Chess.com Isle of Man 01-03: Anand and Vidit lead the Indian Charge

Photos: Chess.com/ Maria Emelianova

Game analysis by Shailesh Dravid

2017 Chess.com Isle of Man started off with the highest number of Indian contingent- thirty! Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand is heading the Indian charge in this 9-day event starting from September 23rd to October 1st, 2017.

Random Pairings in the first round saw an interesting matchup with GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Vladimir Kramnik-the game ended in former’s favour.

For Indian whiz, GM Viswanathan Anand’s selection of IM Marc Esserman was deemed as a ‘normal’ pairing. The two have a brief history — Esserman played his favorite Smith-Morra Gambit to draw Anand at Gibraltar, 2016.
Anand told Chess.com that he briefly considered playing it back at Esserman as White today, but that thought only lasted about five seconds. Instead, more common Sicilian themes still produced a win for the Indian.

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World Champion Magnus Carlsen is on a perfect 3.0/3 points.

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The new entrant to the 2700 club, GM Vidit Gujrathi, is on the same boat as Anand with a score of 2.5 points

GM Harika Dronavalli has 2.5 points in her kitty. She is leading among women players.

Nihal Sarin has scored 2.0/3 including draws with Varuzhan Akobian (2662) and Emil Sutovsky (2683) In an Indian clash, he is paired against Adhiban Baskaran in the fourth round.

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India’s Prodigy IM Praggnanandhaa R. had an interesting clash against British number 1 GM Michael Adams. The game ended in Englishman’s favour. In the third round, Pragga was held by Ojas Kulkarni to a draw.

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Round 4 Pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	18	GM	Kasimdzhanov Rustam	2676	3		3	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2827	1
2	46	GM	Lenderman Aleksandr	2565	3		3	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2734	8
3	28	GM	Grandelius Nils	2653	2½		2½	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2799	3
4	31	GM	Shirov Alexei	2630	2½		2½	GM	Anand Viswanathan	2794	4
5	5	GM	Nakamura Hikaru	2781	2½		2½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2617	33
6	41	GM	Tari Aryan	2588	2½		2½	GM	Adams Michael	2738	6
7	32	GM	Bok Benjamin	2620	2½		2½	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2702	12
8	49	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2559	2½		2½	GM	Short Nigel D	2698	14
9	55	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2532	2½		2½	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2671	20
10	26	GM	Fressinet Laurent	2657	2½		2½	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2528	56
11	98	IM	Houska Jovanka	2393	2½		2½	GM	Granda Zuniga Julio E	2653	27
12	9	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2716	2		2½	IM	Batsiashvili Nino	2472	68
13	7	GM	Gelfand Boris	2737	2		2	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2568	45
14	47	GM	Pichot Alan	2565	2		2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2707	10
15	11	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2702	2		2	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2559	50
16	13	GM	Howell David W L	2701	2		2	GM	Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag	2534	54
17	15	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2695	2		2	GM	Brunello Sabino	2555	51
18	59	IM	Lampert Jonas	2514	2		2	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2683	16
19	17	GM	Leko Peter	2679	2		2	GM	Panchanathan Magesh Chandran	2481	64
20	19	GM	Rapport Richard	2675	2		2	GM	Khmelniker Ilya	2480	65
21	63	IM	Nihal Sarin	2483	2		2	GM	Adhiban B.	2670	21
22	74	IM	Esserman Marc	2453	2		2	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2668	23
23	24	GM	Riazantsev Alexander	2666	2		2	IM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2457	72
24	81	IM	Gaponenko Inna	2437	2		2	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2652	29
25	30	GM	Xiong Jeffery	2633	2		2	IM	Kjartansson Gudmundur	2456	73