Praggnanandhaa or Aravindh - Who will win 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial?
Aravindh Chithambaram scored an emphatic victory against Benjamin Gledura (HUN) in Round 8 of 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial. Gledura could not handle an isolated queen's pawn correctly and quickly arrived at a lost knight endgame. R Praggnanandhaa drew with Xiangyu Xu (CHN) in 18 moves. Both Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh are at 5.5/8 each. They are at a full point ahead of Dmitrij Kollars (GER). If both coleaders, draw or win, they will finish top two and tie-breaks will come to play to determine the champion. In a worst case scenario if both of them lose and Kollars wins then three players can end up with the same score. Round 9 starts today at 11 a.m. local time, 12:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Aravindh scores his third win
Aravindh - Gledura: 1-0
Aravindh Chithambaram (2749) played two Classical rated games against Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2668) in 2015 and 2018. Both ended in draws. Aravindh has gotten a lot stronger since then.
Black did not handle the isolated queen's pawn correctly. 21...Qa6? 22.a3 Rd5 23.Nxd4 Rad8 24.Nc6 Rxd3 25.Nxd8 Nf4 26.Rxd3 Nxd3 soon the game liquidated into a knight endgame. Aravindh converted his advantage into a win comfortably. This win put him back in the lead and also in the mix for the first place.
Replay live stream
Time Control
90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game (with 30 seconds increment starting from move one).
Prizes
The total prize fund is 7450000 AMD (≈ US$ 19325). The top three prizes are 3100000 AMD (≈ US$ 8041), 1 850 000 AMD (≈ US$ 4799) and 1500000 (≈ US$ 3891).
Round 8 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2623 | GM | Xu Xiangyu | ½ - ½ | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2758 | 9 | |||
| 2 | 1 | 2635 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ½ - ½ | GM | Hakobyan Aram | 2620 | 8 | |||
| 3 | 2 | 2749 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 1 - 0 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | 2663 | 7 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 2641 | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | ½ - ½ | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | 2625 | 6 | |||
| 5 | 4 | 2694 | GM | Sevian Samuel | ½ - ½ | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | 2665 | 5 |
Standings after Round 8
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2758 | 5,5 | 20,25 | 5 | 0 | |
| 2 | 2 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2749 | 5,5 | 20,00 | 3 | 0 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GER | 2625 | 4,5 | 16,75 | 5 | 0 | |
| 4 | 3 | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | DEN | 2641 | 4 | 16,00 | 3 | 0 | |
| 5 | 4 | GM | Sevian Samuel | USA | 2694 | 4 | 15,75 | 3 | 0 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ARM | 2620 | 4 | 14,25 | 5 | 0 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | UZB | 2665 | 3,5 | 13,50 | 4 | 0 | |
| 10 | GM | Xu Xiangyu | CHN | 2623 | 3,5 | 13,50 | 4 | 0 | ||
| 9 | 1 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ARM | 2635 | 3,5 | 13,00 | 3 | 0 | |
| 10 | 7 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | HUN | 2663 | 2 | 7,50 | 5 | 0 |
Round 9 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 2665 | GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | GM | Xu Xiangyu | 2623 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | 6 | 2625 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GM | Sevian Samuel | 2694 | 4 | ||||
| 3 | 7 | 2663 | GM | Gledura Benjamin | GM | Bjerre Jonas Buhl | 2641 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 8 | 2620 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2749 | 2 | ||||
| 5 | 9 | 2758 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | 2635 | 1 |
Schedule
| Wednesday | 28 May at 19:00 | Opening Ceremony |
| Thursday | 29 May at 15:00 | Round 1 |
| Friday | 30 May at 15:00 | Round 2 |
| Saturday | 31 May at 15:00 | Round 3 |
| Sunday | 1 June at 15:00 | Round 4 |
| Monday | 2 June at 15:00 | Round 5 |
| Tuesday | 3 June at 15:00 | Round 6 |
| Wednesday | 4 June at 15:00 | Round 7 |
| Thursday | 5 June at 15:00 | Round 8 |
| Friday | 6 June at 11:00 | Round 9 |
| Friday | 6 June at 18:00 | Closing Ceremony |
