4th Sharjah Masters 2021 R4-6: Tabatabaei takes sole lead 5.0/6

by Shahid Ahmed - 23/09/2021

M Amin Tababtabaei (IRI) has taken sole lead 5.0/6 by winning against the UAE no.1 Salem Saleh in the sixth round of 4th Sharjah Masters 2021. Five players are trailing by a half point at 4.5/6 each. They are - Pavel Eljanov, Arkadij Naiditsch, Rinat Jumabayev, Narayanan S L and Mikheil Mchedlishvili. All six of them have remained unbeaten so far. Arjun Erigaisi is close behind at 4.0/6. Adhiban made fifth consecutive draw to move to 3.5/6. He will face countryman Raunak Sadhwani who is also at 3.5/6 in the seventh round. Round 7 starts today at 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich/Sharjah Chess Club

Narayanan in the title fray

After starting the event with a hat-trick of wins, Narayanan has made a hat-trick of draws. He is performing at 2794 with an undefeated score 4.5/6. He still has a very good chance of winning the event.

S.L. Narayanan and Amin Tabatabaei are the leaders with 3.0/3 | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich/Sharjah Chess Club

Round 4: Narayanan - Tabatabaei: 0.5-0.5

Narayanan and Tabatabaei (IRI) had an incredible draw in the fourth round.

Position after 38.Ne4

Black is forced to play 38...Qf5 to keep the f4-knight protected. Now comes the interesting part - 39.Nxc3 Rxc3 40.Qh1 is suggested to be equal by the computer, same with 39...bxc3 40.Rc2 f6 41.Nd7 despite White being ahead by a rook. Black's compensation is, weakened White's king, misplaced queen and the b or c-passed pawn depending on which piece captures on c3. Capturing the c8-rook after 39.Nd6 Qf6 40.Nxc8 is met with 40...Rh3 41.Qg3 Rxg3+ 42.fxg3. Although White has two rooks and a knight for a queen, it is still not easy to play and with the clock ticking down to the last few seconds, it also makes things quite difficult. Narayanan made the correct practical decision to repeat moves and make a draw.

Narayanan had an interesting game | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich/Sharjah Chess Club

Round 5: Arjun - Eljanov: 0.5-0.5

GM Arjun Erigaisi made a solid draw with GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR).

Round 6: Adhiban - Arjun: 0.5-0.5

Adhiban made his fifth consecutive draw of the event, this time against Arjun Erigaisi.

'The Beast' is yet to be unleashed | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich/Sharjah Chess Club

Nisipeanu - Abhijeet: 0.5-0.5

Abhijeet Gupta made a nice save against GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

Position after 32...e5

Facing with a difficult choice of determining the best way to give up the e6-pawn, Black decided to go 32...e5 33.dxe5 fxe5 34.Nf3 Nd7

Position after 35...Nd7

Here 36.Nxg5 could have made things difficult for Black. However, the game continued 36.Ra6 Nxc5 37.Ra8+ Ke7 38.Nxe5 Kf6 and Black managed to get back in the game and eventually make a draw.

Gritty Abhijeet drew with Nisipeanu | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich/Sharjah Chess Club

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from Round 4-6:

GM Narayanan S L drew with GM M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI), Round 4

GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (GER) defeated IM Ishaq Saeed (UAE), Round 4

GM Arkadij Naiditsch (AZE) won against GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (GRE), Round 5

GM Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) defeated GM Adly Ahmed (EGY), Round 5

GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez (PAR) defeated GM Haik M Martirosyan (ARM), Round 6

GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy (UKR) lost to IM Oliver Dimakiling (PHI), Round 6

Replay the Live stream

Sharjah Masters Round 6 Live commentary by GM Ioannis Papaioannou and WGM Eva Repkova | Video: Sharjah Chess

Replay Round 4-6 games

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	18	GM	Tabatabaei M. Amin	2624	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2679	4
2	12	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2632	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2663	6
3	33	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2571	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2651	9
4	13	GM	Moussard Jules	2631	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2695	2
5	3	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2680	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2630	14
6	5	GM	Adhiban B.	2672	3	½ - ½	3½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2626	17
7	22	GM	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	2615	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Paravyan David	2660	7
8	8	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	2657	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2612	23
9	10	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2648	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Niemann Hans Moke	2609	25
10	28	GM	Delgado Ramirez Neuris	2588	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2636	11
11	16	GM	Idani Pouya	2627	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2604	26
12	30	GM	Can Emre	2577	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2624	19
13	20	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2621	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	2571	34
14	36	GM	Nikolov Momchil	2522	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2628	15
15	21	GM	Adly Ahmed	2619	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Firat Burak	2466	39

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2680	4½		5	GM	Tabatabaei M. Amin	2624	18
2	6	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2663	4½		4½	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2571	33
3	9	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2651	4½		4½	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2632	12
4	2	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	2695	4		4	GM	Delgado Ramirez Neuris	2588	28
5	4	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2679	4		4	GM	Moussard Jules	2631	13
6	17	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2626	4		4	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2648	10
7	26	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2604	4		3½	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	2657	8
8	27	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2603	3½		3½	GM	Adhiban B.	2672	5
9	7	GM	Paravyan David	2660	3½		3½	GM	Iordachescu Viorel	2587	29
10	14	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2630	3½		3½	GM	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	2615	22
11	19	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	2624	3½		3½	GM	Bogner Sebastian	2574	31
12	23	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2612	3½		3½	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2621	20
13	34	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	2571	3½		3½	GM	Adly Ahmed	2619	21
14	11	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2636	3		3½	GM	Can Emre	2577	30
15	15	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2628	3		3	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2490	37

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament details

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