ChessMood Open R3: Narayanan, Pragg, Ter-Sahakyan and Shahinyan in a four-way lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/10/2021

GMs Narayanan S L, R Praggnanandhaa, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and IM David Shahinyan are the four players in the lead 3.0/3 after the third round of ChessMood Open. Eleven players are at a half point behind 2.5/3. GMs D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi are the only two Indians among them. Arjun ended Bharath Subhramaniyam's undefeated streak. IM Moksh Amit Doshi continues his impressive run as he again got himself a decisive advantage, this time against GM Levan Pantsulaia. Narayanan will face Ter-Sahakyan and Praggnanandhaa will be up against Shahinyan in the fourth round which starts today from 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Rupali Mullick

A showcase of technique

Narayanan, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Arjun have showed some fine technique to convert their advantage into a victory in the third round.

Top seed Narayanan is playing some fine chess | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Minasian - Narayanan: 0-1

GM Narayanan S L is India no.6 and a very strong player. He has been consistent for over a year and he is now at career peak rating of 2647. To get a glimpse of his strength, take a look at the following position from his game against GM Artashes Minasian (ARM).

Position after 35.Kf2

The above position is equal. However, Black has a bishop pair. Narayanan utilized that fact to his advantage by creating imbalance and eventually forced his opponent to make a mistake.

Position after 41.e5

White has made a couple of tiny positional mistakes. Exchanging a pawn towards the center might have given him a passed pawn, it is Black who has gained a space advantage which is good for him because he has a bishop pair and comparatively Black's king rapidly move towards the center unlike the White's king. Rest is just a matter of technique which Narayanan showed beautifully to convert his advantage into a victory.

Fist bump has replaced the handshake due to the Covid-19 pandemic | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Gharibyan - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1

It is well established by now that GM R Praggnanandhaa has a great understanding of the position. He reminds us all once again in his game against IM Mamikon Gharibyan (ARM).

Position after 14.e4

14.e4 is not really a bad move. However, if you stretch your imagination a bit, you may find why it is so. There is a hole at the d3 square and the d5-knight is ready to jump on it 14...Nb4 15.f4 Nd3 16.b3 b5 17.Be3 Ba6 18.Bf1 Rad8. The knight is now tactically defended twice. If White goes 19.Bxd3 cxd3 20.Rxd3 b4 and White will lose material.

Position after 27.Ne4

White has made a tactical error as he played 27.Ne4. Find out why it is a huge mistake. 27.Bd6 could have continued the game a little further which probably would not have changed the outcome as 27...Nc3 is there and Black already has a pleasant position.

GM R Praggnanandhaa 3.0/3 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Ter-Sahakyan - Mitrabha: 1-0

IM Mitrabha Guha blundered in an already difficult position against GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM).

Position after 21...Rc5

21...Rxb7 22.Bxb7 Kg7 23.Rxa5 and White is still significantly better. However, Black still has something to continue the fight. 21...Rc5 immediately ends the game due to the threat of Rxa5 followed by Ra8 or Ra7. Both of them are unstoppable threats.

GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan 3.0/3 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

GM Abhimanyu Puranik - IM David Shahinyan (ARM): 0-1 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Gukesh - Barseghyan: 1-0

What separates strong players from the rest? They make calculative and methodical decisions. Take a look GM D Gukesh's careful decision of which endgame to go to while taking a pawn against FM Armen Ar. Barseghyan (ARM).

Position after 32.Nxb7

White could have taken the b7-pawn in the previous move 31.Rxc8+ Nxc8 32.Qxb7 Qxb7 33.Nxb7 which the computer says White having a decisive advantage. Only a human would know that it has that much more chances of a draw. Instead, Gukesh opted for 31.Rc5 Kg7 and then he took 32.Nxb7. Soon Black made a dubious sacrifice which resulted in him being down by a rook in search of a perpetual which he could not find and Gukesh won the game.

GM D Gukesh 2.5/3 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM P Shyam Nikhil got a good position out of the opening, however he was unable to capitalize on it against GM Shant Sargsyan (ARM) | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Arjun - Bharath: 1-0

IM Bharath Subramaniyam H showed a lack of interest in defending his pawn which shifted the balance in his opponent GM Arjun Erigaisi's favor.

Position after 18.Bg5

Black can save the e5-pawn in two different ways, 18...Ng4 or Rc8. In the first case, Black is defending the e5-pawn directly, whereas in the latter Black will still go Ng4 with the same motif. The game continued 18...Nd5 19.Rxe5 and Black did not get a chance to get back for the rest of the game.

GM Arjun Erigaisi ended IM Bharath Subramaniyam H's unbeaten streak | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Moksh - Pantsulaia: 1-0

IM Moksh Amit Doshi continues his good form as he once again got a decisive advantage, this time against GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO).

Position after 22...Nxb2

A lot of things are going on in the above position. There are many things to consider. One thing is for certain that White has a decisive advantage but how to maximize it? Find out the best continuation for White.

