Gujarat GM R07: Ivan Rozum elbows Saptarshi Roy out of the lead

by Satanick Mukhuty - 27/09/2019

Ivan Rozum defeated Saptarshi Roy with the black pieces in the seventh round of Gujarat International Grandmaster Open to take sole lead with 6.5/7 points. Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder, Himanshu Sharma, and Manush Shah follow him closely just half a point behind with 6.0/7 points each. On the other hand, Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy has slipped down the rank-list to the fifth place after his latest loss and now shares 5.5/7 along with eleven other players. The two players who pulled off the biggest shocker in round seven were FM Manush Shah and IM Neelash Saha, both of whom defeated their higher rated Grandmaster opponents, namely Ziaur Rahman and Neelotpal Das.

Ivan's minor pieces prove superior to Saptarshi's queen!

The top seed Ivan Rozum is inching closer to the title prize with each round | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Saptarshi had the White pieces in his round seven encounter against Ivan. The game began with a Caro-Kann and followed the 4...Nd7 variation. On move 22 the Indian player took the bold decision to sacrifice his dark-squared bishop in order to bring the Russian's king out in the open. This apparently sparked off a series of interesting complications where Ivan in turn gave up his queen for three minor pieces!

Saptarshi Roy - Ivan Rozum, Round 7

Grandmaster Saptarshi chose the enterprising 22.Bxg7 in the above position. There were certainly less risky alternatives available but it seemed the Indian player was out for blood!

25.Rf3?! was probably the first critical mistake that White committed. Can you see why? Can you suggest a better move?

The move 25.Rf3 pressurizing the f6 bishop looks logical but the possibility that Saptarshi missed here was 25...Qxe4! after which 26.Bxe4 Bxe4 27.Re3 Bg6 follows and Black gets excellent activity for the queen. This indeed happened in the game and White quickly cumbled thereafter. The better continuation here would have been 25.Qh6+! Ke7 and now 26. Rf3 e5 27. Ng3 Rg8 28.Be4

Analysis board

Black has to play 28...Qxe4 in the above position because something like 28...Qc7 fails tactically to 29.Nf5+ Ke8 30.Bxb7 owing to presence of the royal fork on d6. But 28...Qxe4 29.Nxe4 Bxe4 30.Rg3 Nc5 gives Black a fair amount of activity in compensation for the queen and somehow here White has the equality unlike what happened in the game.

The position on the left shows what could have happened in the game if White played the better move 25.Qh6+ and the position on the right shows what actually happened in the game. In both continuations Black gives up his queen for three minor pieces and has some compensation but somehow the position on the right is better for black while that on the left is dynamically balanced. Of course, navigating through these complexities over-the-board is extremely difficult. In the game the black minor pieces completely dominated the board.

It was in the above position on move 56 that White called it a day. Notice how Black's pair of bishops have totally subdued the white queen!

FM Manush Shah beat GM Ziaur Rahman in round seven to take his score to an impressive 6.0/7. Check out his victory against the Bangladeshi Grandmaster below.

IM Neelash Saha defeated GM Neelotpal Das with black pieces after an 82-move long battle | Photo: David Llada

Hesham Abdelrahman (left) of Egypt went down against the Chilean Grandmaster Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder in the seventh round of the event | Photos: ugra2017.fide.com & gmrodrigovasquez.cl

Results of round seven

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2480	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2596	1
2	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2408	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2529	3
3	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2396	16
4	9	IM	Das Sayantan	2434	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Eraschenkov Denis	2390	17
5	29		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2304	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2408	13
6	24	FM	Manush Shah	2352	5	1 - 0	4½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2492	4
7	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2539	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2357	23
8	28		Pranav V	2308	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2454	7
9	10	GM	Neelotpal Das	2433	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Neelash Saha	2334	25
10	11	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2422	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Shailesh Dravid	2299	31

Standings after round seven

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	TB1
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2596	Russia	6,5
2	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo		CHI	2476	Chile	6,0
	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2408	Har	6,0
	24	FM	Manush Shah		IND	2352	Guj	6,0
5	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan		IND	2529	WB	5,5
	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy		IND	2480	WB	5,5
	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy		VIE	2454	Vietnam	5,5
	9	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2434	WB	5,5
	11	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim		RUS	2422	Russia	5,5
	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.		IND	2408	TN	5,5
	17	IM	Eraschenkov Denis		RUS	2390	Russia	5,5
	19	GM	Manik Mikulas		SVK	2375	Slovakia	5,5
	20	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy		IND	2374	TN	5,5
	25	IM	Neelash Saha		IND	2334	WB	5,5
	26		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan		IND	2329	Odi	5,5
16	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2539	TN	5,0

Complete results and standings

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