Nihal Sarin leads Karpov Trophy 2019 with three others

by Satanick Mukhuty - 27/10/2019

Nihal Sarin is currently playing in the Anatoly Karpov Trophy 2019 which is taking place from the 25th of October to the 1st of November in Cap d'Agde, France. The tournament consists of two parts. It begins as an eight-player rapid double round-robin but after the completion of fourteen rounds the top four go on to play two-game knockout semi-finals and a final. Nihal is incidentally the last seed of the event with a rapid rating of just 2285. Obviously this figure doesn't reflect the true strength of the youngster as he has already displayed some very steady chess to emerge as one of the four leaders at the end of six rounds with 4.0/6 points. Etienne Bacrot, Hou Yifan, and Amin Bassem - all 2600+ rated strong rapid players - are others who share the lead with the same score. In this consolidated report on rounds one to six of the tournament we give you a comprehensive overview of Nihal's performance so far.

The 17th Edition of Anatoly Karpov Trophy is being held from the 25th of October to the 1st of November in the beautiful Mediterranean town of Cap d'Agde. There are eight players competing against each other in rapid format following a time control of twenty minutes for the entire game plus ten seconds increment per move starting from move one. The outcome of the first fourteen games will determine the four players (top four) who will thereafter fight it out in the knockout part of the tournament. The players and their starting ranks are given as follows:

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg
3	GM	Bacrot Etienne	605506	FRA	2671
7	GM	Amin Bassem	10601457	EGY	2633
6	GM	Sarana Alexey	24133795	RUS	2628
4	GM	Hou Yifan	8602980	CHN	2607
8	GM	Sebag Marie	617822	FRA	2452
5	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	12512214	IRI	2421
2	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	4641833	GER	2381
1	GM	Nihal Sarin	25092340	IND	2285

The games are taking place in the now famous arena of the Molière room of the CCAS holiday residence. Interestingly, Nihal Sarin started the event as the lowest rated player in the field having a rapid rating of only 2285. However, the fact that this figure is far below the Indian's actual playing strength has become clearly evident in the first six rounds where the fifteen-year-old has shown some top class rapid play.

Cap d'Agde is a bubbling seaside resort of sizzling blue beaches in Southern France | Photo: hotel-grandcap.com

The playing hall looks quite intense and interesting | Photo: Capechecs

The first round of the event itself started with a shock as the strong Egyptian Grandmaster and second seed of the event went down against Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany. Nihal too began with an emphatic win against Marie Sebag of France with the white pieces. Marie, who is a 2452-rated Grandmaster, defended well in a miscellaneous sideline of the queen's pawn opening and entered into an even rook-pawn ending but just when things seemed to be fizzling out into a draw, she erred around move 36 giving away full control of the open d-file to her opponent. Nihal seized his opportunity with both hands, infiltrated the kingside with his rook via the d-file, and not long after found a winning passed f-pawn. The game was resigned by the French player on move 55.

After drawing against Elisabeth Paehtz in Round 2, Nihal once again proved his mettle by defeating the top rated player of the event Etienne Bacrot with black pieces in the third round. Bacrot had found a tangible initiative against Nihal by move 28 in this encounter but he squandered away his chances in the next few moves and the game returned back to equality. Next, on move 34 he made a premature pawn push which suddenly started to tilt the position in Black's favour. The final mistake was however 37.d4? which allowed the Indian to completely turn the tables with the tactical 37.Rxa3!!

Nihal Sarin at his work! | Photo: Pierre Textoris

In the very next round (round four) Nihal had to suffer a setback in the hands of Hou Yifan of China. Although in this occasion the story was entirely reversed - it was the Indian with the white pieces who found a large advantage quite early in the game and by move 23 was clearly dominating. But slowly things started to go awry for him, he first blundered on move 26 to blow away his initiative and then after a long struggle erred again around the 50th move to lose the encounter.

Nihal drew his sixth round game against Alexey Sarana but before that in round five registered a crushing victory with black pieces against Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran. This was a King's Indian Defense fianchetto variation and the Indian started to push for the advantage after move 19 when Sarasadat missed a strong continuation for herself.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh - Nihal Sarin, Round 5

Black already had better play at this point with his excellent rooks on open c and d-files but 24.Qe4 allowed the h5 knight too to bounce back in the game with a tempo. After 24...Nf6 25.Qh4 Rc2! White was clearly subdued.

27.b4? was the final blunder in the game. Can you guess how Nihal finished off from here? See the full game below.

Results of first six rounds

Round 1 on 2019/10/25 at 14:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	2285	GM	Nihal Sarin	1 - 0	GM	Sebag Marie	2452	8
2	2	2381	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	1 - 0	GM	Amin Bassem	2633	7
3	3	2671	GM	Bacrot Etienne	1 - 0	GM	Sarana Alexey	2628	6
4	4	2607	GM	Hou Yifan	1 - 0	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2421	5
Round 2 on 2019/10/25 at 17:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2452	GM	Sebag Marie	1 - 0	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2421	5
2	6	2628	GM	Sarana Alexey	0 - 1	GM	Hou Yifan	2607	4
3	7	2633	GM	Amin Bassem	1 - 0	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2671	3
4	1	2285	GM	Nihal Sarin	½ - ½	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	2381	2
Round 3 on 2019/10/25 at 21:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	2381	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	0 - 1	GM	Sebag Marie	2452	8
2	3	2671	GM	Bacrot Etienne	0 - 1	GM	Nihal Sarin	2285	1
3	4	2607	GM	Hou Yifan	½ - ½	GM	Amin Bassem	2633	7
4	5	2421	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	0 - 1	GM	Sarana Alexey	2628	6
Round 4 on 2019/10/26 at 14:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2452	GM	Sebag Marie	0 - 1	GM	Sarana Alexey	2628	6
2	7	2633	GM	Amin Bassem	1 - 0	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2421	5
3	1	2285	GM	Nihal Sarin	0 - 1	GM	Hou Yifan	2607	4
4	2	2381	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	0 - 1	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2671	3
Round 5 on 2019/10/26 at 16:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	2671	GM	Bacrot Etienne	1 - 0	GM	Sebag Marie	2452	8
2	4	2607	GM	Hou Yifan	½ - ½	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	2381	2
3	5	2421	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	0 - 1	GM	Nihal Sarin	2285	1
4	6	2628	GM	Sarana Alexey	½ - ½	GM	Amin Bassem	2633	7
Round 6 on 2019/10/26 at 18:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2452	GM	Sebag Marie	0 - 1	GM	Amin Bassem	2633	7
2	1	2285	GM	Nihal Sarin	½ - ½	GM	Sarana Alexey	2628	6
3	2	2381	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	1 - 0	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	2421	5
4	3	2671	GM	Bacrot Etienne	1 - 0	GM	Hou Yifan	2607	4

Standings after six rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	GM	Bacrot Etienne	FRA	2671	4,0	12,00	0,0	4
2	4	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2607	4,0	10,50	0,0	3
3	7	GM	Amin Bassem	EGY	2633	4,0	9,50	0,0	3
4	1	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2285	4,0	9,00	0,0	3
5	2	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2381	3,0	8,00	0,0	2
6	6	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2628	3,0	6,00	0,0	2
7	8	GM	Sebag Marie	FRA	2452	2,0	3,00	0,0	2
8	5	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	IRI	2421	0,0	0,00	0,0	0

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