One of Korchnoi's biggest contributions to opening theory was seen in his game against Udovcic from 1967. It was a pawn sacrifice line in the French. It was not the first time that someone had played this, but Korchnoi was the first world-class player who tried it in practice. It went very well for him in the game and till date the opening has been played on the highest level.
The pawn on d4 is given up for quick development and activity:
In this position the main move for White is 12.♕a4, when Black does best to prevent the queen from sliding on the kingside with 12...♛b4. Hence, Divya played 12.a3 first. Not the most popular, but it was enough to throw her opponent off track. Altantuya responded with 12...a5 and this was the critical mistake. White jumped in with 13.♕a4 and with no ♛b4 possible and the b5 square weakness, the game was already decided in Divya's favour.
Divya Deshmukh showed some fine opening preparation to beat Boldbaatar Altantuya in round 7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Divya Deshmukh explains her game
In the girls section on board no.1 we had IM Stavroula Tsolakidou coming up with an interesting novelty on move no.8:
In this well known position of Sicilian Taimanov, the move 8...♝d6 has never been played before. The point is that 9.♕xg7 is met with 9...♞g6 and Black is doing completely fine. But what about f4 and e5? Well, this is how Mobina continued.
In this position the Iranian girl had to play 11.♗d3 and after 11...♝xc3 12.bxc3 ♛xc3, move her king to f2 to get a very nice and active position. But in the above position Mobina went 11.0-0-0 and the position was extremely complex.
The game went on for 72 moves before the players agreed to a draw.
Final part of the game between Mobina and Tsolakidou
Polina Shuvalova played a very nice game to beat Vaishali and become joint leader with 6.0/7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Bibisara Assaubayeva was too strong for Rakshitta Ravi | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Antova Gabriela is on 5½/7 after her win over Arpita Mukherjee | Photo: Niklesh Jain
In the open section we had the two leaders Aram Hakobyan and Evgeny Shtembuliak. Both Hakobyan and Shtembuliak have shifted their base to the USA. While Aram studies at Saint Louis University, Shtembuliak is from the Texas Tech University. They both met each other on the top board. It was a big fight that in the end went Shtembuliak's way.
Evgeny Shtembuliak's latest claim Aram Hakobyan | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Final moments of Shtembuliak winning his game against Aram Hakobyan
Miguel Ruiz beat Ravi Haria | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Miguel Ruiz played an excellent exchange sacrifice against Ravi Haria. He didn't follow it up well and after a few moves had a pretty bad position. But Haria blundered and eventually lost the game.
White in this position blundered with 28.♖e1. Do you spot how Black can win?
Miguel Ruiz speaks about his win against Ravi Haria
After this win Miguel Ruiz moves to the sole second spot with 5½/7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Volodar Murzin continued his fine show, holding India Triple Crown champion Aravindh Chithambaram to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain
After missing round six, Amin Tabatabaei made a successful return by winning his round seven game against Ganzorig Amartuvshin | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Israeli IM Or Bronstein beat one of the top GMs of the tournament Albornoz Cabrera | Photo: Niklesh Jain
The game between Dmitrij Kollars and Sergey Drygalov ended in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Indian journalist Rakesh Rao takes a photo of Praggnanandhaa vs Khanin game which ended up in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Top seed of the girls section Zhu Jiner is having quite a forgettable tournament | Photo: Niklesh Jain
A very interesting Opposite Color Bishop endgame analysis by IM Sagar Shah
