[Event "WchT 7th"]
[Site "Bursa"]
[Date "2010.01.12"]
[Round "8.3"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Postny, Evgeny"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E20"]
[WhiteElo "2654"]
[BlackElo "2648"]
[PlyCount "79"]
[EventDate "2010.01.05"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "TUR"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 134"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2010.01.18"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2010.01.18"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "India"]
[BlackTeam "Israel"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "IND"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ISR"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 c5 5. d5 d6 6. e4 O-O 7. Nge2 Ne8 8. Ng3 f5
9. dxe6 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 fxe4 11. Nxe4 Qe7 12. Bd3 Bxe6 13. O-O Nc6 14. Qe2 h6
15. Re1 Nc7 16. Qf2 Ne5 17. Nxc5 Bg4 18. Qg3 Rae8 19. fxg4 Nf3+ 20. gxf3 Qxe1+
21. Qxe1 Rxe1+ 22. Kf2 Rd1 23. Ke2 Rxc1 24. Rxc1 dxc5 25. Be4 b6 26. Rd1 Ne6
27. Rd7 Nf4+ 28. Ke3 Ng2+ 29. Kf2 Nf4 30. Rxa7 Rd8 31. Ra6 g5 32. Rxb6 Rd2+ 33.
Ke1 Rxa2 34. Rxh6 Kg7 35. Rc6 Ng2+ 36. Kd1 Ne3+ 37. Kc1 Ra1+ 38. Bb1 Nxc4 39.
Rxc5 Na3 40. Rxg5+ 1-0

[Event "Tata Steel-B 73rd"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee"]
[Date "2011.01.29"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Wojtaszek, Radoslaw"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A20"]
[WhiteElo "2726"]
[BlackElo "2651"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2011.01.14"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "NED"]
[EventCategory "17"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 141"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2011.03.17"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2011.03.17"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. O-O Nb6 7. b3 Bd6 8.
Bb2 O-O 9. d3 Qe7 10. Nc3 f5 11. Nb5 Be6 12. a3 Kh8 13. b4 Qd7 14. Nd2 Be7 15.
Rc1 a6 16. Nc3 Bg5 17. Ncb1 Bd5 18. Bxd5 Nxd5 19. Rc4 Nb6 20. Rc5 Rae8 21. Nc4
Bf6 22. Nbd2 Nxc4 23. Rxc4 e4 24. Bxf6 Rxf6 25. Nb3 f4 26. Nd2 Rh6 27. h4 Rxh4
28. Nxe4 Rh6 29. Ng5 Qf5 30. Rc5 Re5 31. Rxe5 Nxe5 32. e3 Qxg5 33. exf4 Qf5 0-1

[Event "WchT 8th"]
[Site "Ningbo"]
[Date "2011.07.26"]
[Round "9.3"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Svidler, Peter"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "2627"]
[BlackElo "2739"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2011.07.17"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 144"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2011.09.16"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2011.09.16"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "India"]
[BlackTeam "Russia"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "IND"]
[BlackTeamCountry "RUS"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 a6 5. Qd2 Nd7 6. O-O-O b5 7. h4 h6 8. f4 h5
9. Nf3 Bb7 10. Ng5 Nh6 11. e5 Nb6 12. Bd3 Qc8 13. Rhf1 Nd5 14. Nce4 O-O 15. f5
Nxf5 16. Rxf5 gxf5 17. Ng3 Nxe3 18. Qxe3 f4 19. Bh7+ Kh8 20. Qd3 dxe5 21. dxe5
f6 22. Bg8 f5 23. Be6 Qe8 24. Bxf5 1-0

[Event "ESP-chT CECLUB Honor"]
[Site "Melilla"]
[Date "2011.11.21"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Naiditsch, Arkadij"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A63"]
[WhiteElo "2625"]
[BlackElo "2712"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2011.11.21"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 146"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2012.01.18"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2012.01.18"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Solvay"]
[BlackTeam "Colegio Marcote EIKM"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. Nc3 exd5 6. cxd5 g6 7. Bg2 Bg7 8. Nf3
O-O 9. O-O a6 10. a4 Nbd7 11. Bf4 Qe7 12. h3 Rb8 13. e4 Ne8 14. Re1 f6 15. Nd2
Ne5 16. Qe2 Nc7 17. Be3 b5 18. f4 Nc4 19. Nxc4 bxc4 20. Nd1 Re8 21. Qxc4 Rb4
22. Qc2 f5 23. e5 Qd8 24. Bd2 Rb8 25. Ba5 Rb7 26. Ne3 dxe5 27. d6 Qxd6 28. Bxb7
Bxb7 29. Qb3+ Ne6 30. Qxb7 exf4 31. Qd5 Qe7 32. Ng2 Bd4+ 33. Kh1 fxg3 34. Nf4
Qh4 35. Rxe6 Rxe6 36. Qxe6+ Kg7 37. Qd7+ Kh6 38. Bd2 1-0

[Event "Gibraltar Masters 12th"]
[Site "Caleta"]
[Date "2014.02.03"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Vallejo Pons, Francisco"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A50"]
[WhiteElo "2619"]
[BlackElo "2707"]
[PlyCount "123"]
[EventDate "2014.01.28"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "GGB"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 159"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2014.03.17"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2014.03.17"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 b6 3. Nc3 Bb7 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nxc3 7. bxc3 g6 8.
e4 Bg7 9. Bb5+ Nd7 10. O-O O-O 11. Bf4 e6 12. Rad1 a6 13. Bd3 c5 14. Bd6 Re8
15. Qe2 cxd4 16. cxd4 b5 17. Qe3 Rc8 18. h3 Qb6 19. e5 Bxf3 20. Qxf3 Bf8 21.
Bxf8 Nxf8 22. Be4 Rc7 23. h4 h5 24. Rd3 b4 25. g4 hxg4 26. Qxg4 Rc3 27. Rfd1
Rxd3 28. Rxd3 Rd8 29. Bg2 a5 30. h5 a4 31. Qh4 b3 32. axb3 a3 33. h6 Nd7 34.
Bc6 a2 35. Rd1 Kh7 36. Bxd7 Qxb3 37. Rf1 Rxd7 38. Qf6 Kxh6 39. Kg2 Qb1 40. Qh8+
Kg5 41. Rh1 Qxh1+ 42. Qxh1 Rxd4 43. Qc1+ Kf5 44. Qc2+ Kxe5 45. Qb2 g5 46. f3 f6
47. Kf2 Kd5 48. Qxa2+ Kd6 49. Qa3+ Kd5 50. Qe7 Rf4 51. Qd7+ Ke5 52. Ke3 Kf5 53.
Qh7+ Ke5 54. Qd3 f5 55. Qd8 Rc4 56. Qxg5 Rc3+ 57. Ke2 Rc2+ 58. Kd3 Rc5 59. f4+
Kd6 60. Qd8+ Kc6 61. Qe7 Rd5+ 62. Kc3 1-0

[Event "Thailand op 15th"]
[Site "Pattaya"]
[Date "2015.04.19"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Wang, Hao"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2603"]
[BlackElo "2713"]
[PlyCount "137"]
[EventDate "2015.04.12"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 166 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2015.06.18"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2015.06.18"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Qe2 Qe7 6. d3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Qxe2+ 8.
Bxe2 Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. h3 a6 11. Re1 Nc6 12. a3 Re8 13. Be3 Bd7 14. d4 Bf8 15.
Bg5 Ne4 16. Nxe4 Rxe4 17. Bd3 Rxe1+ 18. Rxe1 h6 19. Bd2 Be6 20. c3 Na5 21. g4
Bd5 22. Kg2 Nb3 23. Be3 b5 24. Kg3 Re8 25. Bf4 Rxe1 26. Nxe1 Na5 27. Nc2 Nc4
28. Bc1 Nb6 29. Ne3 Bb3 30. Nf5 Nd5 31. Be4 Ne7 32. Nxe7+ Bxe7 33. Bb7 a5 34.
Bc6 Bc4 35. h4 g5 36. hxg5 hxg5 37. d5 Kg7 38. Kf3 Bb3 39. Ke4 Bc2+ 40. Ke3 Bb3
41. Bxb5 Bxd5 42. b4 c6 43. Be2 Bd8 44. c4 Be6 45. Bb2+ f6 46. Bc3 Bb6+ 47. c5
dxc5 48. bxa5 Ba7 49. f3 Kf7 50. Bd1 Bc4 51. Bc2 Ba6 52. Ba4 c4+ 53. Bd4 c5 54.
Bc3 Ke6 55. Bc6 f5 56. gxf5+ Kxf5 57. Bd7+ Kg6 58. Be6 Bb8 59. Ke4 Bf4 60. a4
Bc1 61. Kd5 Bb7+ 62. Kxc4 Bxf3 63. Kxc5 g4 64. Bd4 Ba3+ 65. Kb6 g3 66. a6 g2
67. Bd7 Bb2 68. Bg1 Kf6 69. Bc6 1-0

[Event "ESP-chT CECLUB Honor"]
[Site "Linares"]
[Date "2015.08.15"]
[Round "1.1"]
[White "Naiditsch, Arkadij"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C07"]
[WhiteElo "2685"]
[BlackElo "2631"]
[PlyCount "56"]
[EventDate "2015.08.15"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "EXT 2016"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2015.10.08"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2015.10.08"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Taldea Gros Xake"]
[BlackTeam "Solvay"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. dxc5 Nf6 6. Ngf3 Qxc5 7. Bd3 Nbd7
8. O-O Qc7 9. a4 Nc5 10. Bb5+ Bd7 11. Ra3 Be7 12. Bxd7+ Ncxd7 13. Rc3 Qa5 14.
Rc4 O-O 15. b3 a6 16. Bb2 b5 17. Rd4 Rac8 18. Ne4 Nxe4 19. Rxe4 Nf6 20. Re5 Nd5
21. Ng5 Qc7 22. Nxh7 Rfd8 23. Qg4 Qxc2 24. Rxd5 Qxb2 25. Rh5 Rc1 26. g3 g6 27.
Rxc1 Qxc1+ 28. Kg2 Rd1 0-1

[Event "ESP-chT CECLUB Honor"]
[Site "Linares"]
[Date "2015.08.17"]
[Round "3.2"]
[White "Fressinet, Laurent"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D46"]
[WhiteElo "2710"]
[BlackElo "2631"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2015.08.15"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "EXT 2016"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2015.10.08"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2015.10.08"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Sestao Fundacion EDP"]
[BlackTeam "Solvay"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O
dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 Qe7 11. Ng5 Bb7 12. Bf3 Rac8 13. Rd1 Bb8 14. Bd2 h6 15.
Nge4 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 Nf6 17. Qd3 c5 18. Bxb7 c4 19. Qe2 Qxb7 20. Qf3 Qb6 21. b4
e5 22. dxe5 Bxe5 23. a4 Rfd8 24. Be1 Rd3 25. Rdc1 bxa4 26. Rxa4 Rcd8 27. h3 a6
28. g4 Qe6 29. Ra5 Bxc3 30. Bxc3 Ne4 31. Be5 Nd2 32. Qf5 Qc6 33. e4 Nb3 34. b5
Qd7 0-1

[Event "Qatar Masters op"]
[Site "Doha"]
[Date "2015.12.24"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Howell, David"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E05"]
[WhiteElo "2688"]
[BlackElo "2648"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "130"]
[EventDate "2015.12.20"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "QAT"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 170"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.01.15"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.01.15"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

