Sharjah Masters: Eight co-leaders, Aryan upsets Arjun

Ju Wenjun continues to impress

Most of the players who had a strong start at the Sharjah Masters decided to play it safe in rounds 3 and 4, as almost all games on the top boards finished drawn on Friday and Saturday. Nonetheless, a number of players did manage to join the leading pack by scoring wins on the lower boards. 

Women’s world champion Ju Wenjun and Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu were sharing the lead after two rounds. They remain as co-leaders, but they have now been joined by six more participants who also have plus-two scores in the standings: Samuel Sevian, Amin Tabatabaei, Haik Martirosyan, Nihal Sarin, Aryan Chopra and Vladislav Kovalev.

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.

Ju is clearly the lowest-rated player in this group, as she is in fact the only co-leader not rated above 2600. After claiming upset victories in the first two rounds, she continued to impress by safely holding draws against Pragg and the ever-dangerous Tabatabaei. Ju is set to face Martirosyan with black in Sunday’s fifth round.

Ju Wenjun

One of the biggest surprises in round 4 was given by Aryan Chopra, who got the better of eighth seed Arjun Erigaisi with white. Arjun was overly optimistic in the opening and early middlegame, as his far-advanced central pawns turned out to be more a weakness than a threat.

Typical opening mistakes

Avoiding mistakes in the opening and even learning from mistakes is a valuable tool to improve your chess. Ruslan Ponomariov, former FIDE World Champion, demonstrates basic patterns that will help you navigate through the game more easily.

Both sides have pushed their central pawns, but White’s pawn chain is certainly more solid than its Black’s counterpart. Aryan went on to grab the c-pawn two moves later and duly converted his advantage into a 61-move win.

The playing hall

In round 3, Harsha Bharathakoti needed only 16 moves to take down Lucas van Foreest with the black pieces.

Out of an Alapin Sicilian, which saw the players repeating 13 moves from a 2022 grandmaster game (given how long they spent on choosing how to proceed, they were out of book before that tough), the Dutchman opted for the incorrect capture on move 16 and had to resign right after his Indian opponent showed the refutation on the board. 

Van Foreest, Lucas2556

0–1

Harsha Bharathakoti2602

6th Sharjah Masters 2023 19.05.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 e6 7.Bc4 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Qe2 dxe5 10.dxe5 Bd7 11.Rd1 Bc6 12.Nd4 Bc5

In this balanced position White totally loses the thread. 13.Nxc6?! White had several better alternatives. For example: 13.Bxd5 Bxd5 14.Nc3 Nc6 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.Be3 Bb6 17.Rac1= 13...Nxc6 Normally having the bishop pair is desirable, but here the c6-knight seems to be stronger than its predecessor, the now disappeared c6-bishop. 14.Bd2?! This creates a weakness on b2. 14.Nc3 Nxc3 15.bxc3 Qc7 16.Bf4 was still quite reasonable for White. 14...Bd4 15.Bc3 Bxc3 16.Bxd5?

White has already played some questionable moves, but the real catastrophe is only triggered by this last mistake. Necessary was 16.Nxc3 Nxc3 17.bxc3 Qa5 But White loses a pawn here. 16...Nd4 0–1

Standings - Round 4

...78 players

Pairings - Round 5

...39 boards

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