Five players a full point back

With only two rounds to go, Kirill Alekseenko continues to lead the standings at the main event of the Sunway Chess Festival. The 25-year-old from Vyborg won his first seven games before being held to a draw by Amin Tabatabaei on Tuesday. Alekseenko still has a full-point lead, though, except that now there are five players looking for him to slip up in the last hurdle.

Among the five players chasing the leader are Yu Yangyi and Hans Niemann, the tournament’s top two seeds. Both Yu and Niemann won their round-8 games, much like Cem Kaam Gokerkan, the lowest-rated in the chasing pack, who stunned Karthikeyan Murali with the black pieces.

Round 9 will see Yu facing Alekseenko on top board, while Niemann will be the clear favourite in his game with black against Gokerkan. Manuel Petrosyan is the remaining player currently on 6½ points, and will face Tabatabaei with black on Wednesday.

We had the immense honor of having World Champion (and 1st person to win Chess Triple-Crown) GM @SusanPolgar to open the 6th round of the @chessable #SunwaySitges International Chess Festival. Thank you! First time in Sitges, hopefully not last... 😊 pic.twitter.com/6WIGCfonON
— Sunway Chess Festival (@SunwayChessOpen) December 21, 2022

To win his round-7 game, Niemann needed to deal with Aravindh’s bold attempt to create an attack in the early middlegame. The Indian gave up his knight to weaken his opponent’s king.

15...N7b6 16.Qc2 f5 would have been a more pragmatic approach than 15...e5 16.Nxd5 Bxd2+ 17.Kxd2 exd4 18.Ke2 d3+ 19.Kd2, as played by Aravindh.

Black never got enough compensation for the sacrificed knight, and ended up resigning before playing his 40th move.

Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

Andrey Esipenko

Andrey Esipenko faced two Indian youngsters in a row | Photo: Isabel García / Chessable

After being upset by Aravindh, Andrey Esipenko, the sixth seed in Sitges, managed to bounce back by taking down another strong Indian youngster, Aditya Samant. It was not an easy win, though, as Esipenko only had a (doubled) extra pawn in a knight endgame that seemed to be headed to a draw.

The only break available for Black is ...e5-e4, and White just needs to ensure that Black does not get to do that easily. From this position, Black needed 27 more moves until getting to push his e-pawn — and the position after 94...e4, shown below, is not a trivial win either.

Fatigue eventually caught up to Aditya, as his knight was trapped by Esipenko, leading to a resignation on move 113.

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	8	GM	Alekseenko Kirill			2672	7,5	39,5	42,5	39,00
2	1	GM	Yu Yangyi			2728	6,5	38	41,5	32,75
	2	GM	Niemann Hans Moke			2698	6,5	38	41,5	32,75
4	13	GM	Petrosyan Manuel			2621	6,5	37,5	41	32,50
5	10	GM	Tabatabaei Mohammad Amin			2660	6,5	36,5	40	31,75
6	39	IM	Gokerkan Cem Kaan			2470	6,5	33	36,5	29,00
7	18	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu			2616	6	40,5	44,5	31,00
8	23	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.			2607	6	38,5	42	29,75
9	24	GM	Dardha Daniel			2606	6	37,5	41,5	29,25
10	11	GM	Demchenko Anton			2632	6	37,5	41	30,00
11	20	GM	Durarbayli Vasif			2612	6	37	41,5	30,75
12	6	GM	Esipenko Andrey			2678	6	37	40,5	29,00
13	4	GM	Cheparinov Ivan			2688	6	36,5	40	29,50
14	9	GM	Korobov Anton			2662	6	36,5	39,5	29,00
15	21	GM	Adhiban B.			2611	6	36	39,5	29,00
16	35	GM	Sankalp Gupta			2485	6	36	39,5	28,75
17	12	GM	Jones Gawain C B			2630	6	36	39,5	28,50
18	32	GM	Arjun Kalyan			2505	6	35,5	39	28,50
19	29	GM	Tin Jingyao			2562	6	35	38,5	27,75
20	84	FM	Jubin Jimmy			2376	6	35	38	27,25
21	72	IM	Willow Jonah B			2409	6	35	37	25,75
22	17	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy			2617	6	34,5	38,5	28,25
23	30	GM	Alsina Leal Daniel			2527	6	34,5	38,5	27,50
24	49	IM	Woodward Andy			2457	6	34,5	38	27,25
25	37	IM	Aditya Mittal			2479	6	34,5	37,5	27,00

...326 players

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Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1-3

In this first part, the emphasis is on themes and ideas whereas Part 2 and 3 focus on theoretical knowledge!

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Carlos Alberto Colodro 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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Sunway Sitges: Alekseenko and Karthikeyan co-leaders

12/17/2022 – Halfway through the 10-round main tournament in Sitges, Kirill Alekseenko and Karthikeyan Murali still have a perfect score, after beating Abhimanyu Puranik and Aditya Samant respectively. Five players stand a half point back, including second seed Hans Niemann, who on Friday drew Karen Grigoryan with the black pieces. | Pictured: The great-looking analysis room in Sitges

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12/16/2022 – After four rounds, six players still have perfect scores in Group A of the Sunway Chess Festival. Among the co-leaders is Samant Aditya, rated 2470, who defeated Adhiban (2611) in round 4. Two players from the top ten in the starting rank list are also among those with perfect scores — i.e. Hans Niemann and Kirill Alekseenko.

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