6th Sharjah Masters 2023 R2: Praggnanandhaa and Wenjun win two in-a-row
When the tournament has all Grandmasters as participants, a draw is a natural result and upsets are virtually non-existent. The second round of 6th Sharjah Masters 2023 witnessed only two decisive games out of the first 13 boards. It is not surprising at all as the field is quite strong. R Praggnanandhaa defeated his 44th Chess Olympiad teammate, Raunak Sadhwani when the latter went for a wrong exchange of minor pieces. It resulted in him arriving at a positionally lost endgame. The only other player at 2/2 is the reigning Women's World Champion, , Wenjun Ju. She defeated Vidit Gujrathi. Praggnanandhaa will inevitably face Wenjun in Round 3 which starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Aravindh misses against Esipenko
Aravindh Chithambaram had a fantastic opportunity to beat Andrey Esipenko once again in their second-ever Classical battle. Unfortunately for Aravindh, he missed his chance. Aravindh, D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, S L Narayanan, Arjun Erigaisi and Sethuraman among the 25 players who are at 1.5/2 each.
Praggnanandhaa - Raunak: 1-0
GM R Praggnanandhaa (2688) has never lost a rated game against GM Raunak Sadhwani (2627). Last month, they drew against each other at 49th La Roda Open. The second round battle witnessed a deferred Ruy Lopez Exchange variation.
Black made the incorrect decision of moving his knight twice, 15...Nd4 and 16...Nc2? Pragg felt that either Black missed 17.Bh6! or he underestimated it because 17...Rf7 18.Bh6 Rf7 19.Ne4 Qxd3 does not work due to 20.Rfd1. After 19...gxh6 20.Rxc2 Black is positionally lost after the knight was firmly placed on e4. He made a nice finish by offering his queen as a sacrifice, it's more of a tactical shot exploiting Black's back-rank weakness.
Aravindh - Esipenko: 0.5-0.5
The reigning three-time National Rapid and Blitz champion, Aravindh Chithambaram (2633) has faced Andrey Esipenko (2679) only once in a rated game which he won. He was on the verge of repeating the same feat.
46.Nd6 forces Black to take it Bxd6 47.exd6 Kg7 48.d7. Even 48.h4 Qe4 49.Rg5+ Kf8 50.Rxh5 Qxf3+ 51.Kxf3 was also good. 48...Rd8 and now White needed to go 49.Rd6 Qe4 50.Rc6 and it would have been winning. However, he went for 49.Re2 Rc2 and the opportunity evaporated.
Vidit - Wenjun
After a missed opportunity, the reigning Women's World Champion, GM Wenjun Ju (CHN, 2550) was presented another opportunity. 31.g3 Nxd3 32.Re3 Nc1 here Nb2! would have been nicer as it activates the bishop and forces an exchange of knights 33.Nxb2 c4 34.Nh4 Rf2 35.Rf3 Rxb2. 33.Kg2 Bb8 34.Re1 Na2 35.Rb1 Bc7 36.Rb7 Kd7 and Black went on to win the game eventually.
Sethuraman - Lucas
22...Ra7 was the best way to defend the c7-pawn. 22...Bxd5 made GM Lucas van Foreest's (NED, 2556) king more vulnerable 23.cxd5+ Kd7 no matter wherever the king goes, there is always an exchange sacrifice which leads to GM Sethuraman S P (2626) winning the game. 24.Rxd4! cxd4 25.Rxc7+ Ke8 26.e5! dxe5 27.d6 Rb8 28.Ra7 and Black resigned.
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Round 2 results
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2734 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Korobov, Anton | 2664 | 18 | ||
| 2 | 20 | GM | Cheparinov, Ivan | 2660 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Gukesh, D | 2732 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 21 | GM | Narayanan.S.L, | 2660 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2729 | 4 | ||
| 4 | 22 | GM | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2645 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Niemann, Hans Moke | 2708 | 6 | ||
| 5 | 23 | GM | Yilmaz, Mustafa | 2641 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2701 | 8 | ||
| 6 | 9 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2688 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | 2627 | 32 | ||
| 7 | 11 | GM | Sevian, Samuel | 2684 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Kovalev, Vladislav | 2612 | 38 | ||
| 8 | 25 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2633 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Esipenko, Andrey | 2679 | 12 | ||
| 9 | 13 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 2677 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Kadric, Denis | 2601 | 46 | ||
| 10 | 27 | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | 2630 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2677 | 14 | ||
| 11 | 69 | GM | Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | 2553 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2673 | 16 | ||
| 12 | 3 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2731 | ½ | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Ju, Wenjun | 2550 | 70 | ||
| 13 | 5 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | 2712 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Murzin, Volodar | 2604 | 42 | ||
| 14 | 63 | GM | Can, Emre | 2575 | ½ | 0 - 1 | ½ | GM | Predke, Alexandr | 2685 | 10 | ||
| 15 | 15 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik M. | 2675 | ½ | ½ - ½ | ½ | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2603 | 44 |
Standings after Round 2
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
| 1 | 9 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | IND | 2688 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1,5 | |
| 2 | 70 | GM | Ju, Wenjun | CHN | 2550 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| 3 | 1 | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | IRI | 2734 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | |
| 11 | GM | Sevian, Samuel | USA | 2684 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | ||
| 25 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2633 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | ||
| 27 | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | ARM | 2630 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | ||
| 7 | 2 | GM | Gukesh, D | IND | 2732 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 4 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | CHN | 2729 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 6 | GM | Niemann, Hans Moke | USA | 2708 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 13 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | UAE | 2677 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 14 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | IRI | 2677 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 16 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | IND | 2673 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 20 | GM | Cheparinov, Ivan | BUL | 2660 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 21 | GM | Narayanan.S.L, | IND | 2660 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 22 | GM | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | CZE | 2645 | 1,5 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Round 3 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 70 | GM | Ju, Wenjun | 2550 | 2 | 2 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2688 | 9 | |||
| 2 | 38 | GM | Kovalev, Vladislav | 2612 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Maghsoodloo, Parham | 2734 | 1 | |||
| 3 | 2 | GM | Gukesh, D | 2732 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Narayanan.S.L, | 2660 | 21 | |||
| 4 | 4 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2729 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Cheparinov, Ivan | 2660 | 20 | |||
| 5 | 6 | GM | Niemann, Hans Moke | 2708 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Yilmaz, Mustafa | 2641 | 23 | |||
| 6 | 8 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2701 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Nguyen, Thai Dai Van | 2645 | 22 | |||
| 7 | 10 | GM | Predke, Alexandr | 2685 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2633 | 25 | |||
| 8 | 46 | GM | Kadric, Denis | 2601 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Sevian, Samuel | 2684 | 11 | |||
| 9 | 12 | GM | Esipenko, Andrey | 2679 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | 2630 | 27 | |||
| 10 | 56 | GM | Jumabayev, Rinat | 2590 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 2677 | 13 | |||
| 11 | 14 | GM | Tabatabaei, M. Amin | 2677 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2626 | 33 | |||
| 12 | 16 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2673 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Suleymanli, Aydin | 2560 | 67 | |||
| 13 | 18 | GM | Korobov, Anton | 2664 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | 2553 | 69 | |||
| 14 | 74 | GM | Galperin, Platon | 2528 | 1½ | 1 | GM | Sjugirov, Sanan | 2712 | 5 | |||
| 15 | 50 | GM | Ivic, Velimir | 2595 | 1 | 1 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik M. | 2675 | 15 |