{This was my first encounter with David and I wasn't sure what to expect from
him as he has quite a broad repertoire.} 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 {This was not in my
top 6 list which I thought he could opt for!} d5 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 (5.
d3 {I thought maybe he was aiming for a King's Indian Attack.}) 5... O-O 6. d4
{So main Catalan it is. Probably he was fine with the Catalan but wanted to
avoid Grünfeld/Kings Indian/QGA from my repertoire.} dxc4 {I have played few
games with this solid main line and decided to stick with my preparation for
this game.} 7. Qc2 a6 8. a4 Bd7 9. Qxc4 Bc6 10. Bg5 Bd5 (10... h6 11. Bxf6 Bxf6
12. Nc3 Bxf3 13. Bxf3 c6 14. e3 (14. Qb3 {will transpose to the game}) 14... a5
{Earlier I had this position twice against Akopian and Papaioannu} 15. b4 {
Although both my games ended in a draw but there was some pressure I had to
withstand which I wanted to avoid for this game.}) 11. Qc2 Be4 12. Qd1 h6 $5 {
So the whole point is to get a similar position to 10...h6 but with the white
queen on d1 and not on c4 in order to stop White from playing b4.} (12... c5 {
is more popular here and has been seen a number of times at the top level.})
13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Nc3 Bxf3 15. Bxf3 c6 {Now we have the exact same position
with white queen on d1 instead of c4.} 16. Qb3 (16. e3 a5 {[%cal Gb8a6,Ga6b4]
and White is not in time to break with b4.}) 16... Qc7 {We are back to one of
the main lines of 10...h6 where White doesn't play b4.} 17. e3 (17. Rfd1 a5 18.
Rac1 Ra6 19. d5 Qb6 $1 {Jumabayev,R (2558)-Harikrishna,P (2666) Mashhad 2011,
and Black had a fine position.}) 17... a5 {David was taking s decent amount of
time for each move after 12...h6 and I felt he perhaps wanted to get the b4
break in as in the case of 10....h6 and now that he hadn't got the said move
he had to come up with some original plan over the board.} 18. Be2 $5 {And he
comes up with one! This way White first of all stops all kind of Ra6-Rb6 ideas
and switches the diagonal of his light squared bishop which will now look at
kingside (from d3 or c4) and instead of creating pressure on the queenside now
it will focus on a long term kingside attack!} Na6 {The knight belongs on b4.
This way White won't be able to create any threats with queen and bishop on
the b1-h7 diagonal.} 19. Ne4 Be7 20. Rac1 Nb4 21. Bc4 {And now it was my turn
for a long think. So Black has got his minor pieces on the right squares for
the moment. What next? Where to put the rooks was my main concern. By keeping
his bishop on c4 David has created the potential attacking threat of f4-f5
which will happen sooner or later. Also since the bishop has moved from the
h1-a8 diagonal it's clear that White will focus his play on the kingside now.}
Rae8 $1 {This looks rather stupid at first sight but since White's main plan
is f4-f5 (otherwise the bishop on c4 doesn't make much sense) it makes sense
not to move the f8-rook in order to keep the f7-pawn protected and by bringing
the other rook to e8 Black is now excellently prepared to meet f4-f5 ideas
anytime.} 22. f4 (22. Rfd1 {is possible and of course White doesn't have any
problems here but on the other hand now White also doesn't have any clear
plans on the kingside and the bishop on c4 is not doing much.} Bd8 $5 {[%cal
Gc7e7,Gb4d5,Ge7b4]} (22... Rd8 $5 {I was also considering this move as an
alternative})) 22... Bd8 $1 {Now Black doesn't have to worry about f5 ideas
anymore.} 23. Qd1 $1 {Now that White has already committed f4 it makes sense
to switch the force completely to the kingside and launch an attack.} Qe7 24.
Qf3 Nd5 {[%cal Ge7b4]} 25. Rc2 (25. Nc5 $1 {I felt this was needed in order to
not allow any counterplay on the queenside.} Bb6 26. Nd3 Bc7 (26... Nb4 27. Ne5
$14) 27. Kg2 Rd8 {I was intending to stay solid and wait for White's break.
The computer screams that every line is equal. White definitely has some play
here and is probably slightly better although Black is extremely solid.}) 25...
Qb4 26. Nc5 {[%cal Gc5d7]} Re7 (26... Bb6 $1 {I simply can't remember why I
didn't play this move!} 27. Nd7 $140 Rd8 $1 28. Nxf8 Nxe3 $17 {I saw these
tactics but then maybe I got tempted with the move that I played or simply
forgot that I thought about Bb6 after he played Nc5 :)}) 27. e4 $6 {This move
would have given White a steady advantage if Black didn't have the following
tactics.} (27. b3 Bb6 {maintains equality.}) 27... Bb6 $1 (27... Nb6 28. Qb3 $1
$14 {was his idea.}) 28. exd5 $2 (28. Nb3 Nf6 $15) (28. Qf2 Bxc5 29. dxc5 Nf6
$15 {White has too many weakness to protect now}) (28. Nd3 Bxd4+ 29. Kh1 Qxa4
30. b3 Qa3 31. exd5 exd5 $15) (28. Kg2 $1 {was the only way not to get into a
worse position} Bxc5 29. dxc5 Nf6 30. e5 Nd5 $13) 28... cxd5 29. Qb3 (29. Qa3
Qxa3 30. bxa3 dxc4 $15) (29. Bb3 Qxd4+ 30. Qf2 Qxf2+ (30... Qb4 {This was also
very tempting}) 31. Rfxf2 Rc8 32. Nd3 Rxc2 33. Bxc2 Rc7 34. Bb3 Kf8 $17 {
this was one of the options I was considering}) (29. Nd3 Bxd4+ 30. Kg2 Qxa4 31.
b3 Qc6 $17) 29... Bxc5 30. dxc5 Qxc5+ 31. Rff2 dxc4 32. Qxc4 {Black is a
healthy pawn up and White's king is also weak so it is very difficult to hold
this endgame, especially if Black can keep the queens on the board.} Qa7 $1 {
The safest way to keep the queens on the board.} (32... Qe3 33. Qc5 $1 {
and White's drawing chances will increase significantly after exchange of
queens.}) 33. Kg2 Rd7 34. Rfd2 b6 35. Qc6 (35. Rxd7 Qxd7 36. Qc6 Qd4 $17 {
[%csl Rg2]}) 35... Rfd8 36. Rxd7 Rxd7 37. h4 $6 {This further weakens White's
king position.} h5 $1 38. Kh2 Kh7 (38... Rd1 $4 {I was considering this move
for some time then recovered from the shock and played ...Kh7 instead!} 39.
Qc8+ Kh7 40. Rc7 $18) 39. Qe4+ g6 40. Qc6 Rd1 {And all Black has to do now is
to get his queen out. This was the 40th move and I didn't realise that the win
was still far away.} 41. b3 $1 (41. Qe8 Qb7 $19) (41. Qc7 Rd2+ {[%csl Rb2]} 42.
Kh3 Qxc7 43. Rxc7 Kg7 44. b4 axb4 45. Rc6 Ra2 46. Rxb6 Rxa4 47. Rb8 Kf6 48. Rb7
Kf5 49. Rxf7+ Ke4 $19) 41... Rd3 $1 {Not to allow the exchange of queens.} 42.
Qb5 Rd6 43. Rc8 $1 {Just when I thought the game was over David comes up with
the most stubborn defence.} (43. Rc6 Rd2+ 44. Kh3 Qa8 $1 (44... Qd7 45. Rxb6
Qd4 46. Rb7 {and it's a draw!}) 45. Qxb6 Rd6 $1 $19 {was my intention.}) 43...
Rd2+ $1 (43... Qb7 44. Rh8+ $1 {is a fine trick} Kxh8 45. Qe5+ Kg8 46. Qxd6 {
and the win is very very far away for Black.}) 44. Kh3 Qb7 45. Qc6 Qa6 46. Rh8+
{Again the only way.} (46. Qc4 Qxc4 47. Rxc4 Rb2 48. Rc3 Kg7 {should be
winning easily.}) 46... Kxh8 47. Qc3+ e5 $1 {Otherwise it's not so easy to
come up with a concrete plan.} 48. Qxd2 exf4 (48... Qf1+ 49. Kh2 exf4 50. gxf4
Qf3 51. Qd4+ Kh7 52. Qxb6 Qxf4+ 53. Kg2 {White should be lost, but here White
will create some counterplay with an outside passed pawn.}) 49. gxf4 (49. Qxf4
Qc8+ 50. Kh2 Qc2+ 51. Kg1 Qxb3 $19) 49... Qc8+ 50. Kh2 Qc5 {Not to allow b4.}
51. Qb2+ Kh7 52. Qd2 Qe7 53. Qf2 (53. Kg3 Qe6 $19) 53... Qf6 {And White is in
zugzwang.} 54. Kh1 (54. Kg2 Qe6 $19) (54. Qg3 Qb2+ 55. Kh3 Qe2 $19) 54... Qe6
55. Qg3 Qg4 56. Qe3 Qxh4+ 57. Kg2 Qf6 58. Kh2 Qe6 59. Qd3 Qf5 60. Qe3 Qc2+ 61.
Kg3 Qc5 62. Qe1 Qd4 63. Qe8 Qg1+ 64. Kf3 Qg4+ 65. Ke3 Qe6+ 0-1

[Event "Bangkok op 16th"]
[Site "Bangkok"]
[Date "2016.04.17"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Van Wely, Loek"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B81"]
[WhiteElo "2647"]
[BlackElo "2654"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "123"]
[EventDate "2016.04.10"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "THA"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 172"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.05.12"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.05.12"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteClock "0:05:07"]
[BlackClock "0:01:06"]

{With 5 players on 6.5/8 the championship was wide open. I had White against
van Wely on top board.} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 {
Undoubtedly one of the most expected lines from Loek who is well known for his
fighting style.} 6. h3 {Although Loek has played a huge number of games in the
Najdorf from the black side, he has rarely faced 6.h3.} e6 {After a modest
think of 8 min.} 7. g4 Be7 8. g5 Nfd7 9. h4 {I had this position twice in 2015
so it can't be a surprise but nevertheless Loek thought for another 10min to
choose his direction which made me believe that he simply hadn't had time to
prepare specifically against this system which is mostly because the last
round started at 9 am.} Nc6 10. Be3 O-O 11. a3 $5 {I understand this looks
weird but it has a subtle point. White waits for Black to take on d4 when he
can directly take with his queen saving a tempo. 11.a3 is a useful move which
White has to play sooner or later. Black has to come up with some sort of
useful move without making any concession (...Nxd4 allowing Qxd4 in one tempo)
which is not so easy. For instance, the natural ...Qc7 allows h5 while an
immediate ...Ne5 allows f4.} Rb8 {While Loek was thinking I was also
considering this waiting move and couldn't remember what my preparation was
after ...Rb8.} (11... Qc7 $6 12. h5 Nce5 13. f4 Nc4 14. Bxc4 Qxc4 15. Qd2 b5
16. O-O-O $16) 12. Be2 {I decided to wait further.} (12. f4 {is probably
slightly better than what I played and gives White a decent edge.}) 12... Nxd4
13. Qxd4 {So White did manage to save the tempo after all.} b5 14. O-O-O Qa5
15. Bd2 $1 {This forces the queen exchange. I didn't see any other decent way
to fight for an advantage.} (15. Qd2 $6 Nc5 $1 {and Black gets the initiative.}
) (15. Kb1 b4 {also looked scary for White.}) 15... Qb6 (15... b4 {runs into}
16. Na2 $16) 16. Qxb6 Nxb6 (16... Rxb6 {This was also equally playable or
perhaps better than the move played in the game but nevertheless I felt White
would keep some minute pressure here too.} 17. Kb1 (17. Na2 Bb7) (17. f4 Nc5
18. Rhe1 Bb7 19. Bf1 {is another way for White to fight for the initiative.})
17... Bb7 18. Rh3 {If anyone is better it's White. He has more space and
various plans at his disposal.}) 17. Bf4 $1 Rd8 18. Rd2 {Now Black had to
choose between a few depressing positions and all of them without much counter
play.} e5 (18... Nc4 {was the other option} 19. Bxc4 bxc4 20. Rhd1 Rb6 21. Be5
$14 {White will press for long time here while Black has to sit tight and wait.
}) (18... Bb7 19. Rhd1 Nc8 20. b3 {is also very passive for Black.}) 19. Be3
Be6 20. f4 $1 {To create more pressure and gain more space.} exf4 21. Bxf4 Bc4
(21... Rb7 22. Rhd1 Rbd7 23. Be3 {and White has a dream position.}) 22. Be3 (
22. Bxc4 Nxc4 23. Nd5 Bf8 24. Re2 $16 {is stronger than what I played
according to computers but I wanted to exchange all Black's active pieces and
leave him with the bad bishop against my good knight.}) 22... Bxe2 23. Bxb6
Rxb6 24. Nd5 ({Nothing wrong with the natural} 24. Rxe2 {but I simply didn't
want to allow d5 although this must be awful for Black but I just didn't want
to calculate any lines in this direction.}) 24... Rb7 (24... Bf3 25. Rf1 Bxe4
26. Nxb6 d5 27. Rfd1 $18) 25. Rxe2 {For obvious reasons I was quite happy with
my position. It was ideal to get a position like this in the last round where
I can press for a win without any risk.} Re8 (25... f6 {was another way to
create counterplay but probably Loek didn't like the following} 26. gxf6 Bxf6
27. Nxf6+ (27. h5 $5) 27... gxf6 28. Rf1 Rf7 29. Ref2 Kg7 30. Kd2 {White still
keeps some edge though but I doubt if this will be enough to win the game.})
26. Kd2 $6 {There no need to allow any form of counterplay and this move does
exactly that. White's king is nicely placed on d3 for sure but firstly White
had to stop Black from playing ...f6.} (26. Rg1 $1 {and then White could bring
his king to d3. How big is the advantage? That is a different question
altogether but definitely White will be playing for a win here while Black has
to defend for a long time.}) 26... f6 $1 {I completely overlooked this
counterplay and was under the impression that his next move would be ...Bd8.
Once Loek played ...f6 I was regretting my decision of bringing up the king
first. After a long think of about 15 min I realised that all my advantage is
gone but instead of liquidating immediately I decided to let him activate his
bishop and keep practical chances.} 27. gxf6 Bxf6 28. c3 (28. Nxf6+ gxf6 29.
Rf1 Kf7 30. Ref2 Re6 31. Kd3 Rbe7 {Black will have no difficulties to hold
this as compared to 25...f6 here his rook ideally placed on e6 instead of f7.})
28... Rf7 29. Ke3 {With the idea to stop ...Be5.} (29. h5 {this was probably
objectively better than what I chose in the game.}) 29... Bd8 $1 {Gaining
control over the f-file.} (29... Be5 30. Rf2) 30. Rg2 Ref8 (30... Rf5 {I was
also concerend about this move} 31. Kd4 (31. Kd3 Rf3+ (31... Rh5 32. Rg4) 32.
Ke2 Rf5 $11) 31... Rfe5 (31... Rh5 32. Rg4 $13) 32. Rg4 Rf8 {and Black creates
counterplay.}) 31. h5 Rf3+ 32. Ke2 h6 $1 {Black has created enough counterplay
and has no problems whatsoever.} 33. Rhh2 (33. b4 {I tried to make this work
but it was getting too complicated} Bg5 {and both sides will have to make
almost forced moves from here on} 34. a4 bxa4 35. Ra1 Rh3 $1 36. Rxa4 Re8 $1
37. Rg4 Ra8 38. b5 Rh2+ 39. Ke1 Rh1+ 40. Ke2 Rh2+ $11 {There were probably
other resources but I was happy with the move which I played in the game.
Although to be honest I was confident about my move because I had actually
missed his defensive resource :)}) 33... Rf1 (33... Bg5 $1 {and here my
intension was to exchange the rooks and I felt I would keep some chances in
the knight vs bishop endgame but in reality it is dead drawn.} 34. Rf2 (34. Kd1
$5 $11) 34... Rxf2+ 35. Rxf2 Rxf2+ 36. Kxf2 Bc1 37. b4 Bxa3 38. Ke2 {I had the
hallucination that I was threatening to trap his bishop thus forcing him to
move it and then I can go Nc7. But of course I can never trap this bishop as
after Kb3 he always has ...Bc1.} Kf7 39. Nc7 Bb2 40. Nxa6 g5 (40... Bxc3 41.
Kd3 Be1 42. Ke2 $11) 41. hxg6+ Kxg6 42. Nc7 Bxc3 43. Nxb5 Bxb4 44. Nxd6 $11)
34. Rg6 Rb1 $2 {This gives back White the initiative he had few moves back.} (
34... Rc1 $1 {a very difficult move to spot under time pressure. The point is
it stops Kd3 and at the same time threatens ...Rc2.} 35. Ne3 (35. Kd3 Rf3+ {
and compared to the ...Rb1 line White doesn't have Kc2 anymore.}) 35... Bg5 (
35... a5 $5 $132) 36. Rf2 Rxf2+ 37. Kxf2 Rb1 38. Rxd6 Rxb2+ 39. Kf3 Rb3 40. Nd5
Rxa3 41. Kg4 {it will fizzle out and the game will end in a draw soon.}) 35.
Kd3 $1 $16 Bf6 (35... Rf3+ 36. Kc2 $18) (35... Bg5 36. Rxd6 $18) 36. Rf2 $1 {
Stopping ...Be5.} Bg5 (36... Be5 37. Ne7+ $18) 37. Rxf8+ Kxf8 38. Rxd6 Rd1+ (
38... Rxb2 39. e5 Rd2+ 40. Ke4 $18) 39. Ke2 Rh1 40. Kf3 Rxh5 {40 moves were
over and I had ample time to make sure I didn't spoil the advantage.} 41. Rxa6
Rh1 (41... Bc1 42. b4 {followed by a4 and basically the game is over.}) 42. e5
(42. Rb6 {I could probably take the pawn but optically 42.e5 felt most direct
giving Black less time to push the pawns on the kingside.}) 42... Re1 (42...
Rf1+ 43. Kg4) 43. e6 g6 44. b3 {Now that all Black's pieces are fixed White
creates another passed pawn.} h5 45. a4 bxa4 46. bxa4 Kg7 (46... h4 47. a5 Rg1
(47... h3 48. Kg3 $18) 48. Ra8+ Kg7 49. e7 Bxe7 50. Ra7 h3 51. Rxe7+ Kh6 52.
Re2 $18 {is what I was expecting to happen during the game.}) 47. a5 h4 48. Rb6
Rf1+ (48... Bd8 {I thought he might play this, setting a little trap} {However
I was intending to play} 49. e7 $1 ({After the natural} 49. Rb8 h3 50. Kg3 Bxa5
51. e7 $2 (51. Ra8 $18 {the computer says this also wins}) 51... Rxe7 $11)
49... Bxb6 50. axb6 {and Black can't stop White from queening.} h3 51. Kg3 Rg1+
52. Kh2 $18 Rb1 53. Nb4 $18) 49. Kg2 Rd1 50. e7 Re1 51. Rb8 Bxe7 52. Rb7 Ra1
53. Nxe7 Kf6 54. Nc6 g5 55. Rb4 Kg6 56. Rb5 Ra2+ 57. Kh3 Rc2 58. Rc5 Rf2 59. a6
Rf3+ 60. Kg2 Rf8 61. a7 g4 62. Ne5+ {With this win I scored 7.5/9. Vallejo
meanwhile defeated Nigel as Black and had a fantastic tournament. Unlike last
year, when I had to be content with 2nd place after beating Wang Hao in the
last round because of bad Buchholz, this time my Buchholz turned out to be
better and I won the championship.} 1-0

