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Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 7: Deep Sengupta fights back, Karthikeyan Murali falters in French

by Satanick Mukhuty - 09/08/2019

After suffering an unfortunate loss against Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei in round five, Deep Sengupta has taken charge once again as he registered his second consecutive victory in the seventh round against the strong Turkish Grandmaster Mustafa Yilmaz. On the other hand, Karthikeyan Murali missed an opportunity to punish his opponent Bartosz Socko in a French defense and had to settle for a draw. Playing in the top board, leader Jobava Baadur also drew his game against China's Ni Hua. Thus, maintaining his full point lead over the field with 6.5/7. With only two rounds of the event remaining, there are six players tied to 5.5/7 behind Jobava. Will any one of them be able to catch up with the leader? In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and more from the seventh round of 26th Abu Dhabi Masters 2019!  

Deep Sengupta outplays Mustafa Yilmaz in the endgame

Deep Sengupta's English Opening got the better of the Turkish Grandmaster Mustafa Yilmaz | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Deep had the opportunity to take a serious initiative quite early, on move 26, but unfortunately he missed this chance and had to wait till the endgame to bring home the full point. Let us begin by looking at the critical moments from this encounter.

 

Deep Sengupta - Mustafa Yilmaz, Round 7

Black has just played the move 25...bxc5. The Indian Grandmaster recaptured here with 26.Bxc5 but a better idea would have been 26.Bd2 with the idea of going Rxc5 next after which White gets excellent pressure along the c-file and on the e5 pawn. Check annotations below for details.

Position after 40.Re8: Missing the strong Bd2 on move 26 led to the game eventually liquidating into a rook-bishop ending. White has a slight edge in the above position mainly because his king is more actively placed. Moreover, Black could potentially also face back-rank issues once White lodges his light-squared bishop on g6. 

White indeed got his bishop to g6. Black couldn't pick up the a3 pawn owing to a weak back-rank, instead now he had to spent some tempos getting his king to a safer square.

 

This was the final critical moment of the game. Black played the move 44...Bb7 here which allowed White to pick up the e-pawn with 45.Re5, 44...Rd8 would have been a better defense instead. 

Next, White picked up one more pawn on the kingside and from here it was game over for Black.

Karthikeyan misses an opportunity against Bartosz Soćko

Karthikeyan had an opportunity to seize an edge with a nice exchange sacrifice against the polish Grandmaster Bartosz Socko | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Karthikeyan played an unusual fianchetto of his light-squared bishop in the French and by move 11 it was already a new position on board. 

 

Karthikeyan Murali - Bartosz Soćko, Round 7

White played the new move 11.g3 followed by 12.Bg2 next. Black could have continued solidly with 11...Nb6 here but in the game he chose a more ambitious plan.

Black went for a queenside expansion with a5 and b4 and developed his c8 bishop to a6. White has a brilliant resource here that was missed in the game can you see it?

15.Nf4! is what Karthikeyan could have played! The point is after 15...Bxf1 16.Rxf1 there's just too much pressure on the e6 point to deal with and the black king is still stuck in the middle of the board (check annotations below for variations). In the game however, 15.fxe6 fxe6 16.Bh3 was played after which the game slowly fizzled into a draw.

Ni Hua plays solid against Jobava!

Jobava's terrific winning spree was brought to an end in the seventh round as China's Ni Hua held the in-form Georgian Grandmaster to a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick 

After winning six games in a row the leader Jobava Baadur was up against the very strong Chinese Grandmaster Ni Hua. In a variation of Slav, the latter with white pieces chose to be super-solid against the in-form Georgian player. The game never really left equilibrium and was agreed to a draw without much ado after just thirty-eight moves.

 

Ni Hua - Jobava Baadur, Round 7

Position after 15...a6: White had the opportunity to create imbalances at this point by pushing 16.f4 but in the game 16.Nc4 was played which led to the exchange of dark-squared bishops on g3 after which the game never really went off-balance. 

Aravindh Chithambaram drew GM Yuffa Daniil. Aravindh is paired up against compatriot Deep Sengupta in the penultimate round of the event. This is a match-up that would be interesting to follow | Photo: Rupali Mullick

The national triple-crown champion has been very solid throughout the event, not losing a single game in seven rounds!

