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Grand Swiss R07: Aronian joins the lead, a mixed day for Indians

by Satanick Mukhuty - 18/10/2019

Levon Aronian joined Fabiano Caruana in the lead after defeating Wang Hao in round seven of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man. In what was a draws galore in the top twelve boards of the round, the Armenian became the only one to clinch a victory. However, for the Indian contingent it was a mixed day as four players registered wins, three lost, and the rest out of the fifteen split points. Arguably the best performance was pulled off by Harika Dronavalli who demolished Mircea Pârligras, a 2629 rated Romanian Grandmaster, in just 34 moves. The ever steady S.L.Narayanan, who has drawn all his games from rounds one to six, registered a much needed win against Anton Domchenko. Gukesh D and Soumya Swaminathan were the other two Indians who won their encounters against Axel Bachmann and Pia Cramling respectively.  

Harika's tactical alertness stuns Mircea

Harika Dronavalli and Soumya Swaminathan, the two female players representing India, have both been exceptionally solid in this tournament so far. Both have held their own against formidable 2600+ and even 2650+ rated opposition quite admirably. In round seven Harika registered her first win of the tournament by beating the strong Romanian Grandmaster Mircea Pârligras. The former had the black pieces and adopted the King's Indian defense in response to the latter's Queen's pawn opening. Black achieved a comfortable position quite early in the game and seized the initiative at the right moment when White suffered a tactical oversight.

Harika has suffered only one loss against compatriot Krishnan Sasikiran in round three. With her victory in the seventh round she has now moved to 3.5/7 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Mircea Pârligras - Harika Dronavalli, Round 7

Black had already to managed to achieve a comfortable position out of the opening when White played the move 20.Bf3. Can you see what he missed?

In the above position one can already see that White's king is much more vulnerable from its black counterpart. There looks nothing wrong with 20.Bf3 at first glance but in reality it weakens the queenside more and allows the opponent to arrange a deadly attack. Something like 20.Qa3, consolidating the position of the king and at the same time hitting a7, would have been a better option. For instance, with 20.Qa3 Qb6 21.Qb3 the position is just even. In the game, after the erroneous 20.Bf3, Harika showed phenomenal alertness and didn't miss the very powerful response 20...Qb6 which prepares the surprising Rc3!

The threat after 20...Qb6 is the decisive move Rc3. If White goes 21.Qb3 here then thanks to the undefended f1-a6 diagonal, Black can play 21...Qa6 with the new threat of Ba4! In fact, this is what exactly happened in the game.

And after 23...d4-d3 was pushed, Black completely broke in. Resignation came only about ten moves from here.

Soumya Swaminathan beat the legendary Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling with the white pieces in round seven. The Indian didn't miss her chance when the 56-year-old erred on move 27 and grabbed an extra pawn on the queenside. The game had a nice tactical twist towards the end which we post to you as a little puzzle below | Photo: Maria Emelianova 

Soumya Swaminathan - Pia Cramling, Round 7

Black's knight on c5 is attacked twice and her rook on e5 too is en prise. What would you play as Black here? Check the game below for answer!

S.L.Narayanan actually found himself in trouble against Anton Demchenko but the 21-year-old Kerala lad defended well and on move 35 turned the tables when his opponent blundered | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Anton Demchenko - S.L.Narayanan, Round 7

Can you see what White missed when he blundered with 35.Rc3? See the game below for answer

Gukesh's opponent Axel Bachmann tried to complicate matters with white pieces on move 22 but ended up losing his way which allowed the Indian youngster to finish off in style | Photo: John Saunders

Axel Bachmann - Gukesh D, Round 7

White could have simply captured the knight on c6 with 29.Qxc6 but he played 29.Qc1 instead. The idea obviously is to go Qg5+ and grab the bishop on g4 but this is a blunder, can you see why?

The leaders

With four more rounds to go, it is Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana who have emerged as the leaders with 5.5/7 points each. According to swiss rule, they face each other off in the eighth round. Fabiano held Alexander Grischuk to a draw yesterday, while Levon registered a hard fought victory against Wang Hao of China to rise to the top | Photo: Maria Emelianova


Photo Gallery

Vishy Anand held Yuriy Kryvoruchko to a draw with black pieces after coming under some pressure initially in the game. The Ukrainian got quite a bit of activity with his bishop pair in the middlegame. However, the five-time World Champion defended well and forced the split of point after 47 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova  

Vidit Gujrathi was held to draw by Alexey Sarana in the seventh round and now has 4.0/7 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Harikrishna Pentala got a really dominating position against compatriot Abhimanyu Puranik where he was able to push his d-pawn all the way to the seventh rank. But somehow the India no.2 couldn't keep the pressure going and the game fizzled into draw after 56 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova 