[Event "Asian Continental op 15th"]
[Site "Tashkent"]
[Date "2016.06.03"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Le, Quang Liem"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D46"]
[WhiteElo "2718"]
[BlackElo "2654"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "154"]
[EventDate "2016.05.26"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "UZB"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 173"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

{The last round of Asian Championship 2016 had two leaders. Wei Yi and Le
Quang were on 6.5/8. They were followed by Sethuraman on 6/8 and a herd of
other players on 5.5. While Sethu was paired against Wei, someone had to be
floated up against Le Quang and I was the one who got to play the top seed
with Black in a must win situation. Not the ideal pairing I must admit :) I
guess nobody predicted that both myself and Sethu would win with the black
pieces on the top two boards.} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. e3
Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 10. Be2 Qe7 {A line
popularised by Adhiban. Le Quang expected this as I had already played a game
in this line few months back.} 11. a3 (11. Ng5 Bb7 12. Bf3 Rac8 13. Rd1 Bb8 14.
Bd2 h6 15. Nge4 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 Nf6 17. Qd3 c5 $15 {0-1 (34) Fressinet,L (2710)
-Ganguly,S (2631) Linares 2015}) 11... a6 {If White can get in b4 he will get
good control but for the moment Black has ...a5 when White won't be able to
maintain the structure. Since b4 is not a threat, Black slowly prepares the ...
c5-break which will set him free.} 12. Ng5 $6 {Similar to my game against
Fressinet, but with a3-a6 included, but probably doesn't change much.} (12. e4
e5 $13) 12... Bb7 13. Bf3 (13. b4 a5 $13) 13... Rfc8 {Unlike in the Fressinet
game here I could not play ...Rac8 as the rook is needed on a8 in order to
counter b4 with a5.} 14. Bd2 h6 15. Nge4 Nxe4 16. Bxe4 {This came with a draw
offer.} (16. Nxe4 c5 $1 {This is the whole point! I think initially Le Quang
missed this idea. Without this tactic White would be better.} 17. Nxd6 Bxf3 18.
Nxc8 Qg5 $19 {and White must give up his queen in order to stop the mate.})
16... Nf6 $15 {Not only did the tournament situation demand a win but more
importantly in the current position Black can play for win with zero risk so
it was natural to refuse the offer.} 17. Rfd1 (17. b4 {is always met by} a5)
17... c5 18. Bxb7 Qxb7 19. Be1 cxd4 20. Rxd4 Be5 21. Rd3 {Black's pieces are
more active and he has more space on the queenside and also White's e1-bishop
is not coming into the game soon. I wanted to push my pawns on the queenside
starting with ...a5, but didn't like the fact that White can respond with Qb3.
So before expanding on the queenside it made sense to bring my knight to a
better place: c5.} Ne4 22. Rc1 (22. Qe2 Bxc3 23. Bxc3 Nxc3 24. bxc3 Rc4 {
also a long time suffering.}) 22... a5 (22... Rc4 $5 $17) 23. Qd1 Nc5 24. Rd2 {
Here both ...b4 and ...a4 were looking tempting. While ...b4 is a more direct
and dynamic way to fight for the initiative, ...a4 is a more solid approach
playing for a long term strategic advantage. Machines like ...b4 but during
the game I was happy with my slow approach.} a4 {[%csl Rb2]} (24... b4 25. axb4
axb4 26. Ne2 Bf6 $36 {[%csl Rb2,Re1]}) 25. Rcc2 (25. Na2 $142 {White will
probably hold this position eventually, but there is no doubt that Black is
better and will continue exerting pressure on White.}) 25... Bf6 $1 {A move
that I was very happy about. I wanted to play 25...b4 but didn't like the fact
that White can change on b4 and go Ne2-Nd4. So I wanted to stop the Ne2-plan.
Ne2 is well met with ...Nb3 but the problem was he could take on c8 and then
give a check with Rd8 and exchange pieces. Hence ...Bf6 stopping Rd8 thus
stopping Ne2.} (25... b4 26. axb4 Qxb4 27. Ne2 {Black is still better but I
wanted to restrict this plan just in case.}) 26. Qf3 (26. Ne2 Nb3 $1 27. Rxc8+
Rxc8 {The point of 25...Bf6 is clear now.....no more Rd8,}) (26. Qe2 Nb3 27.
Rd1 Qc6 {and the white pieces are somewhat stuck.}) 26... b4 (26... Qxf3 27.
gxf3 Nb3 {is also equally strong but I felt this could fizzle out at some
point.}) 27. axb4 $6 (27. Qxb7 Nxb7 28. Ne4 (28. axb4 a3 $19) 28... b3 29.
Nxf6+ gxf6 30. Rxc8+ Rxc8 {during the game I was convinced that this keeps
good chances for a win. The computer thinks White can hold with f3 followed by
Kf1-e2. However, Black is still better and can improve his position and White
is far away from actually making a draw.}) 27... Qxb4 {Now that the queen has
moved from d1 tactically White is unable to play Ne2 due to ...Nd3! I was
almost certain that Le Quang would play 28.h3 or 28.Na2 but he somehow missed
the ...Nd3 tactics.} 28. Nd1 $2 (28. h3 {is probably the best try but even
then Black is clearly better there.} Rab8 $17) (28. Ne2 $2 Nd3 $19) (28. Na2
Qb5 29. Nc3 Qb3 $19) 28... Nd3 $1 {After this there were various ways to play
for a win. I calculated my 37th move from here and that clearly looked the
most convincing of all.} 29. Rxc8+ Rxc8 30. Qe2 Nxe1 31. Qxe1 Rc1 32. g3 Qb3 {
There are other ways too but during the game my solution felt simplest.} 33.
Qe2 Bxb2 34. Rxb2 Qxd1+ 35. Qxd1 Rxd1+ 36. Kg2 Rd8 $1 37. Ra2 Ra8 {Reaching an
elementary winning position. Not even for one moment could I imagine that
within 3 moves I was going to make it super-complicated. I still wonder how
did I ever manage to complicate this one!} 38. Kf3 {So I had to make 3 moves
under some time crunch. Every normal move wins and doesn't require any
explanation.} g5 {I had to bring my king into the game and slowly White will
be in zugzwang. The question was what is the best way to bring the king?
g5-Kg7-Kg6 felt normal to me.} (38... f5 {[%cal Gg8f7,Gf7f6] should be winning
too.}) (38... a3 {Nothing wrong with pushing the pawn and then bringing the
king in whichever way.}) 39. Ke4 g4 $6 {Not that it spoils the win.... in fact
the computer doesn't even understand why this is bad because for him there is
no difference between a complicated win and an easy win; a win is a win.
However, from the human point of view this clearly complicates things. I
wanted to make sure that when the white king marches to the queenside and my
king goes forward to grab his kingside pawns then there will be no way to
block my king and 39...g4 makes sure that White will never have any blockade
on the kingside.} (39... a3 40. Kd4 Kg7 41. f3 h5 {of course it's impossible
to block Black's king just with pawns. White is totally lost here.}) 40. Kf4 h5
{The first time control was over and I was expecting a resignation anytime
soon but received a shock instead.} 41. Kg5 {My first thought was where is the
king going exactly?} Ra5+ {This was forced so nothing to think about here.} 42.
Kh6 {[%csl Rh5][%cal Ge3e4,Ge4e5] and now everything becomes clear. White
threatens e4-e5 no matter what Black plays} Kf8 {After a serious amount of
long thought which included convincing myself that I hadn't spoiled the win
and with correct play it was still achievable.} (42... a3 43. e4 Kf8 44. e5 Ke7
45. Kxh5 Ra4 46. Kg5 {makes it very complicated.}) 43. e4 Ke7 44. e5 f5 $1 (
44... a3 {transposes to the line we have seen above.}) 45. Kg7 {Le Quang
decided to attack my e6-pawn in order to stop my king march to the queenside.}
(45. Kxh5 {would have given me a very difficult decision to make. I had seen
two ways of winning here and intuitively chose the right path. Both of us also
felt the other path wins too though in reality it draws as the engine pointed
out later.} Rxe5 $1 {The surprising move that I was intending to play in the
game. Black gives up his main asset - the a-pawn.} (45... Kd7 $2 {is the most
direct way} 46. Kg6 Kc6 47. Kf6 Kd5 48. Rd2+ Ke4 {we both felt this also wins
but White has a brilliant resource here.} 49. Rd1 $3 {Now White threatens to
check on e1 and take the e6-pawn while ...Ra6 is met by Rd6.} (49. Kxe6 Rxe5+)
(49. Re2+ Kd3 50. Ra2 Ra6 $19 {is also trivial} 51. h4) 49... a3 (49... Ra6 50.
Rd6 $11) 50. Re1+ Kd4 51. Kxe6 a2 52. Rd1+ Kc3 53. Kxf5 $11) 46. Rxa4 Kf6 $1 {
Now the white king is very oddly placed and I realised that Black has three
plans and it would be impossible to deal with all of them. Right now Black is
threatening the rook transfer to h8, h1 and e2 and all of them White can't
prevent.} 47. h3 (47. Ra8 Re2 $19) (47. h4 Re2 {transposes to the main line}) (
47. Ra1 Re2 48. Rf1 Ra2 $19) 47... Re1 $1 (47... gxh3 48. Kh4 h2 49. Ra1 Re2
50. f4 $11 {and White will win the h-pawn}) 48. h4 Re2 49. Rf4 {even here it
is not trivial} Rc2 $1 (49... e5 {Black should not play ...e5 when White's
king can go to g5 in one tempo.} 50. Ra4 Rxf2 51. Ra6+ $11) 50. Kh6 Ra2 $22 51.
Kh7 (51. h5 Ra8 52. Kh7 Kg5 $19) (51. Kh5 Ra8 52. Kh6 Rh8#) 51... e5 $1 {
now is the right time as the white king is far from the g5-square.} 52. Rb4
Rxf2 53. Rb6+ Kf7 54. Rb7+ Ke6 $19) 45... a3 46. Kg6 Kd7 47. Kf6 Ra6 48. Kf7
Ra5 {An extra 60 seconds never hurts.} 49. Kf6 Ra4 $1 50. Kf7 f4 {Right at
this moment when White cannot take it.} 51. Kf6 (51. gxf4 Rxf4+ 52. Kg6 Ra4 53.
Kxh5 Kc6 54. Kg6 Kc5 55. Kf6 Kd5 56. Rd2+ Kc4 $19) 51... f3 $1 52. Kf7 Ra6 53.
Kf6 Ra5 {My original intention for this move was to take the pawn on e5 which
also wins, but then I changed my mind and went for a more direct way.} 54. Kf7
Ra8 (54... Rxe5 55. Rxa3 Re2 56. Kg6 Rxf2 57. Kxh5 Re2 58. Kxg4 f2 59. Rf3 e5
$19 {and the pawns cannot be stopped. I calculated this but saw some ghost and
felt here I could spoil the win.}) 55. Kf6 Kc6 {In this way I had to calculate
a few more moves but I rechecked a couple of times to make sure it wins
because it wins ultimately by one tempo!} 56. Kxe6 Kc5 57. Kf7 Kb4 58. Ra1 a2
59. Kg6 (59. e6 Kb3 60. e7 Kb2 61. Re1 a1=Q 62. Rxa1 Kxa1 63. e8=Q Rxe8 64.
Kxe8 Kb2 65. Kf7 Kc2 66. Kg6 Kd2 67. Kxh5 Ke2 68. Kxg4 Kxf2 69. h4 Kg2 70. h5
f2 71. h6 f1=Q {Black is just one tempo faster. This is what I had to make
sure of while playing 54...Ra8.}) 59... Kb3 60. Kxh5 Rg8 $1 61. Rd1 Kc2 62. Re1
Kb2 63. e6 a1=Q 64. Rxa1 Kxa1 65. e7 Kb2 66. e8=Q Rxe8 67. Kxg4 Kc3 {Knowing
some details about rook vs three pawns I knew that there is no chance White is
even remotely close to building his fortress so I blitzed out this move
missing that I could win even more easily.} (67... Rf8 {is a much faster way
to win.}) 68. Kxf3 Kd4 69. Kf4 (69. h4 Rf8+) 69... Rf8+ 70. Kg5 Rxf2 71. h4 Ke5
72. h5 Ke6 73. g4 Kf7 74. Kh6 Rg2 75. g5 Rg1 76. g6+ Kg8 77. g7 Ra1 {A win
against the top seed on 2nd board didn't change much. Le Quang finished 2nd
and I finished 8th. Although all normal tiebreak rules would have favoured me
there was only one tiebreak system which was worse; number of wins! I was
unbeaten in the event which also means I won fewer games hence I had to be
content with 8th place despite tieing for 2nd place.} 0-1

