Can Gukesh still become the youngest GM ever?

by Sagar Shah - 21/12/2018

The Sunway Sitges that is currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain is the tournament which houses the biggest chess talents of India. You have Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Vaishali, and many more. Add to it the experience of Sasikiran and Soumya Swaminathan and this tournamentevent is definitely something that you should n't be missing out on. There's also the excitement of Gukesh becoming the youngest GM ever in the history of the game. So, how are our players faring at this tournament. Seven out of the ten rounds have come to an end and this is how things look.

A lot of big names of Indian chess are playing at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2018. Seven rounds are over, let's have a look at how they are doing. Let's first begin with D. Gukesh as he has a chance to break Karjakin's record of the youngest GM ever if he achieves his third GM norm here and gains 10 Elo points.

Gukesh played a fine game to beat his compatriot Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad in round four | Photo: Rupali Mullick

However, he has already suffered two losses in the event. One against Daniele Vocaturo (above) and the other against Fernando Peralta. He is on 4.5/7. With three rounds to go, he still has a chance to make the GM norm, but will have to score heavily. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

That's how Gukesh's scorecard looks as of now

A look into the FIDE Handbook shows the following:

If you check the second column you will see the requirements for Gukesh to make his GM norm

Now currently Gukesh's average rating is 2449 (we have upgraded his first round opponent who was 2122 to 2200). If he faces a 2449 opponent in round nine, which keeps his average rating to 2449, he would require 6.5/9. This would mean that Gukesh requires to win both his games. The chances of Gukesh pushing his rating average above 2474 is very difficult. He would have to win round 8 game and then face one of the top three seeds Inarkiev (2693), Ivanchuk (2717) or Andreikin (2719). If he faces any one of the three in the ninth round then overall his rating average is pushed above 2474 and he would need 6.0/9 which is 1.5 points in the remaining two games.

One thing is pretty clear. If Gukesh wants to get his GM norm, beating GM Santos Latasa Jaime (2584) today is quite important. Mind you, this is not a 9-round event. There are 10 rounds, so Gukesh can also achieve his 10-round norm. These are the requirements as per FIDE Handbook:

It is quite likely that Gukesh can get his average in the 2451-2489 zone. Then he would need 7.0/10. Which means 2.5 out of the remaining three rounds!

We at ChessBase India want to clarify one point for our readers. Repeatedly we have found the criticism that we are putting too much pressure on young talents because of our reports on whether they can break a certain record or not. Well, we believe that it is extremely important for the chess enthusiasts to be aware of whether Gukesh can break the record. This is not meant to put pressure on Gukesh, who is busy in his room trying to find ways to beat his Spanish opponent! We definitely hope that Gukesh can make it to the finish line with some great final round performances, but even if he can't, he definitely will be a super strong grandmaster in the time to come!

The top Indian player at the event Sasikiran is on 6.0/7. Sasi has had two draws until now and is currently leading the tournament. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Look at his seventh round win against Nihal Sarin. Nihal played the exchange variation in the King's Indian Defence and it didn't seem as if Black could get much out of that endgame, but Sasi managed to put enough pressure for the 14-year-old opponent to crack. Check out the game:

Nihal Sarin has shown very solid play and was on 5.0/6. En route to that score he had beaten a 2600+ GM Adly Ahmed of Egypt. But he lost in the seventh round to Sasikiran and is now on 5.0/7 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Nihal talks about his win over GM Adly Ahmed

Praggnanandhaa has also shown solid chess and with four draws and three wins is on 5.0/7 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Raunak Sadhwani has scored two wins over grandmasters Xu Xiangyu and Andreas Kelires. He has lost two games to Awonder Liang and Sasikiran Krishnan. Yet, if he manages to keep his tempo, he has excellent chances of scoring a GM norm. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Indian's Raunak Sadhwani had a tough rival in today's round, @GMSasikiran. However, with 4/6 he's still not far from the lead, and has a good chance to get a GM norm if he does not collapse... @ChessbaseIndia @Indianchess pic.twitter.com/vUO8xR9IFH
— Sunway Chess Open (@SunwayChessOpen) December 20, 2018

