Prague Masters: Aravindh crushes Giri to surge ahead

Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram crashed through the defenses of super-solid Anish Giri to jump in to sole lead after the end of the seventh round of Prague Masters chess tournament now underway here.

It was Aravindh all the way while R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with pre-event rating favourite Wei Yi of China. Aravindh took his tally to five points out of a possible seven and now enjoys a half point lead over Praggnanandhaa who needs to catch up.

With just two rounds to come, Sam Shankland of United States defeated Quang Leim Le of Vietnam. Interestingly, both Quang Leim and Giri had drawn the first six games and the axe fell on them at the same time.

In the other decisive game 16-years old Gurel Ediz of Turkey scored over local Nguyen Thai Dai Van to reach a fifty percent score while David Navara of Czech Republic played out a draw with Vincent Keymer of Germany.

Aravindh on five and Pragg on 4.5 are now followed by Wei Yi, Ediz, Keymer and Shankland on 3.5 points each and these four are a half point adrift of the trio of Giri, Navara and Le.Dai Van is alone at the bottom now with 2.5 points in his kitty. The battle lines are drawn between the two Indians only.

Aravindh is a cool customer in normal positions with a deep eye for tactical complexities and a rare chance against Giri provided him to dismantle the king side and enter record books.

There are as many as five Indians in top 15 live world rankings and Viswanathan Anand stands at number 15. Aravindh at 14, entered the top fifteen for the first time ever. It was a Queen’s gambit declined wherein Giri overestimated his chances and pushed his king side pawns in trying to secure a space advantage. Aravindh came up with a shocker on his 24th turn when he put his knight in front of a pawn and it was a one-way tide thereon. Black’s attack was soon impossible to handle and Aravindh won in 39 moves.

Praggnanandhaa started with the English opening against Wei Yi and the game took shape in a Tarrasch defense wherein the Chinese was under some pressure but never really out of the game.

The Indian won a pawn to reach a rook and pawns endgame and despite having a passed pawn deep outside the position was technically drawn. The game lasted 61 moves.

In the challengers’ section, Jonas Buhl Bjerre added to the woes of lone Indian Divya Deshmukh who remained at the last spot on 1.5 points from seven games.

The lead in this section is shared by Bjerre and Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan on 5.5 points each.

Results round 6: Quang Leim Le (Vie, 3) lost to Sam Shankland (Usa, 2.5); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 4.5) drew with Wei Yi (Chn, 3.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 3) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind, 5); Gurel Ediz (Tur, 3.5) beat Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Cze, 2.5); David Navara (Cze, 3) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5). Challengers: Richard Stalmach (Cze, 3) drew with Finel Vaclav (Cze, 3); Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 1.5) lost to Jonas Buhl Bjerre (Den, 5.5); Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 5.5) beat Ivan Salgado Lopez (Esp, 3.5); Marc`andria Maurizzi (Fra, 4) beat Nemec Jychym (Cze, 2); Ma Qun (Chn, 4) drew with Stamatis Kourkoulous-Arditis (Gre, 3).