2018-04-17

Sharjah Masters International Chess Tournament. Report – Round 6


Magsoodloo Parham of Iran at the top*



Maghsoodloo Parham, the young Iranian grandmaster emerged sole leader  with an astonishing all wins record at the end of the sixth round of the 2nd Sharjah Masters International Chess Tournament, organised by the Sharjah Chess & Cultural Club, the biggest chess club in the world.  


SP Sethuraman of India, Arkadij Naiditsch and Safarli Eltaj of Azerbaijan, Gowain Jones of England and international master Oliver Dimakling of Philippines are one full point behind the leader. The tournament has attracted 32 grandmasters (23 of them above 2600 and 5 above 2700) and 16 international masters from 28 countries.  India accounts for 45 of the 118 players and the tournament carries a prize money more than 57000 USD.

With a win over the top seed Wang Hoa of China in the fifth round, Maghsoodloo maintained his good nick to outwit SP Sethuraman. He fianchettoed both bishops in his Reti opening, and after a series of exchange of minor pieces and a rook, Maghsoodloo had a slight advantage, irrespective of the Black rook controlling the open file. He developed the advantage into a winning position and forced the queen exchange to pocket a point in 49 moves.
In the Kings Indian defence game, Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan built up a better position slowly against Kovalev Vladislav of Belarus. Though he had many pawn islands compared to that of just two of the opponent, Arkadij’s pieces were well placed while Kovalev’s pieces were literally inactive. Kovalev had to give up his bishop for a pawn to consolidate his position but it was too late and of no use. Arkadij won the game convincingly in 59 moves on the second board.




Top seeded Wang Hao of China handled the Semi Slav of Queens Gambit Declined game very well, exploiting the inaccurate opening of SL Narayanan of India. Narayanan lost two pawns on 11th and 18th moves to leave a big void on the queen side. After exchanging the queens on 20th move, Wang’s advantatge grew in the resultant rooks and pawns ending. Narayanan gave up the fight when Wang’s c- pawn was racing towards the eighth rank. Wang was a relieved man after a loss and a draw in the previous two rounds.
Another grandmaster Tabatabaei Amin from Iran ended on the losing side to grandmaster Gowain Jones. When the position looked drawish towards the end in a Ruy Lopez opening adopted by Amin, he made a wrong king move to h5, the game was tilted in favour of Gowain Jones. In a Najdorf variation of Sicilian defence, Indian international master NR Vignesh miscalculated to sacrifice his knight trying to repeat the checks to the open king of Safarli Eltaj of Azerbaijan. But Safarli cleverly defended the position to post a win on 49 moves. In the only upset on the top boards, Oliver Dimakling’s extra pawn on the queen side was vital to force a win over Nils Grandeluis of Sweden.

Important Results of Round 6
1
GM
Maghsoodloo Parham
2615
IRI
5
1  - 0
5
GM
Sethuraman S.P.
2631
IND
2
GM
Naiditsch Arkadij
2701
AZE
4
1  - 0
4
GM
Kovalev Vladislav
2648
BLR
3
GM
Petrosian Tigran L.
2609
ARM
4
½  - ½
4
GM
Eljanov Pavel
2700
UKR
4
GM
Iturrizaga B Eduardo
2624
VEN
4
½  - ½
4
GM
Inarkiev Ernesto
2680
RUS
5
IM
Tabatabaei M.Amin
2605
IRI
4
0  - 1
4
GM
Jones Gawain C B
2675
ENG
6
GM
Abdusattorov Nodirbek
2540
UZB
4
½  - ½
4
GM
Adhiban B.
2661
IND
7
GM
Safarli Eltaj
2653
AZE
4
1  - 0
4
IM
Vignesh N R
2475
IND
8
GM
Grandelius Nils
2652
SWE
4
0  - 1
4
IM
Dimakiling Oliver
2412
PHI
9
GM
Kryvoruchko Yuriy
2703
UKR
1  - 0
4
WGM
Soumya Swaminathan
2354
IND
10
GM
Narayanan.S.L
2568
IND
0  - 1
GM
Wang Hao
2707
CHN
11
GM
Petrosyan Manuel
2560
ARM
0  - 1
GM
Artemiev Vladislav
2701
RUS
12
IM
Yakubboev Nodirbek
2482
UZB
½  - ½
GM
Amin Bassem
2700
EGY
13
GM
Mareco Sandro
2645
ARG
½  - ½
GM
Vishnu Prasanna. V
2510
IND
14
GM
Gagare Shardul
2502
IND
0  - 1
GM
Jumabayev Rinat
2612
KAZ
15
IM
Firouzja Alireza
2572
IRI
1  - 0
WGM
Hejazipour Mitra
2304
IRI
16
GM
Kravtsiv Martyn
2680
UKR
3
½  - ½
FM
Sadhwani Raunak
2358
IND
17
GM
Rakhmanov Aleksandr
2652
RUS
3
1  - 0
3

Pranav V
2316
IND
18
GM
Adly Ahmed
2626
EGY
3
1  - 0
3
IM
D B Chandra Prasad
2294
IND
19
GM
Puranik Abhimanyu
2520
IND
3
½  - ½
3

Raahul V S
2258
IND
20
FM
Mohannad Farhan
2219
JOR
3
0  - 1
3
GM
Haddouche Mohamed
2506
ALG
21

Poormosavi Seyed Kian
2218
IRI
3
½  - ½
3
FM
Erigaisi Arjun
2481
IND
22
GM
Darini Pouria
2478
IRI
3
½  - ½
3

Ashwath R.
2250
IND
23
CM
Bharath Subramaniyam H
1997
IND
3
½  - ½
3
IM
Iniyan P
2466
IND
24
IM
Chakravarthi Reddy M
2442
IND
3
0  - 1
3
CM
Mullick Raahil
2053
IND
25

Nyazi Nehad
2213
EGY
3
½  - ½
3
GM
Sundararajan Kidambi
2436
IND
26

Arjun Kalyan
2397
IND
3
0  - 1
3

Aradhya Garg
2218
IND
27
FM
Kowsarinia Amir
2316
IRI
3
1  - 0
3
CM
Aditya Mittal
2212
IND



Inarkiev Ernesto Vs Itturizaga B Eduardo

Eljanov Pavel drew with Petrosiyan Tigran
Latest young sensation GM Abdusattorov Nodirbek of Uzbekistan held B Adhiban of India




Watch the games of the Sharjah Masters 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb.

*the information is provided from the Sharjahchess