Here are Raunak's two wins over the two grandmasters:

Soumya Swaminathan recently became an IM and also achieved a rating of 2428. She is right now on 4.0/7 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

One player who has been doing exceedingly well in the tournament is Krishna Teja. He has beaten two strong players and ChessBase India's Rupali Mullick, who is present at the Sunway Sitges, managed to do an interview with him:

Krishna Teja beat legendary GM Alexander Beliavsky on his 65th birthday

Krishna Teja's interview after he beat Vincent Keymer in round 6

There was a very incident in round 5 which was discussed in the above interview. In round 5 Krishna was facing GM Maxime Lagarde. After move 70 we got the following position:

Lagarde on his 71st move picked up the a2 pawn with his rook. Now he had 50 moves to try and checkmate the black king.

Now on the 121st move Lagarde played his rook to c8 and gave a check. Krishna could have resigned the game. Instead he used his presence of mind and found out that if he puts his rook on d8 and then white takes it, it is checkmate but on 122nd move, which is one move after the 50th move! He called the arbiter and after some drama, the game was judged as a draw! What a save!

Indian performance until round 7:

SNo		Name	RtgI	RtgN	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	Rp	Group
4	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2673	0	IND	1	1	1	½	½	1	1			6,0	1	2769	Group A
16	GM	Nihal Sarin	2576	0	IND	1	1	1	1	½	½	0			5,0	9	2654	Group A
25	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2530	0	IND	½	1	1	1	½	½	½			5,0	19	2540	Group A
35	IM	Gukesh D	2466	0	IND	1	1	0	1	½	0	1			4,5	32	2522	Group A
41	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2434	0	IND	1	1	1	0	1	0	½			4,5	31	2548	Group A
42	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2428	0	IND	1	1	0	½	1	0	½			4,0	52	2384	Group A
45	IM	Vardaan Nagpal	2415	0	IND	½	½	½	½	1	0	½			3,5	98	2130	Group A
46	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2415	0	IND	1	1	½	0	½	½	1			4,5	37	2337	Group A
48	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2406	0	IND	1	1	0	0	½	½	½			3,5	92	2119	Group A
49	CM	Rohith Krishna S	2399	0	IND	1	0	0	1	1	½	½			4,0	60	2298	Group A
59	IM	Roy Prantik	2382	0	IND	1	½	0	1	0	½	1			4,0	48	2407	Group A
68	IM	Krishna Teja N	2340	0	IND	1	0	1	1	½	1	½			5,0	20	2564	Group A
73	WGM	Vaishali R	2329	0	IND	1	1	0	0	1	½	0			3,5	76	2372	Group A
74	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	2328	0	IND	1	0	1	0	1	0	1			4,0	54	2274	Group A
81	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2293	0	IND	1	½	0	1	0	½	½			3,5	84	2161	Group A
85	CM	Mullick Raahil	2276	0	IND	1	0	1	0	1	1	0			4,0	50	2258	Group A
86	FM	Pranav Anand	2274	0	IND	1	0	1	½	1	½	0			4,0	45	2337	Group A
90		Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	2244	0	IND	1	0	1	½	½	0	½			3,5	78	2390	Group A
95	CM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2234	0	IND	0	1	1	1	½	½	0			4,0	46	2389	Group A
96		Moksh Amit Doshi	2233	0	IND	0	1	1	½	½	½	0			3,5	79	2305	Group A
106		Alok Sinha	2187	0	IND	0	1	0	1	0	1	0			3,0	108	2210	Group A
108		Natarajan C	2177	0	IND	0	1	½	0	0	½	1			3,0	113	2166	Group A
115	CM	Dev Shah	2159	0	IND	0	0	1	½	0	½	1			3,0	132	1969	Group A
116		Manu David Suthandram R	2153	0	IND	½	½	½	0	1	½	½			3,5	81	2322	Group A
120		Ajay Karthikeyan	2143	0	IND	0	1	½	½	1	½	0			3,5	80	2300	Group A
121		Rakshitta Ravi	2141	0	IND	0	½	½	½	0	1	½			3,0	127	1943	Group A
139	WFM	Cholleti Sahajasri	2069	0	IND	½	½	0	0	1	½	½			3,0	103	2200	Group A
148		Shyam Prasad Reddy K	2030	0	IND	0	1	0	½	1	1	0			3,5	96	2322	Group A
160		Aarav Dengla	1955	0	IND	0	0	½	½	0	1	0			2,0	154	1992	Group A
164		Mahitosh Dey	1931	0	IND	0	1	½	½	½	0	½			3,0	123	2137	Group A
167		Arjun C Krishnamachari	1895	0	IND	0	1	0	½	½	½	½			3,0	129	2141	Group A
177		Ilamparthi A R	1796	0	IND	½	0	1	0	1	0	½			3,0	118	2185	Group A

