The two players who suffered painful losses on the top boards in round 7 at the Sharjah Masters failed to recover their previous form and lost again on Tuesday. Former sole leader Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Volodar Murzin, while Hans Niemann was defeated by Vokhidov Shamsiddin. Aravindh and Niemann are out of contention for tournament victory.
Murzin’s victory allowed him to join co-leaders Sam Shankland and Bardiya Daneshvar, who signed a 9-move draw in round 8. Murzin and Daneshvar are both aged 17, while the experienced Shankland is 32 — the Californian grandmaster knows all too well how to perform under pressure, as he won the 2018 U.S. Championship thanks to a final-round win over Awonder Liang. Shankland will play white against Murzin on Tuesday, while Daneshvar will play black against top seed Arjun Erigaisi.
Arjun is one of seven players standing a half point behind the co-leaders. For one of these players to finish tied for first place, it is necessary for the Shankland v. Murzin game to end in a draw and for Daneshvar not to beat Arjun on board 2.
The chasing pack consists of Arjun, Parham Maghsoodloo, Amin Tabatabaei, Alexey Sarana, Saleh Salem, Aydin Suleymanli and Shamsiddin Vokhidov.
Second seed Parham Maghsoodloo defeated Mahammad Muradli to join the chasing pack | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Daneshvar, Bardiya | 2581 | 6 | 0 | |
| 2 | GM | Murzin, Volodar | 2631 | 6 | 0 | |
| 3 | GM | Shankland, Sam | 2671 | 6 | 0 | |
| 4 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2707 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 5 | GM | Sarana, Alexey | 2706 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 6 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2761 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 7 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 2629 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 8 | GM | Vokhidov, Shamsiddin | 2591 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 9 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2732 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 10 | GM | Suleymanli, Aydin | 2621 | 5,5 | 0 | |
| 11 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2670 | 5 | 0 | |
| 12 | GM | Sankalp, Gupta | 2531 | 5 | 0 | |
| 13 | GM | Puranik, Abhimanyu | 2629 | 5 | 0 | |
| 14 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2728 | 5 | 0 | |
| 15 | FM | Zemlyanskii, Ivan | 2516 | 5 | 0 | |
| 16 | GM | Gurel, Ediz | 2578 | 5 | 0 | |
| 17 | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2640 | 5 | 0 | |
| 18 | GM | Mishra, Abhimanyu | 2634 | 5 | 0 | |
| 19 | GM | Niemann, Hans Moke | 2688 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 20 | GM | Muradli, Mahammad | 2560 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 21 | GM | Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel | 2650 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 22 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | 2617 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 23 | GM | Pranav, V | 2587 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 24 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | 2493 | 4,5 | 0 | |
| 25 | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2684 | 4,5 | 0 |
