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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. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
13
GMSalem A.R. Saleh 2668 0 - 14 GMJobava Baadur 2584
26
223
GMPetrosyan Manuel 2592 ½ - ½ GMNi Hua 2668
2
321
GMAbdusattorov Nodirbek 2594 0 - 1 GMMaghsoodloo Parham 2656
4
47
GMVolokitin Andrei 2636 ½ - ½ GMAleksandrov Aleksej 2571
29
55
GMAkopian Vladimir 26503 0 - 13 GMYakubboev Nodirbek 2574
28
69
GMEsipenko Andrey 26253 ½ - ½3 GMYuffa Daniil 2571
30
725
GMSantos Latasa Jaime 25863 0 - 13 GMSocko Bartosz 2625
10
811
GMIndjic Aleksandar 26173 1 - 03 GMPaichadze Luka 2570
31
932
GMPraggnanandhaa R 25693 ½ - ½3 GMYilmaz Mustafa 2614
12
1013
GMBartel Mateusz 26123 ½ - ½3 GMAryan Chopra 2553
36
1133
GMSantos Ruiz Miguel 25673 0 - 13 GMKarthikeyan Murali 2612
14
1215
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr. 26073 ½ - ½3 GMSanal Vahap 2535
38
1334
GMIstratescu Andrei 25613 ½ - ½3 GMZubov Alexander 2607
16
1437
GMSengupta Deep 25463 0 - 13 GMTabatabaei M.Amin 2601
17
1539
GMXu Yi 25313 ½ - ½3 GMPetrov Nikita 2595
20
1645
GMSindarov Javokhir 25073 ½ - ½3 GMVaibhav Suri 2591
24
171
GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 2686 ½ - ½ IMVignesh N R 2466
52
186
GMOnischuk Vladimir 2640 1 - 0 IMAkash Pc Iyer 2443
58
1953
IMShyaamnikhil P 2457 ½ - ½ GMTer-Sahakyan Samvel 2632
8
2060
GMSocko Monika 2436 0 - 1 GMAntipov Mikhail Al. 2599
18

Standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3 
126
GMJobava BaadurGEO25845,00,0255515,0
24
GMMaghsoodloo ParhamIRI26564,50,0256917,0
328
GMYakubboev NodirbekUZB25744,00,0257313,5
423
GMPetrosyan ManuelARM25924,00,0256416,5
529
GMAleksandrov AleksejBLR25714,00,0255816,5
611
GMIndjic AleksandarSRB26174,00,0255117,0
710
GMSocko BartoszPOL26254,00,0252313,5
87
GMVolokitin AndreiUKR26364,00,0250514,0
914
GMKarthikeyan MuraliIND26124,00,0250313,0
1017
GMTabatabaei M.AminIRI26014,00,0250112,5
112
GMNi HuaCHN26684,00,0246614,0
123
GMSalem A.R. SalehUAE26683,50,0256818,5
1321
GMAbdusattorov NodirbekUZB25943,50,0254816,5
1412
GMYilmaz MustafaTUR26143,50,0254715,5
1516
GMZubov AlexanderUKR26073,50,0252814,0
1613
GMBartel MateuszPOL26123,50,0252215,5
1734
GMIstratescu AndreiROU25613,50,0252014,5
1830
GMYuffa DaniilRUS25713,50,0250614,5
1915
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.IND26073,50,0250414,0
2036
GMAryan ChopraIND25533,50,0248813,5

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.