7th Sharjah Masters Round 6: Aravindh in Sole Lead, 6 Players Close Behind

Lichess Coverage

IM Irene Sukandar is covering the event for Lichess on our YouTube and Twitch at 11:00 UTC until 22 May!

Schedule

After Six Rounds

After winning against Saleh Salem in round 5, Aravindh played a quick draw as Black against Sam Shankland in round 6 to get to 5/6. Meanwhile, the board 2 and board 3 encounters between Bardiya Daneshvar vs. Hans Moke Niemann and A. R. Saleh Salem vs. M. Amin Tabatabaei also ended in draws. On board 4, Arjun Erigaisi scored a win against Daniil Yuffa to keep his chances of winning the tournament alive, putting him on 4.5/5. In round 7, Aravindh will face the surging 17-year-old Daneshvar, while Tabatabaei will face Sarana, Niemann will play against his compatriot, Shankland, and Erigaisi will be paired against Parham Maghsoodloo.

Games

A. R. Saleh Salem's game against M. Amin Tabatabaei was not a peaceful draw. Indeed, Salem had a chance to potentially win the game, or at least retain his huge advantage, on move 42. Alas, there was no hitchhiking in this galaxy, and Salem blundered his advantage away, allowing the game to liquidate into a drawn position.

Arjun Ergaisi seems to have a litany of tricks to employ in open tournaments, and he showcased his special repertoire in round 6 against Daniil Yuffa as he employed the Accelerated Queen's Indian, a rare guest in top level chess. Yuffa looked to be ill-equipped to handle the nuances of the opening, getting a worse position as White by move 19. He was able to steady the ship, though, and was only slightly worse on move 37. However, after 38. Rf4, slightly worse quickly turned into "basically lost", and Yuffa resigned a few moves later on move 42.

On board 6, Alexey Sarana beat Sankalp Gupta in a nice positional game, while Javokhir Sindarov successfully converted the strong attack he going against Vladimir Fedoseev, and Parham Maghsoodloo's space advantage forced Nikolas Theodorou to sacrifice a piece as he eventually resigned on move 51. Meanwhile, on board 9, Venkatesh Pranav won a nice attacking game with the Black pieces against Samuel Sevian:

You can follow the remaining games here:

https://lichess.org/broadcast/sharjah--masters/round-6/AoF0i1Zq

Again, make sure to catch our live coverage of the event on YouTube and Twitch!