[Event "Edmonton 11th"]
[Site "Edmonton"]
[Date "2016.06.19"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Sethuraman, SP."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2654"]
[BlackElo "2653"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "103"]
[EventDate "2016.06.18"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
[EventCategory "9"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 173"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. e4 c6 {Sethuraman who is better known among his friends as Sethu or SP, is
capable of playing pretty much anything and everything so it was not
surprising that he chose the Caro-Kann for this game, an opening which he has
tried very rarely so far.} 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. O-O h6 7.
Nbd2 Nd7 8. Nb3 g5 {Black has number of setups which he can opt for and this
is one of the most dynamic, which perfectly suits Sethu's style.} 9. a4 {
A slightly rare move compared to Re1 and Bd2. Anticipating that Black would
love to castle on the queenside White tries to discourage that as much as
possible.} Bg7 10. a5 O-O 11. Re1 {As a result of confusing lines. I
remembered this Re1-Bd3 idea which happened in the game but forgot that it
works mainly after ...Qc7.} (11. c3 {would have been a much better choice.} Ng6
{now Black can't play this move anymore as...} 12. Ne1 $1 {[%csl Rf5]
threatens to trap the f5-bishop. The advantage of not playing Re1 becomes
visible.}) 11... Ng6 12. Bd3 {I still wanted to continue with the plan I had
in mind before the game but it is clearly a worse version as the queen on d8
is ideally placed to meet White's kingside attack plans.} (12. Be3 {was the
normal move leading to unlcear game.}) 12... Bxd3 13. Qxd3 g4 $1 14. Nfd2 Rc8 (
14... c5 15. Nxc5 Nxc5 16. dxc5 Nxe5 17. Qg3 Qf6 {was also fine for Black and
would have given anough counterplay to maintain the balance.}) (14... b6 $5 {
a move which Sethu suggested after the game and a move that I didn't pay
attention to during the game. This could have been very strong too. Black
simply threatens ...c5 and White is not in time to exploit Black's kingside
weakness.} 15. Qe2 (15. c4 c5 $1) 15... c5 16. Qxg4 c4 $1 17. Nxc4 dxc4 18. Nd2
Qh4 19. Qxh4 Nxh4 20. Nxc4 Rac8 $13 {Although the computer thinks it's equal I
would prefer Black here.}) 15. Qe2 $6 (15. Qe3 {still keeps the game even.})
15... c5 $6 {Natural but Black had a much stronger resource at his disposal.} (
15... h5 16. Nf1 {we both felt it could be scary for Black, missing the
following sequence of simple moves:} (16. Qe3 $1 {still keeps things under
control and White is only slightly worse here.}) 16... c5 $1 {only now ....c5
when White can't take it anymore} 17. Ng3 (17. c3 c4 $1) 17... cxd4 18. Nxh5
Qh4 $1 {and Black is clearly better.}) 16. Qxg4 $1 c4 17. Nc5 Nxc5 18. dxc5
Rxc5 19. Nf3 $1 {Here I was already very happy with my position. The kingside
attack is coming slowly but in a very effective way.} d4 $6 (19... Rxa5 $1 {
however scary it looks Black had to go for this.} 20. Rxa5 Qxa5 21. c3 $44 {
The engine thinks Black is fine here, but it does look very scary and White
can force a draw with Qh5-Kh7-Ng5 basically whenever he wants while Black will
have to watch out for White's other attacking plans with h4 and so on. I feel
practically White is more comfortable than Black here.}) 20. Qh5 Rxa5 21. Bxh6
(21. Rxa5 $1 Qxa5 22. Bxh6 $16 {[%cal Gh2h4] was much stronger than what I
played.}) 21... Rxa1 22. Rxa1 Qd5 (22... d3 $1 23. Ng5 Nf4 24. Qg4 dxc2 25.
Bxg7 Qd2 {is easy for computers but not so easy for humans. At least not for
me!}) 23. Qg5 (23. Bxg7 Kxg7 24. h4 {is somewhat similar to what happened in
the game.}) 23... Qd8 24. Qh5 Qd5 25. h4 $1 Nxe5 (25... d3 26. cxd3 cxd3 27.
Bxg7 Kxg7 28. Qg5 f6 29. exf6+ Rxf6 30. Rxa7 $16) 26. Nxe5 {From now on I had
to find a series of only moves to win but it was not that difficult and all
moves were very natural.} (26. Ng5 d3 $17) 26... Bxh6 27. Qxh6 (27. Ra3 {
will mostly transpose to the game after c3.}) 27... Qxe5 28. Ra3 $1 {Otherwise
Black has no problems at all.} c3 (28... d3 29. cxd3 Rd8 30. d4 $1 {thanks to
this little resource White wins!}) 29. bxc3 dxc3 30. Ra4 $1 Qg7 (30... Qf5 $1 {
was more resilient} 31. f3 Qc5+ 32. Kh1 f5 33. Qg6+ Kh8 34. Qh5+ Kg7 35. Rg4+
$1 {It took some time to figure this out but once you get it then it doesn't
take much time to calculate the rest.} Kf6 36. Qh6+ Ke7 37. Rg7+ Rf7 38. Qg5+
Ke8 39. Rg8+ Kd7 40. Qd8+ Kc6 41. Qe8+ Rd7 42. Rg7 Qd4 43. Qxe6+ Kc7 44. Rxd7+
Qxd7 45. Qe5+ Kb6 46. Qxc3 $16) 31. Qh5 $1 f5 32. Rxa7 {Materially Black is
doing fine, but Black's main problem is his exposed king.} Rd8 33. Qf3 $1 {
Forcing a rook endgame.} (33. g3 {is good enough too.}) 33... Qg4 34. Qxg4+
fxg4 35. Rxb7 (35. Ra3 Rc8 36. Rb3 Rc7 37. Kh2) 35... Rd2 (35... g3 36. fxg3
Rd2 37. Re7 $18) 36. Rb4 $1 {White must not let the g4-pawn stay alive.} g3 37.
Rg4+ $1 Kf7 38. Rxg3 Rxc2 39. Rf3+ $1 {The final precise move. Now Black is
completely lost.} Kg6 40. g4 {Now all that is remaining is to transfer the
white rook to the c-file at the right moment.} Rc1+ 41. Kg2 e5 42. Rd3 $1 e4
43. Rd6+ Kg7 44. Rc6 c2 45. h5 Kh7 46. Kh2 {I wanted to play g5 only when the
black king is on the g-file, so that when he attacks my g-pawn with the rook
then I will be able to exchange the rook on the g-file.} (46. g5 Rd1 47. Rxc2
Rd5 48. Rc7+ Kh8 49. Rc8+ Kh7 50. g6+ Kg7 51. Rc7+ Kg8 52. Rh7 {also wins but
only because there are pawns on f2 and e4. Without these two pawns the same
position would be a famous draw after 52...Rd3 which once happened in my game
when I was on the defending side.} Rd3 53. h6 Rd6 54. Rg7+ Kh8 55. Kg3 $18 {
Here White wins as there are no stalemate tricks for Black anymore.}) 46... Kh8
47. Rc7 Kg8 48. g5 Kh8 (48... Rd1 49. Rxc2 Rd5 50. Rc3 {was the whole point of
delaying g5.}) 49. Rc8+ Kg7 50. h6+ Kg6 51. Rc6+ Kh7 52. Rc7+ 1-0

