Sharjah Masters: Ju kicks off with upset victory (2024)

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A total of 78 participants made their way to Sharjah, one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates. All 78 of them count with the grandmaster title, which makes for a rarely seen phenomenon in a Swiss open — more frequently, these opens have a wide range of players rating-wise.

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: â€œAttack like a Super GMâ€ with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

The field includes 8 players rated 2700 or above, with Parham Maghsoodloo from Iran the top seed, followed by the Indian duo of Dommaraju Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi. Out of these three favourites, only Vidit failed to score a full point in the first round, as he drew with white against Russian youngster Volodar Murzin.

Seventh in the starting rank stands Ray Robson, who was the highest-rated player to kick off the tournament with a loss. Robson lost with black to Denis Kadric from Montenegro, who proficiently converted his one-pawn advantage in a technical ending with rooks and knights.

Denis Kadric

A few more upsets were seen on opening day, including the one seen on board 31, where Ju Wenjun — nothing less than the women’s world champion — beat Murali Karthikeyan with the white pieces. The Indian GM is rated 77 points higher than the Chinese star.

In a rollercoaster game which saw Ju first getting a clear edge and then letting her advantage slip away, Karthikeyan made a strategic mistake on move 42.

42...fxg4 43.hxg4 Rxa4 would have left Black clearly in the driver’s seat, with a passer on the a-file and White’s knight on f3 lacking active possibilities.

Instead, 42...f4 allowed White to free her position via 43.h4 gxh4 44.Nxh4 Rxa4 45.Nf5

Making the right decisions in chess - Fundamentals

In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.

Black is still better, but White has certainly found some counterplay with her active minor pieces. A further mistake by Karthikeyan on move 51 again gave the women’s world champion the upper hand — she would not let her advantage slip away for a second time, as she went on to get a notable 56-move victory.

Belgian GM Daniel Dardha

Results - Round 1

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	40	GM	Yoo, Christopher Woojin	2607	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	2734	1
2	2	GM	Gukesh, D	2732	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Vescovi, Giovanni	2606	41
3	42	GM	Murzin, Volodar	2604	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2731	3
4	4	GM	Yu, Yangyi	2729	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios	2603	43
5	44	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2603	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Sjugirov, Sanan	2712	5
6	6	GM	Niemann, Hans Moke	2708	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Harsha, Bharathakoti	2602	45
7	46	GM	Kadric, Denis	2601	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Robson, Ray	2704	7
8	8	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2701	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Piorun, Kacper	2601	47
9	48	GM	Sanal, Vahap	2600	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2688	9
10	10	GM	Predke, Alexandr	2685	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Peralta, Fernando	2596	49
11	50	GM	Ivic, Velimir	2595	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Sevian, Samuel	2684	11
12	12	GM	Esipenko, Andrey	2679	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Dragnev, Valentin	2593	51
13	52	GM	Bernadskiy, Vitaliy	2592	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	2677	13
14	14	GM	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	2677	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Yuffa, Daniil	2592	53
15	54	GM	Socko, Bartosz	2591	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Martirosyan, Haik M.	2675	15

...39 boards

Pairings - Round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	2734	1		1	GM	Korobov, Anton	2664	18
2	20	GM	Cheparinov, Ivan	2660	1		1	GM	Gukesh, D	2732	2
3	21	GM	Narayanan.S.L,	2660	1		1	GM	Yu, Yangyi	2729	4
4	22	GM	Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	2645	1		1	GM	Niemann, Hans Moke	2708	6
5	23	GM	Yilmaz, Mustafa	2641	1		1	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2701	8
6	9	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2688	1		1	GM	Sadhwani, Raunak	2627	32
7	11	GM	Sevian, Samuel	2684	1		1	GM	Kovalev, Vladislav	2612	38
8	25	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.	2633	1		1	GM	Esipenko, Andrey	2679	12
9	13	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	2677	1		1	GM	Kadric, Denis	2601	46
10	27	GM	Sargsyan, Shant	2630	1		1	GM	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	2677	14
11	69	GM	Mchedlishvili, Mikheil	2553	1		1	GM	Nihal, Sarin	2673	16
12	3	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2731	½		1	GM	Ju, Wenjun	2550	70
13	5	GM	Sjugirov, Sanan	2712	½		½	GM	Murzin, Volodar	2604	42
14	63	GM	Can, Emre	2575	½		½	GM	Predke, Alexandr	2685	10
15	15	GM	Martirosyan, Haik M.	2675	½		½	GM	Mendonca, Leon Luke	2603	44

...39 boards

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Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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