Sharjah: Daneshvar takes down Aravindh, Shankland beats Niemann

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/21/2024 – Round 7 of the Sharjah Masters saw former sole leader Aravindh Chithambaram losing his game with white against Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar, the 50th seed in the event. Daneshvar thus leapfrogged Aravindh in the standings, as he is now sharing the lead with Sam Shankland. Shankland defeated his compatriot Hans Niemann after the latter misplayed a king and pawn endgame. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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Aravindh misses chance, Niemann blunders

An in-form Aravindh Chithambaram took the sole lead at the Sharjah Masters after beating Saleh Salem in the fifth round. A safe draw with Sam Shankland on Sunday allowed him to remain at the top of the standings, as he was paired up against 17-year-old Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar (with white) in the following round. Since the youngster is the lowest-rated player among the contenders for tournament victory, Aravindh perhaps considered this to be a good chance to extend his lead.

The Indian GM — who is in great form and comes from sharing first place in Dubai — indeed got an advantage out of the opening against Daneshvar. A few mistakes in time trouble, however, turned the tables in the Iranian’s favour. More imprecisions by both contenders led to a queen and rook endgame with two pawns per side. Daneshvar was in the driver’s seat, but Aravindh could have tried to defend the position for a while — had he not quickly blundered his rook on move 41.

Thanks to the upset victory, Daneshvar leapfrogged Aravindh in the standings, as he is now sharing first place with Shankland. The latter also won with black on Sunday after his opponent, Hans Niemann, made a one-move blunder in a drawn king and pawn endgame.

Six players stand a half point behind the co-leaders: Arjun Erigaisi, Amin Tabatabaei, Alexey Sarana, Volodar Murzin, Aydin Suleymanli and Aravindh.

In Tuesday’s penultimate round, Daneshvar will play white against Shankland, while Tabatabaei, Sarana, and Murzin will get white in the clash of chasers on boards 2-4.

Volodar Murzin, Pranav V

Volodar Murzin beat Pranav V with black on Monday | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Aravindh 0 - 1 Daneshvar

Analysis by Klaus Besenthal

Aravindh, Chithambaram VR26710–1Daneshvar, Bardiya2582
7th Sharjah Masters 2024
20.05.2024[Besenthal,Klaus-Guenther]
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 Nc6 4.d4 e6 5.0-0 Nf6 6.b3 Bd7 7.Bb2 Rc8 8.Nbd2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Bc5 11.Bb2 0-0 12.c4 Bc6 13.Rc1 Be7 14.e3 a5 15.a4 Bb4 16.cxd5 Nxd5 17.Nc4 Qe7 18.Qe2 f6 19.Qh5 e5 20.Rfd1 Rcd8 21.Qe2
The black position had a few small weaknesses at this point in the game. It was nothing serious, but Daneshvar had to play carefully. 21...Qe6?! Now he blocks a square where he could have placed his knight after a potential e3-e4 by White. Useful was 21...h6 and after 22.e4 there is Nc7= with good positional play. 22.e4! Ne7 The black knight is badly placed - White has the initiative. 23.Bc3! White exchanges his ineffective bishop for Black's rather troublesome one. Bxc3 24.Rxc3 Ra8 Black covers his weak a5-pawn with a rook. White has a considerable advantage. 25.Rd6 Strong was 25.Qe3! threatening Qb6. 25...Qf7 26.Qd2 Nc8 27.Rdd3 Qc7 28.Ne3 Kh8 29.Nd5 Qf7 30.Rc5 Nd6
In this position White's play began to develop - slowly at first - in the wrong direction. 31.Nc3 Strong was 31.g4 31...Ne8 32.Nd5 Nd6 Repeating to gain time. 33.f3?! 33.g4! 33...f5
This move is linked to a threat that is actually not so difficult to foresee - but which Aravindh promptly runs into. 34.h4?? A moment ago White had good winning prospects, now the tables have turned. Correct was 34.Rc1 fxe4 35.fxe4 Ne8 36.Nb6 Ra6 37.Nc4± With this clever knight manoeuvre White would have grabbed a pawn. 34...fxe4 35.Re3 Taking back on e4 would not have worked: 35.fxe4? Nxe4-+ 35...Rad8?! The best move: 35...Nf5!-+ 36.fxe4 Nxe4 37.Rxe4 Rxd5 38.Rxd5 Bxd5
Now Black is a pawn up. 39.Rxe5?! Black gets a passed pawn on the queenside. Better was 39.Re3! Bxg2 39...Bxb3 40.Rf3 Qg8 41.Rxf8 Qxf8 42.Qxa5= 40.Qxg2 b6 41.Kh2 The well-blocked extra pawn can hardly advance. 39...Bxg2 40.Qxg2 Qxb3 41.Rxa5?? And now this blackout! Qb6+ 0–1

Aravindh Chithambaram

Aravindh Chithambaram | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Niemann 0 - 1 Shankland

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Niemann, Hans Moke26890–1Shankland, Sam2671
7th Sharjah Masters 2024
20.05.2024[Mueller,Karsten]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 dxc6 7.Be3 e5 8.h3 Be6 9.0-0 Nd7 10.Qh5 Qf6 11.Nd2 Bc5 12.Nc4 Bxe3 13.fxe3 Qe7 14.a3 0-0 15.b4 f6 16.Qe2 Rac8 17.Rfb1 Rfd8 18.a4 Nb6 19.a5 Nxc4 20.Bxc4 Bxc4 21.Qxc4+ Qf7 22.Qxf7+ Kxf7 23.Rd1 Ke7 24.c4 Rxd1+ 25.Rxd1 Rd8 26.Rxd8 Kxd8 27.Kf2 Ke7 28.g4 Kf7 29.Kg3 b6 30.a6 b5 31.c5 Kg6
The king's road. In an endgame the king should usually be activated: 32.h4? This weakens White's kingside defense decisively. Just waiting with 32.Kh4 draws, e.g. h6 33.Kg3 Kg5 34.h4+ Kg6 35.h5+ Kg5 36.Kh3 g6 37.hxg6 Kxg6 38.Kh4= 32...h5! Black opens a king's road. 33.Kh3 Kh6! First the king must go out of the g-pawn's way. 34.Kg3 hxg4 35.Kxg4 g6 36.h5
Desperation, but the passive 36.Kh3 is met by the typical Kh5 37.Kg3 g5 38.hxg5 fxg5 39.Kh3 g4+ 40.Kg3 Kg5 41.Kh2 Kh4 42.Kg2 g3 43.Kg1 Kh5 The start of a triangulation. 44.Kf1 Kg5 45.Kg1 Kh4 46.Kg2 Kg4-+ 36...gxh5+ 37.Kf5 Kg7 38.Ke6 h4 39.Kd6 h3 40.Kxc6 h2 41.Kb7 h1Q 42.Kxa7 Qxe4
Surprisingly this natural capture is the only winning move. 43.Kb8 43.Kb6 is met by Qa8-+ 43...Qxb4 44.c6 44.a7 Qxc5 45.a8Q Qf8+ 46.Ka7 Qxa8+ 47.Kxa8 b4-+ 44...Qc5 45.Kb7 b4 46.a7 46.c7 loses analogously: Qb5+ 47.Ka7 Qc6 48.Kb8 Qb6+-+ 46...Qb5+ 46...Qb5+ 47.Kc7 Qa6 48.Kb8 Qb6+-+ 0–1

Sam Shankland

Sam Shankland | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Standings after round 7

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