90 minutes with 30 seconds increment for the full game. This promised a lot of fighting chess.
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2745) is the top seed but already in the first round....
...he was held to a draw by Ukraine's Valeriy Neverov (2477).
GM Eltaj Safarli was held to a draw by IM Shyaamnikhil P.
GM Gawain Jones managed to defeat WGM Zhansaya Abdumalik.
IM Praggnanandhaa R. landed in a soup with the black pieces against Arkadij Naiditsch (2702).
But in typical Praggu style, he fought back and held a draw, despite the ticking clock almost crushing him. Nerves of steel, indeed. But this is not surprising—his fighting spirit is what makes him so strong and special.
Playing his last few moves with seconds on the clock, Praggnanandhaa held Naiditsch to a draw.
And it is this fighting spirit that differentiates the best from the rest. IM Nihal Sarin was playing with black against German GM Matthias Bluebaum (2632).
Nihal is becoming well-known for his unique ability to switch styles at will. Here, instead of playing a solid positional game with black, he chose to play a sharp Vienna leading to a double-edged middlegame. His plan was clear--the one who would go wrong first would most likely lose. A street fight ensued...
With both Bluebaum and Nihal under time-pressure, it was the German who went wrong first and the 12-year-old finished the game swiftly.
Joining Praggnanandhaa and Nihal at the 'prodigy party' was Uzbek IM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, also a 12-year-old wunderkind, who held Vladimir Akopian (2675).
GM B. Adhiban destroyed IM Swayams Mishra's king in a neat attack.
Daniel King analyzes with Adhiban
White to play
But probably the most beautiful game of the day was IM Viani Antonio Dcunha's crushing victory against Argentine GM Sandro Mareco (2664). A beautiful little gem with a sparkling sacrifice.
Priyadarshan BanjanPriyadarshan Banjan is a 23-year-old club player from India. He works as an editor for ChessBase News and ChessBase India. He is a chess fanatic and an avid fan of Vishy Anand. He also maintains a blog on a variety of topics.
2/26/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran, who had led the Aeroflot Open confidently after six rounds, lost in the seventh round to strong Armenian youth GM Haik Martirosyan and was overtaken by GM Kaido Kulaots. The trio now has a half point lead over four other grandmasters with two rounds left to play. | Photo: Mohammad Kheirkhah / <a href="http://ruchess.ru/en/news/all/seven_rounds_played_at_aeroflot_open/"> ruchess.ru</a>
7/6/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa recently qualified for the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meeting with Vishy Anand and his preference for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome on his return to India | Photo: Arun Sekhar
The Slav has become one of the most popular defences against the advance of the d-pawn on the first move, and every ambitious d4-player faces the question how to successfully tackle this opening in tournament practice. The strongest attempt is considered to be the move 4. Nf3, leading to interesting positions which promise White good chances to get an advantage. Black's main replies are 4. dxc4 and 4. e6. On this DVD Rustam Kasimdzhanov investigates in detail the line 4. dxc4, in which he has great experience. Showing selected grandmaster games, the ex-world champion shares his knowledge with the viewer to explain how White has to place his pieces and which plans he has at his disposal.Learn the secrets of the dxc4-line and improve your chances of success with 1.d4
The Sniper is a universal opening framework which can be played against all main first white moves - 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.f4 and 1.Nf3. Black plays 1…g6, 2…Bg7 and 3…c5 against practically anything!
