A Nice Technical Win In Rapid Chess

Pragg wins an instructive ending against Adhiban

One of the interesting if not “super-elite” events going on right now is the PSPB Rapid tournament in Pune, India. Santosh Vidit was the pre-tournament favorite, but the leader after 7 of 9 rounds is the Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa with an undefeated 6/7. Four players - Murali Karthikeyan, Guha Mitrabha, G.N. Gopal, and Baskaran Adhiban - are half a point behind (Vidit is further back, with only 4.5 points), and one important reason for that situation is Pragg’s impressive win against Adhiban in round 3.

It’s always impressive, and instructive, when a player wins a game by following the steps in a “cookbook”: create such-and-such a structure, trade the right pieces, and then follow the steps to collect the full point. It’s rare that this color-by-numbers approach can succeed against a strong GM - and Adhiban, whose rating has been as high as 2701, is certainly that - but that’s just what Praggnanandhaa managed to do in their game. Adhiban probably would have held at a slower time control than 15’+10”, but Pragg made it look so easy that I’m not certain about that. At any rate, it’s a very nice game, and I recommend that you have a look. Here it is, with my comments.