Sharjah: Aravindh keeps sole lead, six players a half point back

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/20/2024 – Draws on the top three boards in round 6 of the Sharjah Masters allowed Aravindh Chithambaram to keep the sole lead in the standings. Arjun Erigaisi and Alexey Sarana grabbed full points to join the chasing pack, which now includes six players. Meanwhile, fourth seed Teimour Radjabov obtained a remarkable win over Arseniy Nesterov, his first of the event. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

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Arjun and Sarana join the chasing pack

Aravindh Chithambaram signed a 24-move draw with Sam Shankland to keep his spot as sole leader atop the standings of the Sharjah Masters. Six players now stand a half point behind the Indian GM, as top seed Arjun Erigaisi and Alexey Sarana both grabbed wins in round 6 to join the chasing pack.

Arjun’s victory over Daniil Yuffa gained him 3.1 rating points, allowing him to overtake Gukesh in the live ratings list to again become India’s number one.

Yuffa had a piece for Arjun’s three extra pawns when he faltered decisively while in time trouble. 38.Rf4 looks like a natural way to release the tension on the kingside, but it fails to a simple-yet-effective tactical idea.

Yuffa v. Arjun

39...Qb3 threatens to capture both the knight on d3 and the rook on d1. Moreover, after 40.Rxf5, there is 40...Rxd3, and both white rooks are under attack. Yuffa, who surely missed this geometric theme due to time trouble, resigned shortly after.

In Monday’s seventh round (the 9-round open will end on Wednesday), sole leader Aravindh will play white against Bardiya Daneshvar, while the battle between the top two seeds — Arjun and Parham Maghsoodloo — will take place on board 4.

Arjun Erigaisi, Daniil Yuffa

Arjun Erigaisi defeated Daniil Yuffa with the black pieces | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Radjabov 1 - 0 Nesterov

Analysis by Klaus Besenthal

Teimour Radjabov, a 3-time Candidates’ participant, entered the Sharjah Masters as the fourth seed, and started the event with five consecutive draws. In round 6, however, he obtained a memorable victory over Arseniy Nesterov, one that featured both instructive strategic play and a nice tactical conclusion.

Radjabov, Teimour27231–0Nesterov, Arseniy2590
7th Sharjah Masters 2024
19.05.2024[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5 Nd7 6.Nc3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 Bd6 8.0-0 0-0 9.Re1 c5 10.Qf3 c4 11.Bf5 Nxe5 12.dxe5 Re8 13.Bf4 Bf8 14.Bxc8 Rxc8 15.Re2
This has all been played before, and so the players were able to blitz out the moves up to about this point. 15...Rc5 This move, which has never been played before, is strong: Black covers his d5-pawn from the side and at the same time prepares to target White's a2-pawn with this rook. 16.h3 h6 17.Rd1 Qd7 The more active 17...Qa5! was better here than the purely passive covering of d5. 18.Red2 Rd8 19.Be3! This secures White a small advantage. Ra5 20.Bxa7! Qe6 Threatening Bb6. 20...Rxa7?? 21.Rxd5+- does not work at all. And of course this also applies to 20...Rxa2?? 21.Rxd5+- 21.Bd4
The position we have now reached is extremely interesting. 21...Rxa2?! This natural-looking move is a mistake. Better was 21...b6 22.Qe3 Bc5 23.Bxc5 bxc5 24.a3 Rd7± Of course, Black is also a pawn down here. 22.Rb1! Now the white rooks seep into the black position via b6, which would have been prevented by 21...b6. Qc6 23.Rb6 Qd7 24.Rd1 Ra6
25.Rdb1 More precise was 25.Qg4! The move exchanges the defender of the b7-pawn. Qxg4 26.hxg4 Rxb6 27.Bxb6 Rd7 28.Bd4 This shows that not only b6/b7 are weaknesses in the black position, but also d5. The latter has forced the black rook onto the bad square d7, while the a- or b-file is now available for the white rook. Apart from that, two white pawns hold three black ones on the queenside, while the white majority is mobile on the kingside. 25...Rxb6 26.Rxb6
Nonetheless, this is of course a pleasant position for White. 26...Ra8?! This is not the best move, although occupying the open line was of course tempting. With 26...Re8 27.Qg4 Re6!± Black would have once again shown a tenacious defensive attempt. 27.Qg4 Qc7 28.Rxh6
Now things are going in White's favour. 28...g6 29.Rh4 Be7 30.Rh5 Bf6 Of course White must not take this bishop. 31.f4 Bg7 32.Rg5 Bh6
Is there still something left for Black? 33.e6! No! Bxg5 34.Qxg5 Kf8 34...fxe6 35.Qxg6+ Kf8 36.Qh6+ Ke7 37.Qg7+ Kd8 38.Qh8+ loses the rook. 35.Qf6 Ra1+ 36.Kh2 Threatening Bb6 or Bc5+. Ke8 37.Bc5 fxe6
1–0

Arseniy Nesterov, Teimour Radjabov

Teimour Radjabov playing white against Arseniy Nesterov on board 16 — open tournaments are becoming increasingly competitive as the years go by | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Standings after round 6

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. 5 0
2 Daneshvar, Bardiya 4,5 0
3 Tabatabaei, M. Amin 4,5 0
4 Sarana, Alexey 4,5 0
5 Niemann, Hans Moke 4,5 0
6 Shankland, Sam 4,5 0
7 Erigaisi, Arjun 4,5 0
8 Salem, A.R. Saleh 4 0
9 Murzin, Volodar 4 0
10 Sindarov, Javokhir 4 0
11 Yu, Yangyi 4 0
12 Pranav, V 4 0
13 Suleymanli, Aydin 4 0
14 Maghsoodloo, Parham 4 0
15 Muradli, Mahammad 3,5 0
16 Puranik, Abhimanyu 3,5 0
17 Yuffa, Daniil 3,5 0
18 Royal, Shreyas 3,5 0
19 Sankalp, Gupta 3,5 0
20 Maurizzi, Marc`andria 3,5 0
21 Fedoseev, Vladimir 3,5 0
22 Vokhidov, Shamsiddin 3,5 0
23 Blohberger, Felix 3,5 0
24 Iniyan, Pa 3,5 0
25 Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel 3,5 0

...88 players

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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