Al Ain: Georgian GM Gaioz Nigalidze beat second-ranked GM Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine to maintain sole leadership of the Al Ain Chess Classic at the Hili Rayhaan by Rotana hotel with 5.5 points from the first six rounds.
Nigalidze, ranked 28th in the tournament with a rating of 2,536, showed no fear against the higher-ranked Kuzubov, who has a rating of 2,681.
The Georgian used the Sicilian Najdorf Defence and made a positional sacrifice as early the 13th move by giving up a knight in exchange for two central pawns. Kuzubov was forced to return the extra piece on the 38th move as Nigalidze advanced his pawns to threaten promotion, before forcing Kuzubov to resign on the 65th move.
“I had to sacrifice the knight as he was building a clear advantage,” the two-time national champion of Georgia said in the postgame analysis.
Three players follow half a point behind on five each — top seed Yuriy Kryvoruchko and Vladimir Onischuk of Ukraine and Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus.
Kryvoruchko beat compatriot Martin Kravtsiv, while Onischuk crushed the Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence of Romanian Mircea Emilian Parligras in 34 moves. Zhigalko used the Nimzo-Indian Defence to beat Levon Babujan of Armenia in 49 moves.
In the critical seventh of nine rounds among the leaders, Nigalidze faces top seed Kryvoruchko while Zhigalko matches with Onischuk.
Seven Indian players are among the 17 trailing with 4.5 points each in the race for $50,000 (Dh183,652) in cash prizes — namely Tejas Bakre, Arun Prasad, Sahaj Grover, Deep Sengupta, G.N. Gopal, Chanda Sandipan and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit. They are level with four Ukrainians — Alexander Kovchan, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, Mikhailo Oleksienko and Alexander Areshchenko — as well as Tigran L. Petrosian of Armenia, Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan, Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium, Luka Paichadze of Georgia, Sergey Volkov of Russia and Samuel Shankland of the US.
The nine-round Swiss System tournament is organised by the Al Ain Chess Club with a strong field of 150 players including 43 male Grandmasters, nine female Grandmasters and 14 International Masters from 27 countries. Aside from the host country, India has the largest delegation with 31 players followed by Azerbaijan with 23 and Ukraine and Iran with 11 each.