[Event "Edmonton 11th"]
[Site "Edmonton"]
[Date "2016.06.26"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Shirov, Alexei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2654"]
[BlackElo "2682"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "87"]
[EventDate "2016.06.18"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CAN"]
[EventCategory "9"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 173"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.07.12"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 {I was expecting a
Sveshnikov in this game. Alexei doesn't mind repeating lines and moreover I
hadn't faced Sveshnikov opening in recent times so this was very much expected.
} 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 Bg5 12. Nc2
Rb8 {Once again my guess turned out to be correct as I had a hunch that he
might opt for this line with ...Bg5-...Rb8 which got revived recently. Earlier
Alexei had only played 0-0 here.} 13. a4 bxa4 14. Ncb4 Nxb4 15. cxb4 (15. Nxb4
{is another main line.}) 15... O-O 16. Rxa4 a5 17. h4 {An important
intermediate move in anticipation of the d5-pawn sac which happened in the
game. In order to understand the purpose of this move one should know what
happens after the normal move 17.b5:} (17. b5 {as both 17.bxa5 and 17.Rxa5 run
into an one move tactic 17.b5 is the only other and perhaps the most natural
reaction in the position. For a long time this line used to be considered
slightly worse for Black until Grischuk came up with a brilliant pawn sac idea.
} Bd7 18. Nc3 d5 $1 {A move which I personally know was found by many players
individually but Grischuk had the first opportunity to use it on the board.} (
18... Qb6 {was the old theory}) 19. Nxd5 (19. exd5 e4 $1 20. Rxe4 f5 21. Rd4
Bf6 $44 {gives Black excellent compensation.}) 19... Be7 20. Qb3 Bb4+ 21. Nxb4
axb4 22. Bc4 Bxb5 $11 {0-1 (51) Dominguez Perez,L (2755)-Grischuk,A (2789)
Bilbao 2014, and Black got easy equality in the game.}) 17... Bh6 {It is
important that White includes h4 precisely at the point when the black bishop
must go to h6.} (17... Be7 $2 18. bxa5 $1 Rxb2 {without the bishop on g5 this
rook is not doing much on b2 and also can be kicked out easily:} 19. Qc1 {
and White is close to winning.}) 18. b5 Bd7 19. Nc3 d5 {So we have got the
same positionas in Dominguiz - Grischuk with h4-Bh6 included.} 20. exd5 e4 $146
(20... Kh8 $5 {Grischuk opted for this when Anand came up with the 17.h4 idea:}
21. Be2 f5 22. g3 {½-½ (41) Anand,V (2804)-Grischuk,A (2781) Stavanger 2015,
with unclear play.}) 21. Be2 {And now we see the point of including h4-Bh6.
Here the black bishop on h6 is not only out of play but also it prevents Black
from pushing his central pawns freely.} (21. Rxe4 f5 22. Rd4 Re8+ 23. Be2 Rxb5
{doesn't give White much.}) 21... f5 (21... e3 {would be nice if it works but
here White has...} 22. f4 $1 {and now either the h6-bishop will be dead for a
long time or Black should play ...g6 when White can counter with h5 and the
rook on h1 becomes active too.}) 22. d6 $1 Kh8 (22... Bf4 {Black would love to
free his bishop but this is still not the right moment for it.} 23. g3 Be5 24.
Qd5+ $18) 23. g3 $1 {Now that Black was threatening to play Bf4-Be5 this move
is important.} f4 $6 {Probably the most natural move, but not the best one. I
had this position on my computer before the game and I vividly remember that
the engines were not happy with ...f4. However, while Alexei was pondering
over his 23rd move I also felt ...f4 is a very natural reaction and goes with
the spirit of the Sveshnikov opening. Without the engines running things are
not that easy, specially over the board.} (23... Rf6 24. Rd4 $1 {was the last
bit of my preparation that I could remember.}) 24. Rxe4 {After a reasonable
amount of thinking, but this was easy by the process of elimination.} Bf5 {
Here I had a choice to play very safe and hope for a small advantage by
castling right now and giving up the exchange or biting the bullet with Re5
which I ended up playing simply because it felt stronger.} 25. Re5 (25. O-O $5
Bxe4 26. Nxe4 {is also fine for White and may be if I had this position some
other day I might have opted for this.}) 25... Qf6 (25... Rb6 {was the other
move that I was looking at. Black can try to attack the annoying pawn on d6.}
26. O-O $1 Bh3 (26... Rxd6 27. Rd5 {leads to a very nice endgame specially as
the bishop on h6 (thanks to h4!) is far away from the game.}) 27. Ne4 Bxf1 28.
Bxf1 $16) 26. Qd5 fxg3 (26... f3 $5 {This looked a bit scary at the board. Now,
having the air-conditioning on and engines running, everything looks under
control. During the game facing Shirov in such a wild position things looks a
bit different. I was certain White is better but nevertheless there were many
lines that had to be calculated.} 27. Bc4 $1 (27. Bxf3 Bg4 $1 (27... Bd7 28.
O-O $1 {White sacs the piece and gets very good compensation} Qxf3 29. Qxf3
Rxf3 30. Re7 {in fact White is significantly better here}) 28. Be2 (28. Bxg4
Qxf2+ 29. Kd1 Qxb2 $19 {now the king is totally exposed and Black wins}) 28...
Qxf2+ 29. Kd1 $13 {was messy and I didn't like this at all.}) 27... Rbe8 28.
Rxe8 Rxe8+ 29. Kf1 $16 {It looks weird but the white king is actually very
safe and White is controlling all the key squares.} Rd8 {is an empty threat as
it doesn't really threaten anything.} 30. Kg1 $1 $18 {Black can't even take
the pawn.}) 27. fxg3 Qg6 (27... Bd3 {After the game some people said it was an
easy game and Shirov lost without a fight. I would love to see how they would
react to such a move without computers :-)} 28. Kd1 {I wanted to play this but
the machine points out a stronger move.} (28. Rf1 {is not advisable!} Qxf1+ 29.
Bxf1 Rxf1#) (28. g4 $1 {is the computer suggestion} Qf2+ 29. Kd1 $18 {and
apparently Black is lost}) 28... Rb6 29. Bxd3 Rxd6 30. Qe4 Rxd3+ 31. Qxd3 Qxe5
32. Kc2 $16 {and White will slowly consolidate I believe.}) (27... g6 {is the
computer suggestion and probably the strongest. Somehow both of us felt that
such a slow move can't work as it allows White to consolidate totally by
castling.} 28. O-O Bg7 $1 {finally the bishop comes back into the game!} 29.
Re7 Rbd8 30. Ne4 Qxe7 31. dxe7 Rxd5 32. exf8=Q+ Bxf8 {White gets to exchange
the queens and remains one pawn up, but Black will have decent chances of
making a draw here now that both of his bishops are in the game.}) 28. g4 $1 {
Otherwise Black is totally fine.} Bc8 (28... Bxg4 {Knowing whom I am playing
with I was making sure that I see all sorts of sacrifices. Shirov would be the
last person on earth to shy away from attack!} 29. Rg1 Qc2 30. Rxg4 Qxb2 {
at this point it felt everything should be winning but nevertheless I decided
to go a little deeper just in case.} 31. Qd4 {felt most logical as it defends
the c3-knight and also keeps an eye on g7 for an attack.} (31. Nd1 Bd2+ 32.
Qxd2 Qxe5 33. Qd4 {was also winning but I was looking for a more direct
solution}) 31... Rbc8 {Otherwise there is no time for Black.} 32. Nd1 $1 (32.
d7 $4 {Initially this is the move I saw and felt I had everything under total
control.} Rxc3 33. d8=Q {I checked the position and felt that I am simply
controlling too many squares and there is little Black can do. I was happy
with this until I found Black can mate in 4 :-)} Rc1+ 34. Bd1 Rxd1+ 35. Kxd1 (
35. Qxd1 Qf2#) 35... Qc1+ 36. Ke2 Qf1# {Yes, White is still controlling most
of the squares, but that doesn't stop him from being mated!}) 32... Bd2+ 33.
Qxd2 Qxe5 34. Qd4 $18 {and after rechecking this line once more I was
confident that I coulddeal with 28...Bg4.}) 29. Ne4 {At this point I was
absolutely sure it's winning. 28...Bc8 is too good to be true for Black. As
Gelfand says in his book... 'it is not important how quickly you win but its
more important that how safely you win' ... so I was looking for the safest
way possible and finally came to this move which forces a queen exchange.} (29.
Qd4 {the engine says this is one of the fastest routes but I trust Gelfand :)})
(29. g5 $5 Bb7 30. Qd1 {I was initially excited with this absolute crazy
retreat} Bxh1 31. Bh5 Qxh5 (31... Bf3 32. Bxf3 Rbe8 33. Rxe8 Rxe8+ 34. Kf2 Bxg5
35. hxg5 Qxg5 36. Qd4 $18) (31... Rbe8 32. Bxg6 Rxe5+ 33. Kd2 $18) 32. Qxh5 Bf3
33. Qxf3 Rxf3 34. Ke2 $16 {should be good enough for White but then the
position I had after 28...Bc8 looked much worse for Black than the current
position.}) 29... Bb7 (29... Bf4 30. h5 Qh6 31. g5 $18) 30. h5 $1 Qxe4 {
Black has no way to escape the queen exchange.} 31. Qxe4 Bxe4 32. Rxe4 Rfd8 33.
Rd4 {Finally, all complications are over and White is two pawns up. While
calculating 29.Ne4 I had to just make sure that I was not losing my d6-pawn
which is the most vital pawn that restricts Black's activity.} Bc1 34. d7 {
This is once again the safest way as it restricts Black totally.} (34. b3 Ba3
35. d7 Rb7 36. Rh3 {I spend some time on making the opposite coloured bishop
ending win but it was unnecessary and moreover probably not winning either!}
Rbxd7 37. Rxd7 Rxd7 38. Rd3 Rxd3 39. Bxd3 Kg8 $1 (39... h6 40. Bc4 $18 {
[%csl Rh8]}) 40. Kd2 h6 41. Kc3 Kf7 42. Kc4 Ke6 43. b6 Kd7 44. Kb5 Kc8 45. Kxa5
Kb8 $11) 34... Bxb2 35. Rd5 Rb7 36. O-O $1 {Not only for aesthetic effect and
getting the pleasure of castling on move 36 but it actually has a point. If I
could, then I would keep my king closer to Black's a-pawn but unfortunately I
couldn't make 36.Rf1 work.} (36. Rf1 Ba3 37. Rf7 Kg8 {mostly I am winning here
too but I have to give up the d-pawn which I didn't want to.}) 36... g6 (36...
Ba3 37. Rfd1 {The point of castling.... White gets to defend the d-pawn. Next
Re5 or Bc4 is coming and Black will be totally fixed.} Be7 38. g5 h6 39. g6
Rbb8 40. Bc4 $18) 37. h6 Ba3 38. Rf7 a4 39. Re5 $1 {Now both rooks will be
fixed.} Rbb8 40. Bc4 {Now the king.} Bf8 41. Kg2 a3 42. Ba2 {And finally the
pawns.} Bd6 43. Re6 Bf8 44. b6 {Next White will play b7 and then Black will be
able to move nothing but his bishop. Alexei decided not to continue further.}
1-0

[Event "ESP-chT Div Honor"]
[Site "Monzon"]
[Date "2016.10.02"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Saric, Ivan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B81"]
[WhiteElo "2672"]
[BlackElo "2668"]
[PlyCount "141"]
[EventDate "2016.09.26"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 174 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2016.10.10"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2016.10.10"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Solvay"]
[BlackTeam "Merida Patrimonio"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. h3 e6 7. g4 h6 8. Bg2
Be7 9. Be3 Nc6 10. f4 Nd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Nf3 b5 13. Ne2 Bb7 14. Ng3 d5 15.
exd5 exd5 16. Qxd5 Na5 17. Qd1 Nc4 18. Bd4 Bc5 19. Kh1 Bxd4 20. Qxd4 Nf6 21.
Nf5 Qxd4 22. N3xd4 Bxg2+ 23. Kxg2 Nxb2 24. Ne7+ Kh7 25. g5 Ne4 26. Rfe1 Nc3 27.
Ndc6 Rfe8 28. h4 g6 29. h5 gxh5 30. Rh1 hxg5 31. Rxh5+ Kg7 32. Rxg5+ Kf6 33.
Re1 Nc4 34. Rf5+ Kg7 35. Rg5+ Kf6 36. Rg3 b4 37. f5 Rxe7 38. Nxe7 Ne5 39. Ng8+
Kxf5 40. Nh6+ Kf6 41. Rge3 Kg6 42. Rxe5 Kxh6 43. Kf3 a5 44. Kf4 Kg7 45. a3 bxa3
46. Ra1 Rd8 47. Rxa3 Nd5+ 48. Kf3 Nb4 49. Rc5 Rd2 50. c3 Nd3 51. Rcxa5 Rh2 52.
Rd5 Rh3+ 53. Ke4 Nb2 54. Rd4 Kg6 55. Ra6+ Kg5 56. Rd2 f5+ 57. Kd4 Rh4+ 58. Kd5
Nc4 59. Rd3 Re4 60. Re6 Rg4 61. Rd4 Nb2 62. c4 f4 63. c5 f3 64. Rxg4+ Kxg4 65.
c6 Nd3 66. c7 Nf4+ 67. Ke4 Nxe6 68. c8=Q f2 69. Qc1 Kg3 70. Qe3+ Kg2 71. Qf3+
1-0

[Event "Asian Continental op 16th"]
[Site "Chengdu"]
[Date "2017.05.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Kasimdzhanov, Rustam"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A07"]
[WhiteElo "2653"]
[BlackElo "2698"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "127"]
[EventDate "2017.05.12"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 179"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2017.07.12"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.07.12"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

