Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 5: Deep Sengupta's regret and Karthikeyan's cake walk!

by Satanick Mukhuty - 06/08/2019

Keeping opponent's retaliations in check while enjoying a dominant position is one of many tricky things in chess that even masters falter at. In the fifth round of 26th Abu Dhabi Chess Festival India's Deep Sengupta was up against the strong Iranian talent Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei. He made a convincing case out of the opening and into the middlegame but ultimately it was his opponent's counterplay that got the better of him. Elsewhere, Karthikeyan Murali registered an effortless win as his Spanish adversary Miguel Santos Ruiz made one mistake after another, and Praggnanandhaa too had an easy time holding his higher-rated rival Mustafa Yilmaz to a draw. After five rounds of the event Jobava Baadur is still on the sole lead with an unbeaten 5.0/5, while Karthikeyan single-handedly leads the Indian contingent with a commendable 4.0/5.

Deep Sengupta's Regret

Grandmaster Deep Sengupta started off strongly against the Biel Masters Champion Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei but things went very wrong for him in the end as he was unable to contain his opponent's counterplay on the kingside | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Out of a mainline Canal attack of the Sicilian, the game entered uncharted territory as early as move 9. The Indian Grandmaster was able to keep Black effectively cramped up with a well-cemented knight on b5 and pawns on c4 and e4 which eternally prevented any ideas of d5 break. Let's check out how eventually the dynamics of the position changed.

Deep Sengupta - Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei, Round 5

Black went 24...exf4 in the above position but this allowed White to break through the d-file. Perhaps, Black's best chance would have been to keep things locked up with a move like 24...Qb6

Now, after 28.Rfd1, Black was tied down to the defense of the backward d6 pawn.

Next came the thrustful 29.b4! seizing more space on the queenside. White's edge was decisive at this moment.

31.Nd6+ forced the win of an exchange with 31...Rexd6 32.cxd6 Rxd6

But after 32...dxe4 Black's pawn mass on the kingside started to look dangerous, f3 could now potentially be a strong threat. At least psychologically, it is not easy to deal with a situation like this.

40.Qd5+? - Deep goes wrong! 40.Rf1! was the only move to preserve the edge and stop the pawn onslaught. After 40...Qxd5 41.R6xd5 f2 Black was winning!

The march of these monstrous pawns wasn't possible to stop anymore and White crumbled in no time.

An unfortunate loss for the Indian Grandmaster who was even an exchange up at one point with a better position! The full game along with the computer generated analysis is given below:

Karthikeyan's Cake Walk!

Karthikeyan Murali's opponent Santos Ruiz Miguel surprisingly made multiple blunders and lost quickly to the Indian GM!

Playing the black side of the Sicilian Ritcher-Rauzer Karthikeyan was able to win a pair of pawns by move 19. White had reasonable compensation but this was given away completely in the next few abysmal moves. What happened?

Miguel Santos Ruiz - Karthikeyan Murali, Round 5

Position after 19...Bxa4: The best course for White in this position would have been 20.Qh6! Bxb3 21.Nxf6+ Bxf6 22.Qxf6 with excellent counterplay. But in the game, the meek 20.Qd5 was played - this was first of many slips.

21.g4? - a pointless pawn push on the kingside when there are far more serious issues to attend to on the queenside.

Black retorted with the strong 21...Bxb3 22.Qxb3 and in came the final nail on the coffin 22...a4!

a4-a3 followed by Rfb8 were now devastatingly imminent! If this wasn't enough White blundered blundered yet again after 23.Qg3 a3 with 24.Rd3? inexplicably allowing 24...a2

The game was resigned after just five moves from here.

Photo Gallery

Jobava Baadur registered his fifth consecutive win against Salem A.R.Saleh to stay in the sole lead | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Aravindh Chithambaram drew Sanal Vahap in the fifth round and is on 3.5/5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vaibhav Suri drew Sindarov Javokhir | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vignesh N R drew the top seed of the event Yuriy Kryvoruchko | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Senthil Maran K. drew GM Petr Kiriakov | Photo: Rupali Mullick

FM Rathanvel V S surprisingly upsetted IM Raunak Sadhwani in the fifth round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Praggnananddhaa R. held the strong Turkish GM Mustafa Yilmaz. The game was agreed to a draw in just 19 moves | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Aditya Mittal drew GM Bai Jinshi | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Akash Pc Iyer lost to Grandmaster Vladimir Onischuk | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Srija Seshadri lost to IM Nguyen Anh Khoi | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vantika Agrawal beat Lee Jun Hyeok with the black pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vaishali R. defeated FM Eynullayev Altay | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Nandhidhaa P V held IM Alavi Sayed Javad to a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of Round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2668	3½	0 - 1	4	GM	Jobava Baadur	2584	26
2	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2592	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Ni Hua	2668	2
3	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2594	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2656	4
4	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	2636	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2571	29
5	5	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2650	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2574	28
6	9	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2625	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2571	30
7	25	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2586	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Socko Bartosz	2625	10
8	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2617	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Paichadze Luka	2570	31
9	32	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2569	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2614	12
10	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2612	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Aryan Chopra	2553	36
11	33	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	2567	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2612	14
12	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Sanal Vahap	2535	38
13	34	GM	Istratescu Andrei	2561	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Zubov Alexander	2607	16
14	37	GM	Sengupta Deep	2546	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	2601	17
15	39	GM	Xu Yi	2531	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Petrov Nikita	2595	20
16	45	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	2507	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2591	24
17	1	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2686	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Vignesh N R	2466	52
18	6	GM	Onischuk Vladimir	2640	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Akash Pc Iyer	2443	58
19	53	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2632	8
20	60	GM	Socko Monika	2436	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Antipov Mikhail Al.	2599	18

Standings after round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	26	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2584	5,0	0,0	2555	15,0
2	4	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2656	4,5	0,0	2569	17,0
3	28	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2574	4,0	0,0	2573	13,5
4	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	ARM	2592	4,0	0,0	2564	16,5
5	29	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2571	4,0	0,0	2558	16,5
6	11	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2617	4,0	0,0	2551	17,0
7	10	GM	Socko Bartosz	POL	2625	4,0	0,0	2523	13,5
8	7	GM	Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2636	4,0	0,0	2505	14,0
9	14	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2612	4,0	0,0	2503	13,0
10	17	GM	Tabatabaei M.Amin	IRI	2601	4,0	0,0	2501	12,5
11	2	GM	Ni Hua	CHN	2668	4,0	0,0	2466	14,0
12	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2668	3,5	0,0	2568	18,5
13	21	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2594	3,5	0,0	2548	16,5
14	12	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2614	3,5	0,0	2547	15,5
15	16	GM	Zubov Alexander	UKR	2607	3,5	0,0	2528	14,0
16	13	GM	Bartel Mateusz	POL	2612	3,5	0,0	2522	15,5
17	34	GM	Istratescu Andrei	ROU	2561	3,5	0,0	2520	14,5
18	30	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2571	3,5	0,0	2506	14,5
19	15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2607	3,5	0,0	2504	14,0
20	36	GM	Aryan Chopra	IND	2553	3,5	0,0	2488	13,5

Today (6th August) is a rest day of the event. The sixth round begins tomorrow (7th July) at 6:30 p.m IST. You could follow the event live on the official YouTube Channel.

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