Round 8 of the Qatar Masters saw Arjun Erigaisi beating David Paravyan to enter Friday’s final round as the sole leader, with six players standing a half point behind. Among these six chasers are Hikaru Nakamura and Nodirbek Abdusattorov Arjun’s rival in round 9 who both grabbed wins on Thursday. Former co-leaders Karthikeyan Murali, Narayanan S.L., Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Yakubboev still have chances to win the event as well. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Karthikeyan Murali became the third Indian player to ever beat Magnus Carlsen in a classical chess game, as he defeated the former world champion with the black pieces in round 7 of the Qatar Masters. Thanks to the upset win, Karthikeyan joined a 6-player leading pack with two rounds to go in Doha. Smilarly, David Paravyan became a co-leader by beating one of the rating favourites, as he got the better of Dommaraju Gukesh on board 5. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
The first sole leader of the Qatar Masters emerged after round 5, as Narayanan S.L., the thirteenth seed in Doha, obtained an upset win over Gukesh D. to become the only participant with 4½ points. Going into the one rest day of the event, twelve players stand a half point behind the leader, including Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi. Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri stand on 3½/5 scores the latter lost to 19-year-old IM Rudik Makarian in round 5. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Control of the centre has been considered to be the heart of chess strategy from time immemorial. As José Raúl Capablanca pointed out, the fundamentals remain the same, though application may change in the course of time. The Cuban world champion wrote: “In chess the tactics may change but the strategic fundamental principles are always the same”. | GM Sundararajan Kidambi analyses three ‘hypermodern’ games.
The 29th edition of the Abu Dhabi Masters is taking place on August 16-24 at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Resort. The 9-round Swiss open has Vladislav Artemiev, David Anton and Maxim Matlakov as the top seeds. After three rounds, none of the top-3 are in the leading pack. Five players are sharing first place with 3 out of 3: Vladimir Fedoseev, Xu Xiangyu, Alisher Suleymenov, Rathanvel V S and Abtin Atakhan.