ChessBomb Blog: Sharjah Masters International Chess Tournament. Report

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	3½	1 - 0	4	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2354	IND
10	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2568	IND	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Wang Hao	2707	CHN
11	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2560	ARM	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	2701	RUS
12	IM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2482	UZB	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Amin Bassem	2700	EGY
13	GM	Mareco Sandro	2645	ARG	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2510	IND
14	GM	Gagare Shardul	2502	IND	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2612	KAZ
15	IM	Firouzja Alireza	2572	IRI	3½	1 - 0	3½	WGM	Hejazipour Mitra	2304	IRI
16	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2680	UKR	3	½ - ½	3½	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