Harikrishna shares threeway lead; Anand makes slow start
TATA STEEL CHESS World Rapid champion held in opening three rounds; 14yearold Sarin impresses on his debut
KOLKATA: It was chaotic outside the auditorium but calm inside – only four decisive results in 15 games – on the first day of the Tata Steel Chess India 2018, the country’s highest-rated tournament with some top foreign stars playing in India for the first time.
But the organisers seemed illprepared for a tournament of this magnitude as the opening day witnessed some chaotic scenes on Friday. They did well to invite families and kids to watch the big stars in action, but things could have been handled better. On a day when three rapid rounds were played, some players too would have felt they could have handled stuff better.
All focus was on Viswanathan Anand — it has been so since the event was put together — as he was playing in India for the first time in three decades. The 48-year-old maestro had a topsyturvy start as he survived a scare before being thwarted by Wesley So in a 147-move marathon draw, clearly the game of the day.
Playing with white pieces in the main line of Giuoco Piano in that first round game, Anand landed in an inferior position in the middle game after making a wrong move and was staring at defeat at one point. But Wesley So failed to play the right moves and Anand extricated himself from the virtually lost position before turning the tables somewhat on the American of Philippines origin. So put up an impressive defence in the end to force a draw.
Anand then was held by Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the second round and rounded off the day with another draw against Levon Aronian of Armenia.
Pentala Harikrishna turned out to be the best Indian player on Day 1 as he won one game and drew two to share the lead with Aronian and Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with two points from three games. Four players – Anand, Karjakin, So and Nakamura were on 1.5 points with the three Indians – Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi bringing up the rear with one point each.
Harikrishna started off with a draw against local star Ganguly in a game in which he had an advantage but his 35-year-old contemporary defended well. The 32-year-old from Andhra Pradesh found success in the second round when he defeated Mamedyarov with white pieces, capitalising on a mistake by the Azerbaijan GM. Hari won a pawn in the middle game after Mamedyarov responded with Caro-kann defence. The Indian GM slowly built on that advantage before his rival blundered on the 38th move to end his misery.
Mamedyarov continued to live by the sword as he struck back immediately in the third round to beat Ganguly as all three of his games on Friday ended in a result. Ganguly made a mistake on the 10th turn, which gave Mamedyarov the opening he needed. Though Ganguly tried to defend, his opponent did not make any mistakes and pressed home the advantage.
Aronian was steady as rock against Nakamura in the first round but capitalised on his chances against Nihal Sarin
before playing out another solid draw against Anand. Sarin chose a risky gambit to which Aronian responded with precise moves. The Indian prodigy, all of 14 years, impressed in a draw against Mamedyarov in the first round before falling to Aronian. “Once, I got the advantage, he started playing for draw, which was probably due to inexperience. He did not know that when you play for a draw, you end up losing,” Aronian said later.