Pranav enters final round with half-point lead
Pranav Venkatesh retained his position as sole leader of the Superstars tournament in Fujairah after drawing with Abhimanyu Mishra in 55 moves. Playing black, Pranav even created slight winning chances, but eventually settled for half a point, keeping his lead intact going into the final day. He now stands on 6 points, half a point ahead of two nearest rivals.
From the chasing pack of eight players who had entered the day a point behind, two managed to score full points to close the gap. 21-year-old US grandmaster Brandon Jacobson defeated Aydin Suleymanli with the white pieces. Suleymanli advanced his kingside pawns in the middlegame, a risky strategy that backfired, and Jacobson duly converted his advantage.
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Brandon Jacobson and Aydin Suleymanli | Photo: Anna Shtourman
Amin Tabatabaei also made progress, overcoming 20-year-old US grandmaster Andrew Hong in a 63-move battle. The Iranian converted an extra pawn in a major-piece ending to join Jacobson on 5½ points.
As both Jacobson and Tabatabaei have already faced Pranav and also played each other earlier in the event, the three frontrunners will all appear on separate boards in the decisive ninth round. Pranav will have the white pieces against Spanish grandmaster Alan Pichot. Jacobson will take black against top seed Nihal Sarin, while Tabatabaei will also play black, against Germany’s Alexander Donchenko.
Pichot earned the chance to face the leader by defeating Pranesh Munirethinam in round eight. The Spanish grandmaster capitalised on an opening misstep, launching a sharp sacrificial attack that forced a quick collapse.
After having sacrificed two pawns already, Pichot played the devastating 20.Ne6 here. There followed 20…fxe6 (what else?) 21.Qh5+ Ke7 22.Bg5+, opening up the f-file.
Resignation came after 22…Nf6 23.Rxf6, threatening mate on f7, while 23…Bxf6 fails to 24.Bxf6+ Kxf6 25.Rf1+, with checkmate next move. Brutal.
Alan Pichot during round six | Photo: Anna Shtourman
Standings after round 8
| 1 | GM | PRANAV, V | 2597 | 6 | 2636 | |
| 2 | GM | JACOBSON, Brandon | 2594 | 5,5 | 2634 | |
| 3 | GM | TABATABAEI, M. Amin | 2673 | 5,5 | 2600 | |
| 4 | GM | PICHOT, Alan | 2581 | 5 | 2640 | |
| 5 | GM | SJUGIROV, Sanan | 2636 | 5 | 2608 | |
| 6 | GM | DONCHENKO, Alexander | 2616 | 5 | 2606 | |
| 7 | GM | MISHRA, Abhimanyu | 2610 | 5 | 2604 | |
| 8 | GM | MARTINEZ, Jose Eduardo | 2636 | 5 | 2596 | |
| 9 | GM | NIHAL, Sarin | 2692 | 5 | 2593 | |
| 10 | GM | NARAYANAN, S L | 2595 | 4,5 | 2652 | |
| 11 | GM | ZEMLYANSKII, Ivan | 2586 | 4,5 | 2640 | |
| 12 | GM | MURADLI, Mahammad | 2586 | 4,5 | 2639 | |
| 13 | GM | HONG, Andrew | 2580 | 4,5 | 2636 | |
| 14 | GM | ADITYA, Mittal | 2560 | 4,5 | 2630 | |
| 15 | GM | ZHU, Jiner | 2536 | 4,5 | 2627 | |
| 16 | GM | LU, Shanglei | 2647 | 4,5 | 2611 | |
| 17 | GM | CHEPARINOV, Ivan | 2625 | 4,5 | 2607 | |
| 18 | GM | DANESHVAR, Bardiya | 2625 | 4,5 | 2603 | |
| 19 | GM | SULEYMANLI, Aydin | 2609 | 4,5 | 2600 | |
| 20 | GM | SHANKLAND, Sam | 2670 | 4,5 | 2597 | |
| 21 | GM | PRANESH, M | 2589 | 4 | 2645 | |
| 22 | GM | DUDIN, Gleb | 2583 | 4 | 2628 | |
| 23 | GM | GREBNEV, Aleksey | 2595 | 4 | 2622 | |
| 24 | GM | MOVAHED, Sina | 2558 | 4 | 2617 | |
| 25 | GM | BHARATH, Subramaniyam H | 2562 | 4 | 2610 |
…44 players