Playing White Adhiban Baskaran faced no difficulty holding Hikaru Nakamura to a draw | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Krishnan Sasikiran's unbeaten streak in the event was finally broken in round seven by Aryan Tari who beat him with black pieces | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Raunak Sadhwani once again held Gabriel Sargissian to a draw. The 13-year-old has already become the 65th Grandmaster of the country. Technically, he just has to appear for the next two rounds to fulfill all the title criteria | Photo: John Saunders

Surya Sekhar Ganguly went down against Wesley So with black pieces. The former lost an exchange after making a slip on move 19 which the latter converted smoothly in 56 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 7)

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
7644
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 26694 ½ - ½4 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
7973
GMAdhiban B. 26394 ½ - ½4 GMNakamura Hikaru 2745
12
7133
GMSo Wesley 2767 1 - 0 GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658
54
71617
GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 2718 ½ - ½ GMSarana Alexey 2655
58
723129
IMSadhwani Raunak 2479 ½ - ½ GMSargissian Gabriel 2690
28
72537
GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675 0 - 1 GMTari Aryan 2630
85
72641
GMCheparinov Ivan 2670 ½ - ½ GMSethuraman S.P. 2624
94
7339
GMHarikrishna Pentala 27483 ½ - ½ GMPuranik Abhimanyu 2571
114
740105
GMNihal Sarin 26103 ½ - ½3 GMBacrot Etienne 2671
40
74357
GMDemchenko Anton 26553 0 - 13 GMNarayanan.S.L 2611
104
75687
GMBachmann Axel 2629 0 - 1 GMGukesh D 2520
119
75789
GMParligras Mircea-Emilian 2629 0 - 1 GMHarika Dronavalli 2495
122
768147
GMDanielian Elina 23852 1 - 02 GMPrithu Gupta 2493
124
771149
WGMSoumya Swaminathan 23652 1 - 02 GMCramling Pia 2462
134

Pairings of all Indian players for the next round

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
864
GMAnand Viswanathan 2765 GMFedoseev Vladimir 2664
47
81373
GMAdhiban B. 2639 GMRobson Ray 2670
43
81765
GMMamedov Rauf 26454 4 GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 2718
17
82432
GMRagger Markus 26844 4 IMSadhwani Raunak 2479
129
82594
GMSethuraman S.P. 26244 4 GMKorobov Anton 2679
35
826104
GMNarayanan.S.L 26114 4 GMCheparinov Ivan 2670
41
831114
GMPuranik Abhimanyu 25714 4 GMKasimdzhanov Rustam 2657
56
83290
GMVolokitin Andrei 2627 GMHarikrishna Pentala 2748
9
84096
GMVan Foreest Jorden 2621 GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675
37
84354
GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658 GMNihal Sarin 2610
105
850119
GMGukesh D 2520 GMZvjaginsev Vadim 2644
69
852122
GMHarika Dronavalli 2495 GMMoiseenko Alexander 2635
80
860149
WGMSoumya Swaminathan 23653 3 GMEfimenko Zahar 2604
107
871135
GMJansa Vlastimil 24522 2 GMPrithu Gupta 2493
124

Results of top ten boards (Round 7)

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
17
GMGrischuk Alexander 2759 ½ - ½5 GMCaruana Fabiano 2812
2
28
GMAronian Levon 2758 1 - 05 GMWang Hao 2726
15
338
GMAlekseenko Kirill 2674 ½ - ½ GMCarlsen Magnus 2876
1
439
GMAnton Guijarro David 2674 ½ - ½ GMVitiugov Nikita 2732
13
55
GMYu Yangyi 27634 ½ - ½ GMMaghsoodloo Parham 2664
48
644
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 26694 ½ - ½4 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
747
GMFedoseev Vladimir 26644 ½ - ½4 GMKarjakin Sergey 2760
6
849
GMShirov Alexei 26644 ½ - ½4 GMWojtaszek Radoslaw 2748
10
973
GMAdhiban B. 26394 ½ - ½4 GMNakamura Hikaru 2745
12
1084
GMJumabayev Rinat 26304 ½ - ½4 GMGelfand Boris 2686
30

Top ten board pairings for the next round

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
12
GMCaruana Fabiano 2812 GMAronian Levon 2758
8
215
GMWang Hao 27265 5 GMCarlsen Magnus 2876
1
339
GMAnton Guijarro David 26745 5 GMGrischuk Alexander 2759
7
448
GMMaghsoodloo Parham 26645 5 GMVitiugov Nikita 2732
13
53
GMSo Wesley 2767 5 GMAlekseenko Kirill 2674
38
64
GMAnand Viswanathan 2765 GMFedoseev Vladimir 2664
47
749
GMShirov Alexei 2664 GMYu Yangyi 2763
5
86
GMKarjakin Sergey 2760 GMDreev Aleksey 2662
51
910
GMWojtaszek Radoslaw 2748 GMKovalev Vladislav 2661
53
1012
GMNakamura Hikaru 2745 GMMelkumyan Hrant 2650
63

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