Sharjah Masters: Ju kicks off with upset victory

All grandmasters

A total of 78 participants made their way to Sharjah, one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates. All 78 of them count with the grandmaster title, which makes for a rarely seen phenomenon in a Swiss open — more frequently, these opens have a wide range of players rating-wise.

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

The field includes 8 players rated 2700 or above, with Parham Maghsoodloo from Iran the top seed, followed by the Indian duo of Dommaraju Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi. Out of these three favourites, only Vidit failed to score a full point in the first round, as he drew with white against Russian youngster Volodar Murzin.

Seventh in the starting rank stands Ray Robson, who was the highest-rated player to kick off the tournament with a loss. Robson lost with black to Denis Kadric from Montenegro, who proficiently converted his one-pawn advantage in a technical ending with rooks and knights.

Denis Kadric

A few more upsets were seen on opening day, including the one seen on board 31, where Ju Wenjun — nothing less than the women’s world champion — beat Murali Karthikeyan with the white pieces. The Indian GM is rated 77 points higher than the Chinese star.

In a rollercoaster game which saw Ju first getting a clear edge and then letting her advantage slip away, Karthikeyan made a strategic mistake on move 42.

42...fxg4 43.hxg4 Rxa4 would have left Black clearly in the driver’s seat, with a passer on the a-file and White’s knight on f3 lacking active possibilities.

Instead, 42...f4 allowed White to free her position via 43.h4 gxh4 44.Nxh4 Rxa4 45.Nf5

Making the right decisions in chess - Fundamentals

In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.

Black is still better, but White has certainly found some counterplay with her active minor pieces. A further mistake by Karthikeyan on move 51 again gave the women’s world champion the upper hand — she would not let her advantage slip away for a second time, as she went on to get a notable 56-move victory.

Belgian GM Daniel Dardha

Results - Round 1

...39 boards

Pairings - Round 2

...39 boards

All available games

Links

• Official website
• Full technical information on Chess-Results