{+2 before the final round didn't leave me any chance to qualify for the world
cup specially since I was unbeaten which basically meant the worst possible
tiebreak. I was paired up against my old friend and nemesis Rustam. It was not
easy to guess what he might opt for. I decided to go for the Reti which I have
played only few times so far.} 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Bg4 3. Bg2 Nd7 4. O-O e6 5. h3 {
Not a particularly popular move order but there is definitely nothing wrong
with it.} Bxf3 (5... Bh5 {is an altogether different line}) 6. Bxf3 g6 {
This came as mild surprise. I could not be sure if Rustam had it prepared or
was simply freestyling over the board.} (6... Ngf6 {would have simply led to
normal Reti positions.}) 7. e4 $1 (7. d4 {This was other way but then I felt
he could stop me from playing e4 by ...Nf6 and later I would have to exchange
one knight in order to play e4 which I did not want.} Ngf6) 7... dxe4 (7... d4
{was also do-able but I was happy to get this kind of position} 8. Bg2 $14 {
[%cal Gd2d3]}) 8. Bxe4 c6 9. d4 {Anyone would be happy to get such slight edge
in the position as early as move 9 against one of the best theoreticians in
the world.} Bg7 10. c3 Ne7 (10... Ngf6 11. Bg2 O-O 12. Qb3 $14) 11. Qb3 $1 {
Forces Black to lose his flexibility and to make some sort of a decision. Any
queen move could be met with Qa3 stopping castling while on the other hand if
Black plays ...Nf6 then White can simply come back Bg2 and the knight remains
a bit misplaced on f6.} Nf6 {Not the best place for the knight. Now White
doesn't have to bother about any central breaks.} 12. Bg2 (12. Bh1 {Fischer,R 
(2760)-Petrosian,T (2640) Candidates final 1971 (3) 1/2 Computers do suggest
this 'Petrosian' way as a valid alternative but I didn't see myself playing g4
in case Black plays ...Nf5 so there was no need for the same. Just in case for
those who didn't get the Petrosian move please do search Fischer - Petrosian
Game 3 from Candidates 1971.}) 12... Qd7 13. Nd2 O-O 14. a4 {I didn't want to
commit my knight yet so I decided to expand on the queenside. White simply
keeps options of all knight movrs open which in a way prevents Black from
playing ...Nd5. If he goes ...Nfd5 then White will play Ne4 while if he goes
Ned5 then Nc4 becomes stronger.} a5 (14... Ned5 15. Nc4 {[%csl Rg7]}) (14...
Nfd5 15. Ne4 {[%csl Ge4]}) 15. Re1 {Still waiting.} Rfe8 (15... Nfd5 16. Ne4 {
as always.}) 16. Nf3 {I thought it was time to develop the c1-bishop as it has
got a target on a5.} (16. Re2 $5 {was a subtle move asking Black to come up
with some more useful moves.}) 16... Nfd5 17. Bd2 Qc7 18. c4 {Aiming for
something direct. Although it is quite practical but perhaps it was better to
make some more slow moves before launching any attack.} (18. Re2 $1 {Here also
the slow approach gives White a slight edge.}) 18... Nf6 (18... Nb4 {was a
better choice} 19. Bf4 (19. Bxb4 Qb6 20. c5 Qxb4 21. Qxb4 axb4 22. Re3 Nf5 23.
Rb3 Red8 24. Rxb4 Rd7 {gives Black enough compensation for the pawn}) 19... Qb6
20. Rad1 {is what I would have played but then knight is better placed on b4
than on f6. Nevertheless, White still keeps some pressure.} Nf5 21. Re4 $1 $14
{looks odd but Black cannot take advantage of it and White keeps some pressure.
}) (18... Qb6 19. Ra3 $1 Nb4 20. c5 $14 {gets a pawn although Black will get
some compensation for the same.}) 19. Bf4 {Now White is clearly better.} Qc8
20. Be5 Rd8 21. Qc3 {[%cal Gd4d5]} (21. g4 $1 {[%cal Gb3c3] was the best way
before executing the plan of Qc3 which would have given an almost winning
advantage:} c5 {doesn't work due to} 22. d5 $1 exd5 23. Bxf6 Bxf6 24. g5 $18)
21... Ne8 22. Bxg7 Nxg7 23. Ng5 (23. g4 $142 {was my original intension to
play against the g7-knight but then I got tempted by the Ng5-Ne4 plan} Qc7 24.
Qe3 $16 {[%cal Ge3h6]}) 23... Qc7 $1 (23... Ngf5 24. Rad1 $16) 24. Rad1 (24. g4
Qf4) (24. Ne4 Ne8) 24... Rac8 {[%csl Ra5] This allows g4 as the a5-pawn will
be hanging after ...Qf4.} (24... Ne8 $5 25. b3 $14 {White can still take
things easy and slowly imporve his position before launching any attack.}) (
24... Ngf5 25. g4 Nh4 26. d5 Nxg2 (26... Qf4 27. Ne4 $16) 27. dxe6 $18) 25. g4
$1 Rf8 (25... Qf4 26. Qxa5) (25... h6 26. Nf3 {[%csl Rh6][%cal Gc3e3]}) 26. Qe3
Rcd8 27. Qe5 $1 Qb6 (27... Qxe5 28. dxe5 $18 {is absolutely hopeless. The
knight on g7 is practically dead.}) 28. Ne4 Kh8 $1 {Rustam finds the best
practical way to stay in the game. Anticipating a future Nf6 Rustam decided to
exchange the correct knight. Surprisingly in the event of an exchange on f6
the seemingly dead g7-knight will be more useful than the e7-knight. The
reason is the h4-h5-h6 plan won't be fatal for Black with the knight on g7 as
it will always control the mate on g7 while the same is impossible for the
e7-knight.} (28... Ne8 29. h4 $1 {[%csl Rg8][%cal Gh4h5,Gh5h6] is bad news for
Black.}) (28... Qxb2 {doesn't work for many reasons. One of them is as follows:
} 29. Qf6 Rd7 (29... Nc8 30. Qh4 $18) 30. d5 $18) 29. Nf6 $6 {Wrong direction.
I was not exactly in time trouble but didn't have ample time either. I
calculated a few moves and it looked very scary for Black, hence I opted for
it. This spoils the advantage a bit and gives Black counterplay. There were
cool ways to finish the game here which I failed to spot.} (29. b4 $3 {is the
computer suggestion. Later in the badminton court when I mentioned this to
Rustam, who was this time my badminton doubles partner, he simply quipped that
had I played b4 he would have demanded a thorough strip search :-)} axb4 (29...
Qxb4 30. Rb1 Qxc4 31. Rxb7 Nd5 32. Nd6 $18) 30. a5 Qa7 31. Qc7 Nc8 32. c5 $1 {
is the machine way to suffocate Black; Ng5 is coming and Black can do very
little about it.}) (29. b3 $1 {is the second best choice of engines. Both
these moves didn't occur to me during the game.}) 29... Ng8 $1 {Rustam kept on
defending with the utmost precision.} 30. c5 $5 {From a practical point of
view this was quite interesting. The idea is to make sure that the black queen
stays out of the kingside and only then will White start the h4-h5 plan.} (30.
h4 Nxf6 31. Qxf6 Rd6 {[%cal Gb6d8] is something that I wanted to avoid.}) (30.
d5 Nxf6 31. Qxf6 cxd5 32. cxd5 Kg8 {White still keeps some edge but Black will
be happy to get this position from what he had just a few moves back.}) 30...
Qb4 (30... Qxb2 31. Ne4 $16) 31. h4 {I decided to stick to my original plan.
The whole point of including c5-Qb4 was that now the black queen can never
challenge/exchange the white queen so I can freely attack on the kingside. By
the way all advantage is gone according to the engines.} (31. Ne4 f5 $132)
31... Nxf6 32. Qxf6 Kg8 $1 33. h5 Rd7 $1 {And now we see the advantage of
exchanging the right knight. Thanks to the g7-knight Black need not be scared
of h6-ideas. Already the game is open for three results.} 34. h6 Ne8 35. Qe5 {
While playing 30.c5 I saw this position would more or less come by force and
felt this will keep good practical chances. True I don't have any immediate
threats coming but on the other hand Black's pieces are also tied down and
without the engines on and in time trouble this does look scary.} Re7 (35...
Qxa4 {The computer plays it cool. During the game I felt it would take nerves
of steel to simply start grabbing the pawn while seeing f4-f5 coming} 36. f4
Qb4 37. f5 {[%eval 0,0] is the evaluation. Any day I would rather have this
position as White in a tournament game} Qxb2 {everything draws and this is one
such move!} 38. fxg6 fxg6 39. Qxe6+ Rdf7 40. Rf1 Nc7 41. Qe5 $44 {once again
everything draws as per the engines!}) 36. d5 $1 cxd5 (36... Qxc5 37. dxc6 $18)
37. Rxd5 Qxg4 38. Rd8 {The attacking mode was still on!} (38. Rd4 $1 $16 {
it was time to get into endgame and play for a queenside majority.}) 38... f6
39. Qc3 (39. Qb8 f5) 39... Qxa4 40. Red1 (40. Rd4 $1 {A slightly unusual move
to spot in time trouble. Suddenly Black loses the a5-pawn!} Qb5 41. Bf1 $1 Qc6
42. Qxa5 $16) 40... Qf4 {The sky is clear. New time control. I am two pawns
down. 0.00 according to the computer. Definitely not what I was aiming for a
couple of moves back.} 41. Qxa5 Qxh6 {Still two pawns down and this time I
also lost the h6 pawn which was not letting the black king breathe properly.}
42. Qb4 {However, it is still Black who should be more careful and practically
it is a lot easier to play from the white side here. White might be two pawns
down but his pieces are super active and also his pawns on the queenside are
way more advanced compared to Black's kingside pawns.} Qg7 (42... Ref7 $1 {
is not an easy move to make!} 43. Bxb7 Qg5+ 44. Kf1 Qh5 45. R1d3 {I would
still prefer White.}) 43. Rb8 {This is the human way.} (43. c6 $1 {Something
that I thought of briefly but I didn't want to exchange my c5-pawn against the
weak b7-pawn.} bxc6 44. Bxc6 g5 (44... f5 45. Qb8 Qf7 46. Rc8 $1 {is the
direct way that I failed to spot}) 45. Qb8 Qf7 46. b4 Qh5 47. R1d3 $16 {
White keeps things under control.}) 43... Nc7 (43... Rd7 44. Rxd7 Qxd7 45. Bf3
$16 {[%csl Rb7][%cal Gg1g2]}) (43... f5 {is what I was expecting the most} 44.
Rdd8 Qf6 45. Bxb7 Qg5+ 46. Kf1 Qc1+ 47. Ke2 Qc2+ 48. Kf3 Qc1 $1 49. Ba6 $3 {
would have been an extremely difficult move to spot} g5 50. Bb5 $1 {Followed
by this!} g4+ 51. Ke2 Kf7 52. c6 f4 53. Ba4 $3 {and finally this! The bishop
was happily protecting the king on g2. From there it went to Bb7-Ba6-Bb5-Ba4.
I could not have calculated this even if I had had a whole two hours on the
clock :-)} f3+ 54. Kd3 Qf1+ 55. Kc2 Qxf2+ 56. Rd2 Qh4 57. Rd7 $1 $18 {By
hitting the spacebar I can find it in two minutes!} f2 58. c7 f1=Q 59. c8=Q $18
{Piece of cake!}) 44. Qxb7 {It felt like exchanging one rook will only be
beneficial for me as then I can advance my pawns freely.} (44. Rxb7 $1 $16 {
Ding,L (2783)-Vidit,S (2692) 11th World Teams 2017 (2.1) 1/2 It turns out that
my rooks are way more active than their counterparts, hence this was much
stronger. As I am annotating this game I see live games from World team 2017
where Ding Liren is playing against Vidit and on move 42 Ding decided to keep
the rook active by playing Ra8-Ra7 while there it was important to exchange
rooks and push the passed a-pawn. Just in case if someone wants to compare the
positions here is the link.}) 44... f5 {After a decent amount of thought.} (
44... Nd5 {It was clear that Rustam was looking for direct ways to solve the
problems. I was also looking into this line deeper while he was thinking. My
original intention while playing Qb7 was to meet ...Nd5 with Bxd5 but it was
during Rustam's move that I went into things more deeply and realised it does
not work.} 45. Bxd5 $6 {is the reason why Rustam didn't play ...Nd5} (45. Qa8
$1 {is the simplest way and is what I was going to play}) 45... Rxb7 46. Rxb7
Qh6 (46... exd5 47. Rxg7+ Kxg7 48. Rxd5 Kf7 {Scary but also it holds}) 47.
Bxe6+ Kh8 48. Rdd7 Re8 $8 {Now Black is threatening perpetual as White is
unable to run from e2.} 49. Rxh7+ (49. c6 $142 Qc1+ 50. Kg2 Qg5+ $11) 49...
Qxh7 50. Rxh7+ Kxh7 51. Bd7 Re1+ 52. Kg2 Kg7 53. c6 Rc1 54. b4 Kf7 55. b5 Ke7
56. b6 Kd6 {and Black is in time!}) 45. Rxf8+ (45. c6 $1 $14) 45... Kxf8 46. b4
$6 (46. c6 $1 Qh6 47. Qb4 $16) 46... Qb2 $1 $132 {I missed this move entirely.}
47. Bc6 Nd5 $2 {Just when Black had got a completely equal position Rustam
stumbled. This move would have been totally fine only if a particular tactic
didn't work. Unfortunately for him in this case he saw it only after playing
this move.} (47... Kf7 {and Black has nothing to worry about. Most likely the
game will end in some sort of perpetual.} 48. Rd7 {I was planning to bail out
like this} (48. b5 Nd5 {was scary}) 48... Rxd7 49. Bxd7 Qc1+ 50. Kg2 Qg5+ 51.
Kf1 Qc1+ $11) 48. Qa8+ $1 Kf7 (48... Kg7 {Rustam was counting on this move but
this loses to a cute piece of tactics} 49. Bxd5 $1 (49. Qd8 Qe2) 49... exd5 50.
Qa1 $3 $18 {[%csl Rb4,Rc5] was the move missed by Rustam. The upcoming rook
endgame would be hopeless for Black.}) 49. Bxd5 Qxb4 (49... exd5 50. Qxd5+ Kg7
51. Qd4+ $18) 50. Bf3 (50. Bxe6+ Rxe6 51. Rd7+ Re7 52. Qd5+ Kf8 $11) 50... Qxc5
51. Qh8 $1 {Wins the game.} Rc7 52. Qxh7+ Kf6 53. Qh8+ Kg5 54. Kg2 Rc8 55. Qh7
Rc7 56. Qg8 e5 57. Rg1 Kf6 58. Bd5 Qd6 59. Qh8+ Ke7 60. Qg7+ Kd8 61. Qg8+ Ke7
62. Rh1 Kf6 63. Qh8+ Rg7 64. Qh4+ 1-0

