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Grand Swiss R06: Vishy Anand's instructive lesson in Spanish

by Satanick Mukhuty - 16/10/2019

When it comes to the mastery of traditional systems, Vishy Anand is truly second to none. In the sixth round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 the Indian legend proved this once again by outplaying his young talented opponent Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the classical Ruy Lopez. The other major victory of the day was pulled off by Surya Sekhar Ganguly who made an emphatic comeback after previous round's defeat to beat the Georgian genius Baadur Jobava. Sethuraman S.P. and Gukesh D also registered important wins, while Harikrishna Pentala suffered an unfortunate loss in the hands of Vladislav Kovalev. Two players, Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao, lead the event with 5.0/6 points each but there are seven players, including Magnus Carlsen, who are closely following them just half a point behind. We bring a detailed, illustrated report from Douglas, Isle of Man.

The Madras Tiger still going strong!

Vishy Anand's encounter against the 15-year-old Uzbekistani phenom Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the sixth round of ongoing Grand Swiss 2019 was the proverbial battle of experience and youth. In Chess it is never easy for a veteran to face such young opposition and there are two main reasons behind this. Firstly, a teenager is able to bring in a lot of energy and freshness over the board which most often than not an aged player will lack. And secondly, the ELO rating of an up-and-coming talent is never the true indicator of his/her actual strength. Interestingly, in this event itself, the strong Croatian Grandmaster Ivan Saric has faced players all below 16 years of age till round five and one can clearly see from his performance overview below that it has not been an altogether easy ride for him.  

Ivan Saric is a former World Youth Champion who even holds a notable victory against Magnus Carlsen. He is 29-year-old but could manage to win only one game in the first five rounds against the under-16 opposition he faced! | Photo: Wikipedia  

However, if there is one man who is consistently giving these rising youngsters a run for their money then it is none other than our very own Madras Tiger. At 49, Vishy Anand is still one of the strongest opponent to sit with across a chessboard. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen himself has said that he can still beat anyone in the World. Well, yesterday playing against the prodigiously talented Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vishy only reinforced Carlsen's assertion.

With his sixth round victory the five-time World Champion has moved to 4.0/6 in the tournament and has revived his chances to make it to the Candidates | Photo: John Saunders

Vishy had the White pieces and he started off the game as usual with 1.e4, to which Nodirbek replied symmetrically and invited his more experienced opponent to enter into the infamous Berlin territory. But the Indian had other plans in mind and promptly avoided going into drawish endings with 4.d3. Thus, the game continued in the vein of classical spanish!

 

Vishy Anand - Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Round 6

The critical moment arrived on move 21 when White played Bb3. This is very familiar Ruy Lopez structure where White's knights are developed on f3 and g3, and Nf5 is in the air. Well, it was in this position that Black erred with the move 21...Bc7

This harmless looking 21...Bc7 is really the beginning of disaster. Vishy continued here with 22.Bxf4 exf4 and followed it up with the thematic 23.Nf5! and soon Black was in trouble.

Position after 23.Nf5 : Black faces a dilemma here, what does he do with the well placed knight on f5?

If Black allows the knight to remain on f5 with something slow like 23...Qe8 then White pushes with 24.e5 Nd5 25.Rbd1 Ra3 26.Bxd5 cxd5 27.Nd6 Qe7 28.Nxb5 and gets a comfortable position. Thus, in the game, Nodirbek chose 23...Bxf5  and after 24.exf5 Qf8 25.c4 the center opened up!

And this was all very pleasant for White; with the bishop hitting f7, the queen b5, the rooks ready to take control of the middle, and the kingside pawns prepared to roll out, he couldn't ask for anything better!

Soon White grabbed a pawn on the queenside, can you see why Black can't recapture on b4?

36.g5 was the final blow, after 36...hxg5 37.Nxg5 even the f7 pawn fell! Black kept on playing for a few more moves but the result of the game at this point had become absolutely clear. 

Surya Sekhar Ganguly's Caro-Kann destruction!

After yesterday's loss against Carlsen, Surya Sekhar Ganguly bounced back with an emphatic victory against Baadur Jobava. The Indian Grandmaster found an edge right out of the opening and by move 20 got a completely winning position | Photo: John Saunders

Surya Sekhar Ganguly - Baadur Jobava, Round 6

7...f6?! was a dubious attempt in the opening by the Georgian that got him into unfavourable positions. 7...Ng6 would have been much better instead, in fact it was played by Ganguly himself against Harikrishna last year in Kolkata.

Black could have stirred some really sharp play here with 17...Nec6 18.c4 dxc4 19.d5 exd5 20.Rxd5 where he gets ideas of Qb6, Bxa3 etc. But in the game 17...Nc4 was played, which made White's task simpler.

And the final mistake of the game came by the eighteenth move itself when Black went Ng6, this simply allowed White to grab a free pawn with a superior position. After 19.Bxc4 dxc4 20.Qxc4 Rc8 21.Qd3 Black was lost. Jobava played on for 15 more moves before resigning.  