IM Moksh Amit Doshi played another great game | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Pranav Anand drew with GM Tigran L Petrosian (ARM) | Photo: Rupali Mullick

WGM Vantika Agrawal - GM Tigran K Harutyunyan (ARM): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

GM Harsha Bharathakoti - IM D K Sharma: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

GM Arman Mikaelyan (ARM) - WIM Priyanka Nutakki: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

IM Nikolos Petriashvili (GEO) - WIM Aakanksha Hagawane: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

For more Round 3 photos, please click here.

Highlights

Here is an interesting finish of Round 3

GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM) defeated IM Mitrabha Guha

Replay Round 3 games

The tournament is taking place at Tsaghkadzor Marriott Hotel, Tsaghkadzor in Armenia from 4th to 12th October 2021. Time control is 90'/40 + 30' + 30" per move. Everyday game starts at 3 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. IST), except 12th October, the final round will start at 10:30 a.m. local time (12 p.m. IST).

Round 3 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	24	GM	Minasian Artashes	2472	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2647	1
2	26	IM	Gharibyan Mamikon	2471	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2618	5
3	6	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2607	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2479	23
4	28	IM	Davtyan Artur	2453	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2605	7
5	8	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2603	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2471	25
6	10	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2568	2	0 - 1	2	IM	Shahinyan David	2469	27
7	32	GM	Babujian Levon	2447	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Quparadze Giga	2495	17
8	20	IM	Sturt Raven	2485	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Schekachikhin Maksim	2448	31
9	2	GM	Gukesh D	2640	1½	1 - 0	2	FM	Barseghyan Armen Ar.	2356	50
10	29	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2453	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Sargsyan Shant	2640	3
11	4	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2634	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2435	33
12	46	IM	Moksh Amit Doshi	2379	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2570	9
13	12	GM	Paichadze Luka	2566	1½	1 - 0	1½	FM	Ohanyan Emin	2373	47
14	36	IM	Pranav Anand	2430	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	2562	13
15	14	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2557	1½	1 - 0	1½		Pour Agha Bala Amirreza	2432	35
16	54	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2322	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Harutyunyan Tigran K.	2567	11
17	55	FM	Alaverdyan Gevorg	2320	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2543	15
18	16	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2517	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	2289	59
19	18	GM	Mikaelyan Arman	2487	1	½ - ½	1	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2263	63
20	58		Kunal M	2290	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud	2486	19

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2647	3		3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2607	6
2	5	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2618	3		3	IM	Shahinyan David	2469	27
3	14	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2557	2½		2½	GM	Gukesh D	2640	2
4	3	GM	Sargsyan Shant	2640	2½		2½	IM	Sturt Raven	2485	20
5	17	GM	Quparadze Giga	2495	2½		2½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2634	4
6	7	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2605	2½		2½	GM	Babujian Levon	2447	32
7	31	IM	Schekachikhin Maksim	2448	2½		2½	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2603	8
8	25	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2471	2½		2½	GM	Paichadze Luka	2566	12
9	9	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2570	2		2½	IM	Davtyan Artur	2453	28
10	39	FM	Sokolovsky Yahli	2422	2		2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2568	10
11	13	GM	Petrosian Tigran L.	2562	2		2	IM	Krishna Teja N	2385	44
12	19	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud	2486	2		2	IM	Moksh Amit Doshi	2379	46
13	21	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2483	2		2	IM	Mullick Raahil	2368	48
14	41	GM	Harutjunyan Gevorg	2409	2		2	GM	Movsziszian Karen	2480	22
15	23	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2479	2		2	FM	Barseghyan Armen Ar.	2356	50
16	43	IM	Farahat Ali	2392	2		2	GM	Minasian Artashes	2472	24
17	45	IM	Padmini Rout	2380	2		2	IM	Gharibyan Mamikon	2471	26
18	51	IM	Danielyan Vahe	2335	2		2	IM	Pranav Anand	2430	36
19	37		Gholami Orimi Mahdi	2430	2		2	FM	Dilanyan Grigor	2214	72
20	53	FM	Hakemi Arman	2323	2		2	FM	Daghli Arash	2427	38

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Details

Related news:

	Aleksey Goganov clinches ChessMood Open, Narayanan finishes second @ 13/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Can Narayanan beat Goganov to win ChessMood Open? @ 12/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	ChessMood Open R7: Goganov joins Ter-Sahakyan in the lead @ 11/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	चैसमूड इंटरनेशनल : नारायनन की शानदार वापसी @ 10/10/2021 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	ChessMood Open R6: Samvel Ter-Sahakyan regains sole lead @ 10/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	ChessMood Open R5: Ter-Sahakyan and Shahinyan at the top @ 09/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	ChessMood Open R4: Samvel Ter-Sahakyan takes sole lead 4.0/4 @ 08/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	चैसमूड इंटरनेशनल : प्रग्गानंधा सयुंक्त दूसरे स्थान पर @ 07/10/2021 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	ChessMood Open R2: Petrosian escapes defeat against Moksh @ 06/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	ChessMood Open R1: Vedant Panesar stuns Tigran Harutyunyan @ 05/10/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)