[Event "ESP-chT CECLUB Honor"]
[Site "Linares"]
[Date "2017.08.15"]
[Round "2.2"]
[White "Mareco, Sandro"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C54"]
[WhiteElo "2650"]
[BlackElo "2658"]
[Annotator "Ganguly,Surya"]
[PlyCount "58"]
[EventDate "2017.08.14"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 181"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2017.11.10"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.11.10"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Equigoma Social Catolica"]
[BlackTeam "Solvay CA"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. e4 {Mareco plays lot of things and I ended up preparing pretty much
everything except 1.e4 by making a wild guess that he won't opt for it :-)} e5
{After making few more wild assumptions I decided to go for 1...e5 and
eliminated 1...e6 and 1...c5 .} 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 {Once again this is
something that I didn't guess. I should stop making guesses. I guess I am not
good at guesses!} Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. c3 d6 {I have played both d6 and
d5 in this position. For this game I decided on less forcing lines.} 7. b4 {
This was the real surprise. This line is not so popular and is not that
critical yet. Oh yes in case you are wondering.... I didn't guess this!} Bb6 8.
a4 {I remembered that against Akopian in last world rapid I had played a6 and
during the game itself realised a5 was better.} a5 9. b5 Ne7 {Here finally my
opponent stopped blitzing and started to think.} 10. Be3 {This is slightly
inaccurate. Now Black has number of ways to react and all of them looked
decent.} (10. Nbd2 {is the most popular move.}) 10... c6 {There were other
ways also but I felt this move simply ruins White's idea and makes the
e3-bishop a bit aimless.} 11. Re1 Bc7 $5 {I will get d5 before he gets d4 so
basically it will be some sort of reverse Italian with weird pawn structure on
the queenside.} (11... Bxe3 12. Rxe3 Ng6 $11 {was the most classical approach
and Black gets easy equality. However, at this stage I wanted to keep more
pieces and get d5 as early as possible.}) (11... d5 {I wanted to make this
work but couldn't do so.} 12. Bxb6 Qxb6 13. exd5 cxd5 14. Bb3 Ng6 (14... Bg4 {
doable but this was not the point of playing d5}) 15. Nxe5 $1 Nxe5 16. Rxe5 Ng4
17. Re2 Qd6 18. g3 {I wasn't sure about my compensation here} Ne5 (18... Qh6
19. f3) 19. Re3 $1 $16 {and I didn't see anything concrete for Black.}) 12.
Nbd2 d5 13. Ba2 Ng6 14. h3 (14. Bg5 $5 h6 (14... Be6 {I was happy with this})
15. Bxf6 gxf6 {even this was not so bad. Black will create some attacking
chances on the kingside} (15... Qxf6 16. exd5 cxd5 17. Bxd5 Nf4 18. Ne4 $16)
16. exd5 cxd5 17. c4 Nf4 {with a messy position. I wasn't sure which one to
opt for in the event of 14.Bg5. Both looked complicated and Black has good
counterplay.}) 14... h6 15. Qc2 {Here I thought if I play ...Be6 then he might
have some d4 ideas so I came up with an interesting alternative instead.} Bd7
$5 {[%csl Rc2,Rg1][%cal Gd8c8,Gd7h3]} (15... Be6 16. d4 {although the engine
thinks this is also fine for Black} Nxe4 17. Nxe4 Bf5 18. Nfd2 Qh4 $1 {being
the point.}) 16. Rab1 (16. d4 {with the bishop on d7 this never works} dxe4 {
no more ...Be6 business} 17. Nxe4 Bf5) 16... Qc8 $1 {[%cal Gd7h3] Suddenly the
idea of ...Bxh3 becomes annoying. The white queen is awfully placed at c2
which won't be able to reach f1 so fast after the sac on h3.} 17. Nf1 Rd8 {
The threat is better than its execution.} (17... Bxh3 $5 18. gxh3 Qxh3 19. N3h2
$8 {Otherwise White might as well resign} (19. Ng3 Nf4 $19) (19. N1h2 Ng4 $19)
(19. Qe2 dxe4 20. dxe4 Nxe4 $19) 19... Nh4 $1 {looked tempting but I did not
see a clear way} (19... d4 20. cxd4 exd4 21. Bxd4 Nh4 22. f4 Bxf4 23. Bxf6 {
wasnt' clear either}) 20. f3 Nh5 $44 {Surely Black has huge compensation but
during the game I wasn't completely sure and hence decided to wait further.}) (
17... Nh5 $5 {This was also very tempting} 18. bxc6 bxc6 19. exd5 Bxh3 20. N1h2
$13 {Here also I did not see a clear cut way and I did not want to commit so
fast.}) 18. Ng3 Be6 $1 {For now, just waiting. I did not see how white is
improving and realised there are not many useful moves for White. Now that d4
is also not working (thanks to the queen on c8) I wanted to have my bishop on
e6.} (18... Bxh3 19. bxc6 bxc6 20. gxh3 Qxh3 21. Qe2 $1 $14 {now the queen is
in time. As a matter of fact this was also the only move for White.}) 19. Bd2
$2 {[%csl Rc2] Mostly he wanted to play c4 at some point and hence removed the
bishop from e3 so that d4 will not come with tempo.} (19. Red1 Nf4 $1 20. Bxf4
exf4 {[%csl Re4]}) (19. d4 Nxe4 20. Nxe4 dxe4 21. Bxe6 Qxe6 {the advantage of
having the queen on c8} 22. Qxe4 f5 23. Qc2 e4 $36) (19. Kh2 {probably this
was practically the best..., get rid of Bxh3 ideas. Definitely not a move that
one would like to make with the bishop on c7.} Bd6 20. Bb6 Re8 {I prefer Black
here.}) 19... Bxh3 $1 {And now that Qe2-Qf1 takes one more extra move....this
is the time! Just the previous move Black played Bd7 to e6 and now Be6 to h3.
All thanks to Bd2 which prevents Qe2.} 20. bxc6 {Including this makes sense as
it can only benefit White.} bxc6 21. gxh3 Qxh3 {[%cal Gf6g4,Gg6h4,Gg6f4] No
more Qe2 business.} 22. Rb7 (22. Qd1 Nf4 23. Bxf4 exf4 24. Nf1 dxe4 $19) 22...
Ng4 $1 {With the threat of ...Nh4.} (22... dxe4 {I checked this out a bit too.
Trying to take on d2} 23. Bxf7+ (23. dxe4 Rxd2 $19 {[%cal Yg6f4]}) 23... Kh8
24. Ng5 $1 {Comps} (24. dxe4 Rxd2 $19) (24. Nxe4 {I saw this, which is also
fine} Nxe4 25. Rxe4 Qxf3 26. Rxc7) 24... hxg5 25. Bxg6 $14) (22... Rd7 $1 {
The computer says this is also fine. I quite liked my move too. Much more
human and stylish :P}) 23. Bc1 {[%cal Gc2e2] Now White is coming with Qe2-Qf1.
Black must react fast to stop this only plan of White.} (23. Rxc7 Nh4 {is mate
in two}) (23. Be3 {With the bishop on e3 white is kind of stalemated! White's
only plan is to get Qe2-Qf1 but with the bishop on e3 that doesn't work. Now
nobody moves on the kingside and white has absolutely zero plan.} Rd7 $1 {
[%cal Gg6f4] White's only defence is Qe2-Qf1 and with the bishop on e3 that
does not happen.} (23... Rd6 24. Rxc7 Rf6 25. Qe2 Nh4 26. Nxh4 Qh2+ 27. Kf1
Qxg3 28. Rc1 Qxh4 29. Ke1 dxe4 {also wins but is completely unnecessary}) 24.
Qe2 (24. exd5 e4 $19) 24... Nxe3 {The disadvantage of having the bishop on e3}
25. Qxe3 (25. fxe3 Qxg3+ $19) 25... Nf4 $19) 23... Ra7 $3 {Giving no time for
Qe2-Qf1.} (23... Bd6 24. Qe2 Bc5 25. d4 exd4 26. Qf1 {White has no problems
anymore.}) (23... Rd6 $5 24. Qe2 {this was my problem} (24. Rxc7 Rf6 25. Qe2
Nh4 $19) 24... Nh4 (24... Rf6 25. Qf1 $16) 25. Nxh4 Qh2+ 26. Kf1 Qxh4 27. Qc2
$8 {I left lff calculating around here as by now I realised the game
continuation was much stronger} Qh3+ 28. Ke2 Nxf2 29. Nf5 Nxd3 30. Nxd6 Nxe1
31. Kxe1 Bxd6 $17 {is a computer generated line.}) 24. Rxa7 (24. Rxc7 {good or
bad this was absolutely needed} Rxc7 25. Qe2 {The only way} dxe4 26. dxe4 Nh4
$1 (26... Rd3 {unfortunately this cool move didn't work} 27. Qxd3 Nh4 28. Qd8+
{This being the problem} Kh7 29. Qxh4 $18) (26... Rcd7 27. Qf1 Qxf1+ 28. Nxf1
Rd3 29. Ne3 Nxe3 30. Bxe3 Rxc3 31. Rb1 $132) 27. Nxh4 Qxh4 28. Kg2 {[%cal
Ye1h1]} (28. Qf3 Rd3 $1 $19) (28. Nf1 Rd6 $19) 28... Qh2+ 29. Kf3 Qh3 $1 {
I had to spot this move well in advance and surprisingly this was the move
which somehow took quite some time to spot. Mainly because there were so many
other ways to play for Black} 30. Rh1 Nh2+ 31. Ke3 Rcd7 $19) 24... Bb6 25. d4 (
25. Be3 Bxa7 $1 26. Bxa7 Nf4 $19) 25... exd4 $3 {[%cal Yd4d3]} (25... Bxa7 26.
exd5 {[%cal Gc2f5] too late for an attack now.... every move counts!} exd4 27.
Qf5 $1 dxc3 28. Qxf7+ $3 {I don't like to get such shocks during a game! It
reminds me of Krasenkow - Nakamura, Barcelona 2007.} Kxf7 (28... Kh8 29. Qxa7
$18 {not only is the bishop gone but White is also protecting f2 so no more ...
Nh4 tricks either}) 29. dxc6+ Kf6 30. Re6+ Kf7 {I didn't really bother to
check if White is winning or its just a draw. In any case the computer
confirms that this is 0.00.}) 26. cxd4 {Here I so much wanted to sac three
pieces by playing 26...exd4 but at some point, I convinced myself that even if
I sacrifice three pieces I would get only one point for winning the game. Mr.
Gelfand and his masterpiece 'Positional decision making' took over and
Shirov's great 'Fire on board' despite having its momentary excitement
couldn't come to the fore. Although that was solely because of my lack of
calculation.} Bxa7 {[%cal Ya7d4] Now the threat is again ...Bxd4 and there is
no way to stop it.} (26... Bxd4 27. Nxd4 {at this stage, I would have been
three pieces down and I wanted to make this work but didn't see the exact way}
Nh4 28. f4 (28. f3 {would reach similar lines and white will also lose the pawn
}) 28... Qxg3+ 29. Kf1 Nf3 $3 {this is the move order that I missed} (29...
Nh2+ 30. Ke2 N4f3 {I was trying to mate White here but..} 31. Qc3 $13 {I
didn't see a clear way out here} (31. Rd1 $1 $14 {computers})) 30. Nxf3 Qxf3+
31. Kg1 Qg3+ 32. Qg2 (32. Kf1 Nh2+ 33. Qxh2 Qxh2 $19 {and White loses another
piece}) 32... Qxe1+ 33. Qf1 Qb4 $19 {very computerish. Nevertheless, had I
seen all these lines I am sure I would have decided to implement 'fire on
board'.}) 27. Be3 {Just when it looks like White stopped ...Bxd4....} (27. Qd3
Nh4 $19) (27. Qe2 Bxd4 28. Nxd4 Nh4 $19) (27. Rd1 dxe4 28. Qxe4 Nh4 $19) 27...
Bxd4 $3 {Lets be honest....It felt really great to play these moves :)} 28. Qd3
(28. Bxd4 Nf4 29. Nh4 Qxh4 $19) (28. Nxd4 Nh4 29. f3 Qxg3+ 30. Kf1 Nxf3 31.
Nxf3 Qxf3+ 32. Bf2 dxe4 $19) 28... Bxe3 29. Rxe3 Nh4 $1 {The shortest way to
finish the game.} 0-1