One of the most anticipated encounters of round six was between Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov which the former won with white pieces in 43 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Vladislav Kovalev handed Harikrishna Pentala his first defeat in the event. The Belarusian was able to create a strong passer on the queenside and outplay the Indian | Photo: John Saunders

Harika Dronavalli drew with White against Ahmed Adly of Egypt. The highest rated female player of the event now has 2.5/6 points | Photo: Maria Emelianova

The other Indian female player in the event, Soumya Swaminathan, is also defending solidly. In round six she held GM Karen Movsziszian to a draw | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Nihal Sarin drew Alexander Motylev with black pieces | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Abhimanyu Puranik held Ray Robson to a draw and moved to 3.5/6 | Photo: Maria Emelianova

Raunak Sadhwani is all set to become the 65th GM of India. In the sixth round he was up against Peter Leko with black pieces. Although the Hungarian got the bishop pair early in the game but the 13-year-old didn't concede any chances and forced the split of point after 38 moves | Photo: John Saunders

Another very interesting game was that between Boris Gelfand and Adhiban Baskaran. Adhiban had the black pieces and drew the Israeli legend in 46 moves | Photo: Maria Emelianova 

The leaders

There were seven leaders at the end of five rounds, after the completion of sixth round only two of them remained on the top after winning their games. Fabiano Caruana was able to draw his opponent Vladimir Fedoseev into his preparation of Sicilian Rossolimo and win a fine game, while Wang Hao played brilliantly to clinch the full point against the in-form Luke McShane. 

Fabiano Caruana defeated Vladimir Fedoseev to maintain his position on the top along with Wang Hao of China | Photo: John Saunders

China's no.3, Wang Hao, is in tremendous form and has all the potential to make it to the Candidates this year. In round six he was just too strong for Luke McShane of England | Photo: John Saunders

Results of all Indian players (Round 6)

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
6830
GMGelfand Boris 2686 ½ - ½ GMAdhiban B. 2639
73
6114
GMAnand Viswanathan 27653 1 - 0 GMAbdusattorov Nodirbek 2608
106
61453
GMKovalev Vladislav 26613 1 - 03 GMHarikrishna Pentala 2748
9
62056
GMKasimdzhanov Rustam 26573 ½ - ½3 GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 2718
17
626102
GMDeac Bogdan-Daniel 26133 ½ - ½3 GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675
37
62942
GMLeko Peter 26703 ½ - ½3 IMSadhwani Raunak 2479
129
630114
GMPuranik Abhimanyu 25713 ½ - ½3 GMRobson Ray 2670
43
64094
GMSethuraman S.P. 2624 1 - 0 GMRodshtein Maxim 2684
33
641104
GMNarayanan.S.L 2611 ½ - ½ GMBerkes Ferenc 2667
45
64354
GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658 1 - 0 GMJobava Baadur 2617
101
64662
GMMotylev Alexander 2651 ½ - ½ GMNihal Sarin 2610
105
657122
GMHarika Dronavalli 24952 ½ - ½2 GMAdly Ahmed 2636
77
658124
GMPrithu Gupta 24932 0 - 12 GMMoiseenko Alexander 2635
80
667119
GMGukesh D 2520 1 - 0 IMHouska Jovanka 2430
142
669130
GMMovsziszian Karen 2475 ½ - ½ WGMSoumya Swaminathan 2365
149

Pairings of all Indian players for the next round

Rd.Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
7644
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 26694 4 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
7973
GMAdhiban B. 26394 4 GMNakamura Hikaru 2745
12
7133
GMSo Wesley 2767 GMGanguly Surya Shekhar 2658
54
71617
GMVidit Santosh Gujrathi 2718 GMSarana Alexey 2655
58
723129
IMSadhwani Raunak 2479 GMSargissian Gabriel 2690
28
72537
GMSasikiran Krishnan 2675 GMTari Aryan 2630
85
72641
GMCheparinov Ivan 2670 GMSethuraman S.P. 2624
94
7339
GMHarikrishna Pentala 27483 GMPuranik Abhimanyu 2571
114
740105
GMNihal Sarin 26103 3 GMBacrot Etienne 2671
40
74357
GMDemchenko Anton 26553 3 GMNarayanan.S.L 2611
104
75687
GMBachmann Axel 2629 GMGukesh D 2520
119
75789
GMParligras Mircea-Emilian 2629 GMHarika Dronavalli 2495
122
768147
GMDanielian Elina 23852 2 GMPrithu Gupta 2493
124
771149
WGMSoumya Swaminathan 23652 2 GMCramling Pia 2462
134

Results of top ten boards (Round 6)

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
12
GMCaruana Fabiano 28124 1 - 04 GMFedoseev Vladimir 2664
47
248
GMMaghsoodloo Parham 26644 ½ - ½4 GMGrischuk Alexander 2759
7
315
GMWang Hao 27264 1 - 04 GMMcShane Luke J 2682
34
41
GMCarlsen Magnus 2876 1 - 04 GMShirov Alexei 2664
49
56
GMKarjakin Sergey 2760 ½ - ½ GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 2669
44
68
GMAronian Levon 2758 1 - 0 GMDreev Aleksey 2662
51
713
GMVitiugov Nikita 2732 1 - 0 GMBluebaum Matthias 2643
70
830
GMGelfand Boris 2686 ½ - ½ GMAdhiban B. 2639
73
938
GMAlekseenko Kirill 2674 1 - 0 GMAkopian Vladimir 2638
75
1064
GMLenderman Aleksandr 2648 0 - 1 GMAnton Guijarro David 2674
39

Top ten board pairings for the next round

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
17
GMGrischuk Alexander 2759 5 GMCaruana Fabiano 2812
2
28
GMAronian Levon 2758 5 GMWang Hao 2726
15
338
GMAlekseenko Kirill 2674 GMCarlsen Magnus 2876
1
439
GMAnton Guijarro David 2674 GMVitiugov Nikita 2732
13
55
GMYu Yangyi 27634 GMMaghsoodloo Parham 2664
48
644
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 26694 4 GMAnand Viswanathan 2765
4
747
GMFedoseev Vladimir 26644 4 GMKarjakin Sergey 2760
6
849
GMShirov Alexei 26644 4 GMWojtaszek Radoslaw 2748
10
973
GMAdhiban B. 26394 4 GMNakamura Hikaru 2745
12
1084
GMJumabayev Rinat 26304 4 GMGelfand Boris 2686
30

Complete results and standings after six rounds


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