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.
The Modern Steinitz (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 d6!?) is an uncompromising counterattacking weapon that lets Black put White under pressure from the very start.
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