Abdusattorov clinches 8th Sunway Sitges Open 2021 in Playoffs, Abhimanyu Puranik third
Abhimanyu Puranik beat Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) in the Armageddon Playoffs to secure third position in 8th Sunway Sitges Open 2021. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) beat Dmitrij Kollars 1.5-0.5 in the Playoff Finals to clinch the first place. Abdusattorov earned €5000 and a beautiful trophy, Kollars got richer by €3000 and Abhimanyu received €1500 as their prize. Sethuraman, Nihal and Arjun Erigaisi are the remaining Indians who finished in top ten. Dhananjay S was the highest placed finisher among untitled players. He scored an impressive 6.5/10. WIM Sakshi Chitlange 6.0/10 was the best placed woman among Indians. Photo: Niklesh Jain
Norms galore for Indians
Two GM-norms, Four IM-norms and two WGM-norms were scored by seven Indian players.
Abhimanyu drew the tenth round game against Dmitrij Kollars (GER). Four players ended with the same score 8.0/10 at the conclusion of the tournament. Thus Playoffs was enforced. Abhimanyu lost both of his Playoff games against Kollars. Thus, he was out of the championship race. Then he beat Cheparinov in the Armageddon after the Playoff result was 1-1, to secure third place.
Abhimanyu - Cheparinov, Game 1
What separates stronger players from the rest of the field is, the ability to do what needs to be done. Despite losing two consecutive games against Kollars, Abhimanyu fought back, showed his grit and got himself in an advantageous position against Cheparinov. Yes, White is already winning before he played 41.Kg4. It takes more than skill to play something like this which Abhimanyu showed. He lost the following game but once again he made a comeback and won the Armageddon one to secure third place.
Sethuraman - Nikolozi: 0.5-0.5
Sethuraman was completely winning IM Nikolozi Kacharava (GEO) in the final round.
32...Rc2 was played to prevent 33.c6. Does it really prevent? Find out the winning continuation. Had Sethuraman won this, five players would have finished at 8.0/10.
Cornette - Aditya Mittal: 0.5-0.5
GM Matthieu Cornette (FRA) did not anticipate his opponent IM Aditya Mittal's attack correctly and got himself in deep trouble.
White had to play 22.Nd2 to defend the f3-pawn. 22.Nc3 allowed Qxf3 23.Re2 and now Black has huge decisive advantage. The only thing he needs to make sure is prevent any kind of perpetual check shenanigans by the queen.
Black needs to put his king to safety. 23...Kf7 is one of the best continuation for Black. 23...fxg5 is exactly what White was hoping for to save the game. He played 24.Ne4 Qxe2 25.Qc6+ and Black cannot get out of perpetual check as the checkmate threat is looming large.
Norm makers
We had already mentioned in our Round 9 report that IM Pranav Anand and IM Pranesh M scored their respective maiden GM-norms.
IM-norm
WGM-norm
The norm list will be updated if required.
For more Round 10 photos, click here. Prize Distribution photos can be found here.
Replay Round 10 and Playoff games
Round 10 results
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | RtgN | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
| 1 | 9 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GER | 2622 | 0 | 8,0 | 62,0 | 63,5 | 48,25 | |||
| 2 | 6 | GM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | UZB | 2633 | 0 | 8,0 | 61,5 | 66,0 | 51,75 | |||
| 3 | 2 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | BUL | 2664 | 0 | Club de Ajedrez Magic | 8,0 | 61,0 | 64,0 | 49,00 | ||
| 4 | 12 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | IND | 2604 | 0 | 8,0 | 59,0 | 64,0 | 50,25 | |||
| 5 | 11 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | IND | 2613 | 0 | 7,5 | 64,5 | 69,5 | 50,00 | |||
| 6 | 25 | GM | Van Foreest Lucas | NED | 2530 | 0 | 7,5 | 63,0 | 69,0 | 50,00 | |||
| 7 | 14 | GM | Safarli Eltaj | AZE | 2579 | 0 | 7,5 | 59,5 | 64,5 | 46,25 | |||
| 8 | 1 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2699 | 0 | Beskydská Šachová Škola | 7,5 | 59,0 | 64,0 | 47,50 | ||
| 9 | 3 | GM | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2662 | 0 | 7,5 | 58,0 | 63,0 | 46,75 | |||
| 10 | 8 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2629 | 0 | 7,5 | 56,5 | 61,0 | 43,25 | |||
| 11 | 34 | IM | Dann Matthias | GER | 2482 | 0 | 7,5 | 54,5 | 59,0 | 41,00 | |||
| 12 | 42 | IM | Kacharava Nikolozi | GEO | 2469 | 0 | 7,5 | 54,5 | 57,5 | 43,00 | |||
| 13 | 26 | GM | Kulaots Kaido | EST | 2519 | 0 | Kaido Külaotsa Malekool | 7,5 | 52,5 | 57,5 | 42,75 | ||
| 14 | 173 | IM | Tarigan Gilbert Elroy | INA | 2149 | 0 | 7,5 | 52,5 | 56,0 | 40,50 | |||
| 15 | 4 | GM | Niemann Hans Moke | USA | 2645 | 0 | 7,0 | 61,0 | 61,0 | 38,00 | |||
| 16 | 29 | IM | Sankalp Gupta | IND | 2504 | 0 | 7,0 | 60,0 | 64,5 | 42,75 | |||
| 17 | 16 | GM | Kadric Denis | BIH | 2572 | 0 | 7,0 | 58,0 | 63,5 | 42,75 | |||
| 18 | 24 | GM | Dardha Daniel | BEL | 2533 | 0 | SK Moretus Hoboken | 7,0 | 57,5 | 62,5 | 40,75 | ||
| 19 | 23 | GM | Suleymanli Aydin | AZE | 2537 | 0 | 7,0 | 57,0 | 62,0 | 43,00 | |||
| 20 | 58 | IM | Pranav Anand | IND | 2416 | 0 | All India Chess Federation | 7,0 | 56,5 | 60,0 | 37,75 |
Prizes
Total Prize fund - €27155. For the entire prize details, click here.
Schedule
13th - 22nd December - 9:00 p.m. IST
18th December - Rest day
23rd December - 2:30 p.m. IST