[Event "Dubai op 20th"]
[Site "Dubai"]
[Date "2018.04.08"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Kryvoruchko, Yuriy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A28"]
[WhiteElo "2642"]
[BlackElo "2703"]
[PlyCount "167"]
[EventDate "2018.04.02"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "UAE"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 183 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2018.04.19"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2018.04.19"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 Bxc3 6. bxc3 e4 7. Nd4 d6 8. f3
Qe7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O Bd7 11. Rb1 Rab8 12. fxe4 Nxe4 13. d3 Nc5 14. e4 Nxd4
15. cxd4 Ne6 16. d5 Nd4 17. Qb2 c5 18. Be3 Nxe2+ 19. Qxe2 b5 20. cxb5 Bxb5 21.
Qd2 Rb6 22. Rb3 Rfb8 23. Rfb1 Ba6 24. h3 f6 25. Bf4 Kf7 26. Qe3 Ke8 27. h4 h6
28. h5 Rxb3 29. Rxb3 Rxb3 30. axb3 Bb5 31. Qh3 Kd8 32. Kf2 Be8 33. Ke3 Qd7 34.
Qh2 Kc7 35. Kd2 Qe7 36. Qg1 Kd8 37. Kc2 Qd7 38. Kc3 Qe7 39. Qh2 Kc7 40. g4 Bb5
41. Qa2 a6 42. Qh2 Kd7 43. Kc2 Qf8 44. Bg3 Qe7 45. Kc3 Qf8 46. Qf2 Ke7 47. Kc2
Bd7 48. g5 hxg5 49. Qh2 Qb8 50. h6 gxh6 51. Qxh6 Be8 52. Be1 Kf7 53. Qh7+ Kf8
54. Qh6+ Kf7 55. Qh7+ Kf8 56. Qh8+ Kf7 57. Ba5 Qc8 58. Qh7+ Kf8 59. Qh8+ Kf7
60. Bc7 Qd7 61. Qh7+ Kf8 62. Qxd7 Bxd7 63. Bxd6+ Kf7 64. Bxc5 Bh3 65. b4 Bf1
66. Kc3 Be2 67. Kd2 Bf1 68. Ke3 Bg2 69. Kd4 Bf1 70. Kc4 Be2 71. Bd4 g4 72. Bf2
Ke7 73. Bh4 Kf7 74. Kd4 Bd1 75. Ke3 Bc2 76. d4 Bb3 77. Kf4 Kg6 78. Kxg4 Bc4 79.
Kf4 Bb3 80. d6 Ba4 81. d5 Bd7 82. Ke3 Kf7 83. Kd4 Bb5 84. Kc5 1-0

[Event "Asian Continental op 17th"]
[Site "Makati"]
[Date "2018.12.13"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Maghsoodloo, Parham"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D30"]
[WhiteElo "2688"]
[BlackElo "2621"]
[PlyCount "88"]
[EventDate "2018.12.10"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "PHI"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 187 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2018.11.04"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2018.11.04"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Be7 5. O-O O-O 6. d4 dxc4 7. Qc2 c6 8. Qxc4
b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bg5 Nbd7 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Nbd2 c5 13. dxc5 Rc8 14. Nb3 Bd5
15. Rfd1 a5 16. e4 Bxb3 17. Qxb3 Rxc5 18. a4 b4 19. e5 Be7 20. Nd4 Qb6 21. f4
Rcc8 22. Kh1 Rfd8 23. Nb5 Nc5 24. Rxd8+ Rxd8 25. Qc2 g6 26. Qe2 Nb3 27. Rd1
Rxd1+ 28. Qxd1 Qf2 29. Qb1 Qd2 30. h4 Nc5 31. Kh2 Nd3 32. b3 Nxf4 33. Qe4 Nxg2
34. Qxg2 Qe3 35. Nd6 Qxe5 36. Nc4 Qf5 37. Qa8+ Kg7 38. Nxa5 Bd6 39. Nc4 Qc2+
40. Qg2 Bxg3+ 41. Kh3 Qxb3 42. Nd2 Qd3 43. Qxg3 Qxd2 44. a5 Qc3 0-1

[Event "Asian Continental op 17th"]
[Site "Makati"]
[Date "2018.12.16"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Wang, Hao"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C54"]
[WhiteElo "2730"]
[BlackElo "2621"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2018.12.10"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "PHI"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 187 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2018.11.04"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2018.11.04"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 a6 8. Bb3
Be6 9. Bc2 d5 10. exd5 Bxd5 11. h3 Re8 12. Re1 h6 13. b4 Bf8 14. a4 g6 15. Ne4
Bg7 16. Bd2 Nd7 17. b5 Ne7 18. Bb3 axb5 19. Bxd5 Nxd5 20. axb5 Rxa1 21. Qxa1
Nf8 22. c4 Nf4 23. Bxf4 exf4 24. d4 Ne6 25. Qc1 Nxd4 26. Qxf4 f5 27. Nxd4 Bxd4
28. Qxh6 Re6 29. Rd1 fxe4 30. Qe3 Rd6 31. Qxe4 Bxf2+ 32. Kxf2 Qf6+ 0-1

[Event "WchT 12th"]
[Site "Astana"]
[Date "2019.03.08"]
[Round "4.6"]
[White "Yu, Yangyi"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D38"]
[WhiteElo "2761"]
[BlackElo "2633"]
[PlyCount "132"]
[EventDate "2019.03.05"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "KAZ"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 189"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.04.29"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.04.29"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "China"]
[BlackTeam "India"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "CHN"]
[BlackTeamCountry "IND"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Qa4+ Nc6 7. Bg5 h6 8.
Bxf6 Qxf6 9. e3 O-O 10. Be2 Be6 11. O-O a6 12. Rfc1 Bd6 13. Qd1 Ne7 14. Na4 b6
15. b4 a5 16. b5 g5 17. Nb2 Ng6 18. Nd3 Rae8 19. Nfe1 h5 20. Bxh5 Kg7 21. h3
Rh8 22. Bg4 Bxg4 23. hxg4 Rxe3 24. Rc6 Bh2+ 25. Kf1 Bg3 26. Kg1 Bh2+ 27. Kf1
Bg3 28. Kg1 Qxd4 29. Nc2 Bh2+ 30. Kh1 Bf4+ 31. Kg1 Bh2+ 32. Kh1 Bf4+ 33. Kg1
Qxd3 34. Nxe3 Bh2+ 35. Kh1 Be5+ 36. Kg1 Bh2+ 37. Kh1 Qxb5 38. Rac1 Bg3+ 39. Kg1
Bh2+ 40. Kh1 Ne7 41. g3 Nxc6 42. Nf5+ Kf8 43. Kg2 Bxg3 44. Nxg3 Rh6 45. Nf5 Re6
46. Qf3 Qb2 47. Rh1 Ne7 48. Qg3 Nxf5 49. gxf5 Re2 50. Qf3 Qe5 51. f6 Ke8 52.
Rh8+ Kd7 53. Rf8 Qe6 54. Qh5 Qe4+ 55. Qf3 Qxf3+ 56. Kxf3 Rxa2 57. Rxf7+ Ke6 58.
Rxc7 Kxf6 59. Rc6+ Kf5 60. Rxb6 Ra3+ 61. Ke2 a4 62. Rd6 Ke4 63. Re6+ Kd4 64.
Rg6 Ra2+ 65. Kf3 a3 66. Rxg5 Rc2 0-1

[Event "Belt and Road Hunan op-A"]
[Site "Changsha"]
[Date "2019.08.02"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Wei, Yi"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A33"]
[WhiteElo "2638"]
[BlackElo "2737"]
[PlyCount "31"]
[EventDate "2019.07.29"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 191 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 e6 6. g3 Qb6 7. Ndb5 Ne5 8.
Bg2 a6 9. Qa4 Bc5 10. Bf4 Bxf2+ 11. Kf1 Nfg4 12. h3 g5 13. Bxg5 Bxg3 14. c5
Qxc5 15. Ne4 Qg1+ 16. Kxg1 1-0

[Event "Belt and Road Hunan op-A"]
[Site "Changsha"]
[Date "2019.08.04"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Cheparinov, Ivan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A18"]
[WhiteElo "2638"]
[BlackElo "2666"]
[PlyCount "93"]
[EventDate "2019.07.29"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 191 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. e4 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. e5 Ne4 6. Nf3 Bf5 7. d4 Bb4 8. Bd2
Bxc3 9. Bxc3 O-O 10. Be2 b6 11. O-O c5 12. Bd2 Nc6 13. Be3 Bg4 14. dxc5 bxc5
15. Rc1 c4 16. b3 Nb4 17. Bxc4 dxc4 18. Qxd8 Rfxd8 19. Rxc4 Nxa2 20. Rxe4 Bxf3
21. gxf3 Nc3 22. Rc4 Nd5 23. Bc5 Nb6 24. Rb4 Rd5 25. Bd6 Nc8 26. Bb8 Nb6 27.
Bxa7 Rxa7 28. Rxb6 g6 29. Re1 Rd2 30. e6 fxe6 31. Rexe6 Kg7 32. Red6 Rb2 33.
Kg2 Rf7 34. Rd5 Kh6 35. h4 Rc7 36. Kg3 Rc3 37. b4 Rc7 38. h5 Rb1 39. hxg6 hxg6
40. f4 Rg1+ 41. Kf3 Rc3+ 42. Ke2 Rc2+ 43. Rd2 Rxd2+ 44. Kxd2 Kg7 45. Rb8 Kf6
46. b5 Ke6 47. b6 1-0

[Event "Belt and Road Hunan op-A"]
[Site "Changsha"]
[Date "2019.08.05"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Wang, Hao"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E54"]
[WhiteElo "2725"]
[BlackElo "2638"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2019.07.29"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 191 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.09.30"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. d4 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 c5 8. O-O
cxd4 9. exd4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Rc1 Nc6 12. a3 Be7 13. Qd3 h6 14. Bh4 Nh5 15.
Bg3 Nxg3 16. hxg3 Bf6 17. Rfd1 Ne7 18. Ne4 Nd5 19. Ba6 Qe7 20. Ne5 Rfd8 21. Qe2
Bxa6 22. Qxa6 Bxe5 23. dxe5 Rd7 24. Rd2 Rad8 25. Qe2 Rc7 26. Rcd1 Rdc8 27. Nd6
Rf8 28. Rd4 f6 29. Nb5 Rd7 30. exf6 Qxf6 31. Re4 a6 32. Nd4 Nc7 33. Rd3 Rfd8
34. Rf3 Qg5 35. Rff4 Nd5 36. Nxe6 Nxf4 37. Rxf4 Re7 38. Re4 Qd5 0-1

[Event "FIDE World Cup"]
[Site "Khanty-Mansiysk"]
[Date "2019.09.12"]
[Round "1.2"]
[White "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Black "Fedoseev, Vladimir1"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A09"]
[WhiteElo "2658"]
[BlackElo "2664"]
[PlyCount "114"]
[EventDate "2019.09.10"]
[EventType "k.o."]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 192"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.10.31"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.10.31"]
[SourceQuality "1"]

1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 d4 5. O-O c5 6. d3 Nc6 7. e3 Be7 8. exd4
cxd4 9. Re1 O-O 10. Na3 Qb6 11. Nc2 a5 12. b3 Rd8 13. Rb1 Nb4 14. a3 Nxc2 15.
Qxc2 Bd7 16. Ne5 Be8 17. b4 axb4 18. axb4 Ra4 19. Bd2 Qa7 20. Qd1 Nd7 21. Nf3
Ra3 22. Ra1 Nb6 23. Ne5 Rxa1 24. Qxa1 Qxa1 25. Rxa1 f6 26. Nf3 Na4 27. Ne1 b6
28. f4 Nc3 29. Nc2 e5 30. Bxc3 dxc3 31. Be4 exf4 32. gxf4 Bd6 33. f5 Bf7 34.
Ra3 Be5 35. d4 Bxd4+ 36. Nxd4 Rxd4 37. Ra8+ Be8 38. Rxe8+ Kf7 39. Re6 g6 40.
Kf1 Rxc4 41. Bd5 Rd4 42. Bb3 c2 43. Re4+ Kg7 44. Bxc2 Rd2 45. Ba4 Rxh2 46. Re7+
Kh6 47. Rb7 gxf5 48. Rxb6 Kg5 49. Bc6 f4 50. Bg2 f5 51. Kg1 Rh4 52. Bf3 Rh3 53.
Kg2 Rg3+ 54. Kf2 Rh3 55. Rb8 Rh2+ 56. Bg2 f3 57. Kxf3 Rh4 1-0

[Event "ESP-chT CECLUB Honor"]
[Site "Linares"]
[Date "2019.10.06"]
[Round "7.4"]
[White "Naiditsch, Arkadij"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2643"]
[BlackElo "2658"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "2019.09.30"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "ESP"]
[SourceTitle "EXT 2020"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2019.10.17"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.10.17"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Taldea Gros Xake"]
[BlackTeam "Solvay"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ESP"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ESP"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. d4 c6 5. O-O Nf6 6. a4 O-O 7. a5 Ne4 8. Nbd2
Bf5 9. Nh4 Bxd4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Nxf5 gxf5 12. g4 fxg4 13. Ra4 Bg7 14. Rxe4
Nd7 15. Rxg4 Nf6 16. Rg3 Kh8 17. Qe1 Qd4 18. e4 Rad8 19. Qe2 Qe5 20. f4 Qxa5
21. e5 Ne8 22. Rg5 Qb6+ 23. Be3 c5 24. Kh1 f6 25. Bxc5 Qc7 26. Rh5 fxe5 27. Be4
Nf6 28. Rxh7+ Nxh7 29. Qh5 Bh6 30. Qg6 e6 31. Bxf8 Bxf8 32. fxe5 Qg7 33. Qh5
Bc5 34. Bg6 Rg8 35. Rf6 Qd7 36. Kg2 Qd2+ 37. Kf1 Rxg6 38. Qxg6 Qd1+ 39. Kg2
Qg1+ 40. Kh3 Ng5+ 0-1