Standings after round 7:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp
1	4	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan				IND	2673	0	Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd	6,0	30,5	34,0	24,5	2769
2	27	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar			2550	ESP	2524	2514	C.E. Gerunda	6,0	30,5	33,5	26,0	2824
3	17	GM	Petrosyan Manuel				ARM	2565	0		6,0	29,0	32,0	25,5	2777
4	1	GM	Andreikin Dmitry				RUS	2719	0		5,5	27,5	30,5	23,0	2711
5	26	IM	Harutyunian Tigran K.				ARM	2528	0		5,5	27,5	30,5	22,5	2679
6	8	GM	Indjic Aleksandar				SRB	2620	0		5,5	27,0	30,5	23,5	2674
7	5	GM	Edouard Romain				FRA	2644	2614	Club de Ajedrez Sestao	5,5	26,5	29,0	22,0	2676
8	2	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily				UKR	2717	0		5,5	23,0	26,0	18,5	2543
9	16	GM	Nihal Sarin	16			IND	2576	0		5,0	30,0	33,0	24,5	2654
10	7	GM	Adly Ahmed				EGY	2626	0		5,0	29,0	33,0	22,0	2607
11	9	GM	Lagarde Maxime			2616	FRA	2616	2588	Barcelona C.E.	5,0	28,5	32,5	21,5	2555
12	34	GM	Dragnev Valentin	H			AUT	2483	0		5,0	28,5	31,5	21,0	2617
13	6	GM	Vocaturo Daniele				ITA	2629	2622		5,0	28,5	30,5	22,5	2600
14	12	GM	Liang Awonder	H16			USA	2589	0	Wisconsin	5,0	27,5	31,0	22,0	2614
15	3	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto				RUS	2693	0		5,0	27,5	31,0	20,5	2573
16	11	GM	Romanov Evgeny				RUS	2614	0		5,0	27,5	30,5	22,5	2568
17	28	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel				ESP	2523	2506	And	5,0	27,5	30,0	21,5	2563
18	13	GM	Peralta Fernando			2598	ARG	2584	2582	Escola d'Escacs de Barcelona	5,0	26,5	29,5	21,5	2545
19	25	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	H16			IND	2530	0		5,0	26,5	28,0	21,5	2540
20	68	IM	Krishna Teja N	A			IND	2340	0		5,0	26,0	28,5	20,0	2564

Rupali Mullick, who is present at the event, took some very nice videos of Indian players relaxing after their grueling games. Here's one of them:

Before the Sunway Sitges tournament began, the great Oleg Romanishin gave a simul. Raahil Mullick, the highest rated under-11 player in the world, managed to beat him. Here's the game with some light annotations by Raahil himself:

Follow the games live at 9 p.m. IST

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