Chess Classic & Open
Big surprise for top-seeded Erigaisi
On day 4 of the GRENKE Chess Festival, the stars of the GRENKE Chess Classic were able to enjoy a rest day. And there was also a little rest for the broadcasting team, because traditionally the games were not broadcast on Good Friday due to the public holiday. However, the players of the GRENKE Chess Open had to do a lot of hard work for this: Rounds 2 and 3 were on the program in the A, B and C Open.
In the A-Open, there was a big surprise in round 2: 12-year-old FM Henry Edward Tudor drew against world number 10 Arjun Erigaisi from India. Against the top seed, the young star from Romania managed to build a fortress and hold it. The game lasted 136 moves.
Tudor says he didn't start playing chess until he was 10 years old and was mostly self-taught. Will the star of a new super talent rise at this tournament?
Spanish GM David Anton Guijarro also had to settle for half a point. Felix Werthebach, number 5,365 in the world rankings with an Elo rating of 2260, managed to achieve half a point against the number 64 in the world. A similar success was achieved by Jürgen Kaufeld (Elo 2257), who is a full-time chess teacher at the Düsseldorf Chess School and managed a draw against German national player Matthias Blübaum.
The other favourites such as Sarana, Fedoseev and Niemann were able to score full points.
In the third round of the A-Open, the favored grandmasters Sarana, Fedoseev, Sjugirov & Co. won on the first ten boards. It was only on board 11 that FM Thilo Ehmann was able to take half a point from GM Georg Meier, who is competing for Uruguay. Frenchman FM Clement Kuhn did the same against Maksim Chigaev.
After three rounds, 49 players have gained the maximum of three points, including the Americans Niemann and Mishra. Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest chess grandmaster in history, was fully focused:
Frederik Svane from Hamburger SK and FM Tristan Niermann (Schachfreunde Lieme) are in the lead.
Two rounds were also played in the B-Open. Since a total of 1,260 players participate, the results will not be transferred to chess-results.com because the enormous number of participants exceeds the limit. 61 players scored 3 out of 3 points. A trio of players Marc Thiemann (Aachener SV), Alexander May (SV Gernrode) and Noe Guilbert (SC Neumühl) are in the lead thanks to the best tiebreak.
At the C-Open there are still 35 players with 3 full points. The table is led by Tojo Ratovoarison from SV Fellbach.
The media team of GRENKE Chess also used the day for some interviews. Guests were
- GM Sergej Movsesian
- German chess-Influencer Garry Leusch aka Gunny´s Chessalyze
- Angelika Valkova aka Chessborn from GRENKE Chess Media Team, telling about her interview with Magnus Carlsen
On Saturday, March 30th, the players of the GRENKE Chess Open will play the 4th round (from 9 a.m.) and the 5th round (from 3 p.m.). The stars of the GRENKE Chess Classic will also take up the chess pieces again from 3 p.m. onwards. The following pairings are scheduled:
