Grand Swiss R05: The resurgence of the World Champion

by Satanick Mukhuty - 15/10/2019

Magnus Carlsen registered a convincing win against India's Surya Sekhar Ganguly in round five of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019. It has been a shaky first few rounds for Magnus here in Isle of Man. But thanks to the eleven-round swiss format, there still is ample scope for the World Champion to recover from his initial hiccups in the event. The Norwegian surely understands that and with this fifth round victory it seems he is on his way to make his presence felt. Overall, day five of the tournament went fairly well for the Indian contingent. Apart from Ganguly only Gukesh D and Soumya Swaminathan had to suffer defeats. Vishy Anand won a dominating game with the black pieces against Axel Bachmann and Adhiban Baskaran made a refreshing come back beating David Howell. Elsewhere, Abhimanyu Puranik, Nihal Sarin, and Prithu Gupta too registered impressive wins.

A redeeming victory for World Champion Magnus Carlsen

After miraculously saving a lost game in the previous round, the World Champion Magnus Carlsen was vying to make a strong comeback in round five against Surya Sekhar Ganguly of India. Playing with the white pieces, he evinced his intentions right from the start and treated the Indian's Najdorf with the ambitious 6.h3 system. Ganguly aimed for solidity but ended up being somewhat passive which enabled the Norwegian to establish his stranglehold on the position.

The last time Carlsen played Ganguly was in Dubai back in 2004. He won that game and it incidentally helped him to make his Grandmaster title | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Magnus Carlsen - Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Round 5

Magnus adopted the unusual 6.h3 against the Sicilian Najdorf. Obviously, White wants to lash out an early g2-g4 and go for the initiative.

This little pawn push on the sixth move is what is known as the Adams attack and its basic purpose is twofold. Firstly, it sets up the stage for an early kingside attack with g2-g4 and secondly, it prepares to fianchetto the bishop on g2 and establish a firm control on the d5 square. However, Magnus handles this position from here on in quite an unorthodox way.

10.a4!? was an interesting improvisation by the World Champion. In an interview after the game he admitted that it is a bit risky to go g4 and a4 at the same time for it makes the king on e1 a bit insecure.

And this was perhaps the most critical moment in the game which allowed White to take the upper hand. 12...Nf8 was a new move by Ganguly and an attempt to play solidly but 12...Bb7 with the idea of breaking with d6-d5 at some point should have been better.

This was Magnus' chance to gain time and he immediately went ahead with 13. Rg1 Be6 14. g5 hxg5 15. hxg5 N6d7 dislodging the f6 knight and thus gaining control of the d5 square - the basic idea in Adams attack variation. Next, 16.Nd5 Qc6 17.Qd2 Ng6 18.a5 b5 19.0-0-0 was played and White secured his king on the queenside.

Once the white king became absolutely safe on b1 it was time to open up some more lines and hence came 23.f4!

Finally, 24...Be7 was the slip that sealed Black's fate. After 25.Nxe7 Kxe7 26.Bd6+! everything became way too exposed. To see how Magnus converted his advantage check out the full game below.

An emphatic comeback for Adhiban!

Adhiban Baskaran recovered well from his last round defeat against Luke McShane and beat David Howell to be back on the top pack | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Adhiban went for the open Catalan with the white pieces in this game and secured a small edge right out of the opening when his opponent made an inaccuracy on move 13. The Indian GM didn't have much difficulty thereafter to capitalize, he liquidated into a superior ending and managed to push black completely into passivity by bringing all his pieces to active play. The full game with brief annotations is presented below.

Photo Gallery

Vishy Anand dominated his opponent Axel Bachmann with the black pieces right out of the opening. The Madras tiger got an advantage as early as move thirteen and by move thirty had full command on the position. The game ended after 43 moves with the Paraguayan resigning | Photo: Maria Emelianova

13-year-old IM Raunak Sadhwani kept up his solid performance drawing his fourth consecutive game against much higher rated GM Pavel Eljanov | Photo: John Saunders

Harika Dronavalli found herself in some trouble against Piorun Kacper after an unusual opening where both sides had all sixteen pieces intact till about move twenty. However, the highest rated female in the event put up excellent resistance to force the split of point | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Gukesh suffered his second defeat in the event against GM Ferenc Berkes. He has the white pieces against IM Jovanka Houska in the next round | Photo: John Saunders

Soumya Swaminathan was the other Indian who lost in the fifth round. She was defeated by Alekseev Evgeny | Photo: John Saunders

Krishnan Sasikiran has impressively remained unbeaten in the event. He held GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov to a draw in round five | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
5	11	1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	54
5	13	9	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Sarana Alexey	2655	58
5	18	17	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	2639	74
5	20	73	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Howell David W L	2694	24
5	24	37	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	2621	95
5	29	129	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2663	50
5	31	87	GM	Bachmann Axel	2629	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	4
5	37	31	GM	Kamsky Gata	2685	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	94
5	43	61	GM	Sevian Samuel	2654	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	104
5	49	77	GM	Adly Ahmed	2636	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	114
5	57	45	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2667	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	Gukesh D	2520	119
5	58	72	GM	Piorun Kacper	2643	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	122
5	60	149	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Alekseev Evgeny	2629	86
5	66	105	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Zatonskih Anna	2422	145
5	69	124	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Gavrilescu David	2451	136

Pairings of all Indian players for the next round

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
6	8	30	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	3½		3½	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	73
6	11	4	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2765	3		3½	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2608	106
6	14	53	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	2661	3		3	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	2748	9
6	20	56	GM	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2657	3		3	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2718	17
6	26	102	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2613	3		3	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2675	37
6	29	42	GM	Leko Peter	2670	3		3	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2479	129
6	30	114	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2571	3		3	GM	Robson Ray	2670	43
6	40	94	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	2½		2½	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2684	33
6	41	104	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2611	2½		2½	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2667	45
6	43	54	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2658	2½		2½	GM	Jobava Baadur	2617	101
6	46	62	GM	Motylev Alexander	2651	2½		2½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2610	105
6	57	122	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2495	2		2	GM	Adly Ahmed	2636	77
6	58	124	GM	Prithu Gupta	2493	2		2	GM	Moiseenko Alexander	2635	80
6	67	119	GM	Gukesh D	2520	1½		1½	IM	Houska Jovanka	2430	142
6	69	130	GM	Movsziszian Karen	2475	1½		1½	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2365	149

Results of top ten boards

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	34	GM	McShane Luke J	2682	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	2
2	15	GM	Wang Hao	2726	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	48
3	39	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	6
4	7	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2670	41
5	44	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	8
6	47	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2748	10
7	13	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Lenderman Aleksandr	2648	64
8	49	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2690	28
9	51	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	30
10	70	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2643	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	38

Top ten board pairings for the next round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2812	4		4	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2664	47
2	48	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2664	4		4	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2759	7
3	15	GM	Wang Hao	2726	4		4	GM	McShane Luke J	2682	34
4	1	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2876	3½		4	GM	Shirov Alexei	2664	49
5	6	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2760	3½		3½	GM	Kryvoruchko Yuriy	2669	44
6	8	GM	Aronian Levon	2758	3½		3½	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	51
7	13	GM	Vitiugov Nikita	2732	3½		3½	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2643	70
8	30	GM	Gelfand Boris	2686	3½		3½	GM	Adhiban B.	2639	73
9	38	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2674	3½		3½	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2638	75
10	64	GM	Lenderman Aleksandr	2648	3½		3½	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2674	39

Complete results and standings

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