Harikrishna, Sjugirov In Joint Lead After Day Of Fierce Fights
GM Sanan Sjugirov defended against ambitious play by GM Pavel Eljanov in the middlegame to score a patient victory and jumped into a joint lead with one and a half points after the second round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. He has joined GM Pentala Harikrishna who had to defend a difficult endgame against GM Alexandr Predke to salvage a draw.
The games between GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh Dommaraju as well as GMs Levon Aronian and Parham Maghsoodloo promised to be full-fledged fights with interesting play in the early middlegame only to end in draws just after the 30-move mark, the minimum stipulated for peace treaties.
The Chennai Grand Masters continues with round three on Sunday, December 17, at 4:45 a.m. ET/10:45 CET/3:15 p.m. IST.
Chennai Grand Masters Round 2 Results
| Rating | Title | Player | Result | Title | Player | Rating | |||
| 1 | 2720 | GM | Gukesh D | ½-½ | GM | Arjun Erigaisi | 2727 | ||
| 2 | 2689 | GM | Alexandr Predke | ½-½ | GM | P. Harikrishna | 2696 | ||
| 3 | 2691 | GM | Pavel Eljanov | 0-1 | GM | Sanan Sjugirov | 2703 | ||
| 4 | 2723 | GM | Levon Aronian | ½-½ | GM | P. Maghsoodloo | 2742 |
Since the tournament hall is a compact space, the number of spectators are limited every day and need prior permission to enter the commentary room, where IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal host the show. On Saturday, they were joined by former world champion and FIDE Deputy President GM Vishy Anand who dropped in at the venue, appearing at live commentary and then obliging the media.
Vishy In The House
On being asked the inevitable question of his views on the tournament being conducted by the organizers with the Candidates spot in mind, Anand opined, "Within the rules, if you organize a tournament.... I don't see a problem (with) it at all. I am very happy with this system.... If it produces more tournaments, it is good."
Such a tournament with so much at stake in terms of qualification for the Candidates cooks up enormous pressure on the players. How does one handle it? He explained: "The right thing to do is not to think about it. And good luck with that! The ideal thing would be to just play.... Some of my best results come when even I don't have expectations.... It's a rare quality to know you have to do something in order to get somewhere and to be able to control it and manage it."
It's a rare quality to know you have to do something in order to get somewhere and to be able to control it and manage it
- Viswanathan Anand
Eljanov - Sjugirov
In what appeared to be a mildly pleasant position, Eljanov decided to get adventurous and sacrificed a pawn in an admirable display of will to win.
24.b5 would have maintained parity, but Eljanov decided on the interesting 24.Nh4!?, thus sacrificing the c-pawn. Sjugirov calmly accepted the sacrifice and turned the tables with a stubborn defense. This crucial and only decisive encounter is our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Aronian-Maghsoodloo
This promised to be the most interesting game of the day. Starting with a loss in the first round, top-seeded Maghsoodloo showed his fighting spirit by playing for broke from the get-go. A curious aspect of his opening play was that he was not blitzing out his moves, thus not possibly having cooked the concept over the board instead of home preparation. Instead, it was Aronian who was playing quickly right through the opening.
To an average spectator, the game always looked to be going Aronian's way, and it was difficult to criticize him for missing out on an imaginative attack with 17.0-0. On live commentary, GM Anish Giri had interesting comments on Aronian: "Levon... has changed in the past three years.... He has less confidence than when he was world number-two. His confidence is obviously dropping. You can see it in his body language!"
Levon (Aronian) has less confidence (now) than when he was world number-two. His confidence is obviously dropping. You can see it in his body language!"
—Anish Giri
Gukesh-Arjun
One of Arjun's remarkable strengths is the breadth and depth of his opening repertoire. Against Gukesh, he decided to use the Sicilian Defense Pin Variation with the black pieces on Saturday. It is one of those opening systems that was frowned upon by theory with a "?" mark about 30 years ago but has been revived in the current era thanks to extensive resources found with deep opening preparation.
After a loss in the first round and probably being forced to employ desperate measures to stage a comeback, Arjun decided to employ the surprise. He is also not a stranger to the variation, as he had already played it once, against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in a blitz game a couple of months ago.
Gukesh thought for about 11 minutes but decided to steer the game into calmer waters. There was one moment in the game when Arjun looked to have the upper hand.
White pins his play on attacking the pawn on d6, and Black could have tried the positionally ingenious 29...Ne8. The logic is that, having sent the knight to defend his weak pawn on d6, Black can now turn his focus to the queenside, starting with a future ...Rdb8. However, Arjun played the backward-pawn-liberating 29...d5, and the game soon ended in a draw.
Predke-Harikrishna
Predke missed a chance to score his first win after uneven play by Harikrishna in the opening. "It was clear that he was prepared better.... (After) 18.Bd6, I realized that things were not so smooth," admitted Harikrishna after the game.
Predke opined, "I know that after 10...a5?..., I believe it was better for me. The mainline may be 10...Ba6 instead of 10...a5.... In every plan (afterward), I saw that White has an advantage." White also missed a better way of conversion when he exchanged the rooks with 22.Rc8? instead of 22.Bb4 with a big advantage. A smiling Harikrishna admitted that he would have preferred the latter if he had been White in the game.
The pivotal moment of the game was when Harikrishna unleashed a neat trick with 27...Rxa3! based on that perennial swindle—the knight fork.
Standings After Round 2
How to watch the Chennai Grand Masters 2023
You can keep up with all the games and results of the tournament on our live events platform by following this link.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2023 is an eight-player all-play-all tournament in Chennai, India, running December 15-21. The strongest classical invitational tournament ever held in India, it gives Gukesh, Arjun, and Maghsoodloo a chance to qualify for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The prize fund is $60,000, with $18,000 for first place.
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