GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan grabbed the solo lead of the 2021 Sheikh Russel GM Tournament now on its final legs in the Bangladesh capital city of Dhaka. Rasulov surprised erstwhile leader GM Srinath Narayanan of India, winning in 40 moves of a Slav to erect a half-point lead going to the last round.
The event, which attracted 102 players from 18 countries including 32 GMs, 1 WGM, 20 IMs and 4 WIMs, is a 9-round Swiss with a classical time format chess to honor the birthday of Shahid Sheikh Russel, the son of Bangladesh founding father Banghabandu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The event has a US$55,000 in cash prizes.
While the event offers free airfare and accommodations to GMs, no Filipino GM took part. This is rather strange, since we have a lot of idle GMs lying around or wasting their time and talent playing online blitz events. Anyway, it’s also likely the Bangladesh Chess Federation didn’t send invitations to the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.
The top 19 standings after Round 8: 1. Rasulov, 6½; 2-7. Bernadskiy, Mosadeghpour, Narayanan, Mitrabha, Shyam, Krasenkow, 6; 8-12. Asadli, Mousavi, Aditya, Aronyak, Rios, 5½. 13-19. Iskandarov, Stany, Tiviakov, Visakh, Solodovnichenko, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Pranav, 5.
Rahman,Z (2431)-Narayanan,S (2540) [D02]
Dhaka (2.5) 2021
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 cxd4 5.0-0 h6 6.b3 g6 7.Bb2 Bg7 8.Nxd4 0-0 9.c4 e5 10.Nf3 e4 11.Nd4 Nc6 12.cxd5 Qxd5 13.Nxc6 Qxc6 14.Nc3 Bf5 15.Qd2 Rfd8 16.Qf4 Nh5 17.Qe3 Bd4 18.Qc1 Rac8 19.Rd1 Qf6 20.h3 Nxg3 0-1
Narayanan,S (2540)-Bernadskiy,V (2580) [E67]
Dhaka (4.1) 2021
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.Nc3 Nbd7 7.0-0 e5 8.e4 Re8 9.h3 b6 10.Re1 Bb7 11.d5 a5 12.Rb1 Nc5 13.b3 Bc8 14.a3 Bd7 15.Qc2 a4 16.b4 Nb3 17.Be3 Nh5 18.Nd2 Nxd2 19.Qxd2 Rf8 20.Qd1 Qe8 21.c5 f5 22.exf5 gxf5 23.c6 Bc8 24.Nb5 f4 25.Nxc7 Qg6 26.Nxa8 fxe3 27.Rxe3 Bf5 28.Nxb6 Bxb1 29.Nd7 Re8 30.Qg4 e4 31.Qxg6 hxg6 32.b5 Bd4 33.Re1 Bd3 34.b6 Bc3 35.b7 1-0
Haznedaroglu,K (2438)-Tiviakov,S (2600) [E12]
Dhaka (6.4) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.Bf4 e6 5.a3 g6 6.e3 Bg7 7.h3 d6 8.Nf3 Nbd7 9.Be2 0-0 10.0-0 Qe7 11.b4 Ne4 12.Nxe4 Bxe4 13.Rc1 e5 14.Bh2 Rad8 15.Qa4 exd4 16.exd4 c5 17.Rfe1 cxd4 18.Bd3 f5 19.Qxa7 Rfe8 20.Rcd1 Ra8 21.Qc7 Rac8 22.Qxd6 Qxd6 23.Bxd6 Bxf3 24.Rxe8+ Rxe8 25.gxf3 Be5 26.Bxe5 Nxe5 27.f4 Nxd3 28.Rxd3 Rd8 29.Kf1 Kf7 30.Ke2 Kf6 31.a4 g5 32.fxg5+ Kxg5 33.a5 bxa5 34.bxa5 Kf4 35.a6 Ke4 36.a7 Ra8 37.f3+ Ke5 38.Ra3 h5 39.Kd3 h4 40.f4+ Kxf4 41.Kxd4 1-0
Bernadskiy,V (2580)-Mousavi,SK (2510) [C11]
Dhaka (7.3) 2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Be7 8.dxc5 Nxc5 9.Nd4 0-0 10.Be2 Bd7 11.0-0 Rc8 12.a3 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 f5 14.exf6 Bxf6 15.f5 e5 16.Bxe5 Bc6 17.Bxf6 Qxf6 18.Nxd5 Qe5 19.Bf3 Rcd8 20.c4 Qxb2 21.Rf2 Qe5 22.Re2 Qb8 23.Re7 Rf7 24.Rxf7 Kxf7 25.Qe2 Qd6 26.Re1 Kf8 27.Bh5 Kg8 28.Ne7+ Kh8 29.Nxc6 bxc6 30.Qe8+ Qf8 31.Qxf8+ Rxf8 32.Bf3 Kg8 33.Re5 Nd3 34.Re3 Nc5 35.g4 h5 36.Bxc6 hxg4 37.Re5 Nd3 38.Ra5 Rb8 39.Be4 Nf4 40.Kf2 Rb3 41.Rxa7 Rc3 42.a4 Kf8 43.a5 Nh3+ 44.Ke2 Ng1+ 45.Kd2 Rxc4 46.Ke3 Nf3 47.Rf7+ Kxf7 48.Bd5+ Ke7 49.Bxc4 Kd6 50.a6 Ne5 51.Bb5 Kc7 52.Kf4 Nf3 53.Kxg4 1-0
Rasulov,V (2452)-Narayanan,S (2540) [E16]
Dhaka (8.1) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nc3 h6 10.Rc1 d5 11.cxd5 Nxd5 12.Ne5 Bd4 13.Nf3 Bf6 14.Qa4 Nd7 15.Rfd1 Rc8 16.h4 Bxc3 17.bxc3 Nc5 18.Qa3 Ne4 19.Be1 Qc7 20.Nd4 Nd6 21.c4 Nxc4 22.Qb3 a6 23.a4 Rfd8 24.Nf3 b5 25.axb5 axb5 26.Qxb5 Qb6 27.Nd4 Qxb5 28.Nxb5 Ba6 29.Nd4 Ne5 30.Ra1 Bc4 31.Rdc1 Ne7 32.Bc3 Ng4 33.Bb4 Rxd4 34.Be7 Rd7 35.Bb4 Rdc7 36.Bd6 Rd7 37.Bf4 Kh7 38.Rc2 Ba6 39.Be4 f5 40.Ra6 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rxf7!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Bg6 2Qxg6#; 1…Bf5/xg8 2. B(x)f5#; 1…Kxd3 2.Qxh7#; 1…Rcxd3 2.Rf4#; 1…Rdxd3 2.Re7#; 1…Nxd3 2.Bc6#.
