7th Sharjah Masters: Daneshvar Wins on Tiebreaks

Lichess Coverage

IM Irene Sukandar covered the event for Lichess on our YouTube and Twitch channels.

Recap

The conclusion of the 7th Sharjah Masters, at least on the top boards, was somewhat tepid. Of course, that was to be expected as it is difficult for these top players to justify going "all out" when they could just secure finishing in the money by drawing and hoping that their tiebreaks are better than their competitors'. Indeed, the top four boards finished in draws — three quick draws and one somewhat fighting draw. On boards 5 and 6, Shamsiddin Vokhidov defeated A. R. Saleh Salem, securing shared first (fourth) on tiebreaks, and Yu Yangyi overcame the young prodigy, Ediz Gurel. The young guard did well yet again, with sensational FM Ivan Zemlyanskii on board 8 defeating open tournament juggernaut Leon Luke Mendonca and Abhimanyu Mishra emerging victorious against Sankalp Gupta.

Congratulations to Jagadeesh Siddharth on achieving the GM title. Lichess would also like to congratulate our successful Lichess online qualifier IM Mahdi Gholami Orimi for achieving his final GM norm and a live rating of 2500!

Games

On board 2, Arjun Erigaisi tried his best to get an advantage against Bardiya Daneshvar, but with the open center and Daneshvar's strong defensive skills, it looked impossible for Erigaisi to make any headway. With 28. Re3, Erigaisi even managed to let Daneshvar win a pawn, but the game was still within drawing margins. Peace was signed on move 48, and with it, Daneshvar won the tournament and Erigaisi managed to finish the tournament with only a single rating point lost, which is a great result for a 2760-rated player in an open.

A. R. Saleh Salem seemed to have a nice attacking position against Shamsiddin Vokhidov, but looks can be deceiving. With an inspired exchange sacrifice, at some point Salem even had an advantage, but Vokhidov simply outplayed Salem and with no attack in sight, Salem had to resign as he had no compensation for the sacrificed exchange.

The old mantra of playing endgames against young players, which is perhaps not so applicable nowadays, worked well for Yu Yangyi, who beat rising star Ediz Gurel in a tricky, on-the-surface drawish endgame.

You can follow all the games here:

https://lichess.org/broadcast/sharjah--masters/round-9/Hz5nb6oF