Vaibhav Suri lost to Bartel Mateusz in the seventh round | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vignesh N R lost to Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei | Photo: Rupali Mullick 

Aryan Chopra couldn't keep his good performance from the previous round going as he lost to GM Antipov Mikhail AI.

Praggnananddhaa R. was held to a draw by Akash Pc. Iyer | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Results of round 7

Bo.No. NameRtgPts. ResultPts. NameRtg No.
12
GMNi Hua 26685 ½ - ½6 GMJobava Baadur 2584
26
214
GMKarthikeyan Murali 26125 ½ - ½5 GMSocko Bartosz 2625
10
39
GMEsipenko Andrey 2625 ½ - ½5 GMYakubboev Nodirbek 2574
28
44
GMMaghsoodloo Parham 2656 ½ - ½ GMCan Emre 2593
22
513
GMBartel Mateusz 2612 1 - 0 GMVaibhav Suri 2591
24
615
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2607 ½ - ½ GMYuffa Daniil 2571
30
729
GMAleksandrov Aleksej 2571 ½ - ½ GMZubov Alexander 2607
16
836
GMAryan Chopra 2553 0 - 1 GMAntipov Mikhail Al. 2599
18
925
GMSantos Latasa Jaime 25864 ½ - ½4 GMKryvoruchko Yuriy 2686
1
1031
GMPaichadze Luka 25704 ½ - ½4 GMVolokitin Andrei 2636
7
1134
GMIstratescu Andrei 25614 0 - 14 GMTer-Sahakyan Samvel 2632
8
1211
GMIndjic Aleksandar 26174 1 - 04 GMBajarani Ulvi 2515
42
1337
GMSengupta Deep 25464 1 - 04 GMYilmaz Mustafa 2614
12
1417
GMTabatabaei M.Amin 26014 1 - 04 IMVignesh N R 2466
52
1553
IMShyaamnikhil P 24574 ½ - ½4 GMBai Jinshi 2599
19
1687
CMAronyak Ghosh 23324 ½ - ½4 GMPetrov Nikita 2595
20
1721
GMAbdusattorov Nodirbek 25944 1 - 04 IMKrishna C R G 2444
57
1823
GMPetrosyan Manuel 25924 1 - 04 FMRathanvel V S 2367
78
19130
WIMMahalakshmi M 21734 0 - 1 GMSanal Vahap 2535
38
203
GMSalem A.R. Saleh 2668 1 - 0 GMVasquez Schroeder Rodrigo 2496
46

Standings after round 7

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3 
126
GMJobava BaadurGEO25846,50,0259030,0
228
GMYakubboev NodirbekUZB25745,50,0258929,0
310
GMSocko BartoszPOL26255,50,0255030,5
414
GMKarthikeyan MuraliIND26125,50,0254529,5
513
GMBartel MateuszPOL26125,50,0253130,0
62
GMNi HuaCHN26685,50,0250831,0
718
GMAntipov Mikhail Al.RUS25995,50,0250726,0
829
GMAleksandrov AleksejBLR25715,00,0257630,0
94
GMMaghsoodloo ParhamIRI26565,00,0257533,5
1030
GMYuffa DaniilRUS25715,00,0255029,5
1111
GMIndjic AleksandarSRB26175,00,0254933,0
1216
GMZubov AlexanderUKR26075,00,0254429,5
1323
GMPetrosyan ManuelARM25925,00,0254131,0
1417
GMTabatabaei M.AminIRI26015,00,0252328,5
1537
GMSengupta DeepIND25465,00,0251228,5
1622
GMCan EmreTUR25935,00,0250927,0
179
GMEsipenko AndreyRUS26255,00,0250529,0
1821
GMAbdusattorov NodirbekUZB25945,00,0250028,5
1915
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.IND26075,00,0249428,0
208
GMTer-Sahakyan SamvelARM26325,00,0244726,5

The penultimate round of the event begins from 6:30 p.m IST today. You can follow it live on the official YouTube Channel of Abu Dhabi Chess.