Marriage proposal and "Vincent show" | recap of March 31st

Written by Michael Busse on 31 March 2024.

On the night from Easter Saturday to Easter Sunday, an hour of sleep was stolen from all players. But despite this, exciting and sometimes dramatic games took place again on Sunday in the GRENKE Chess Classic and in the Open.

The emotional highlight of the day was a marriage proposal. IM Ilja Schneider knelt down in front of his long-time girlfriend Olga and asked her the most important question, which she answered with a "yes". The whole hall cheered and applauded.

GRENKE Chess Classic

round 9

Ding Liren vs. Daniel Fridman 0,5:0,5

The two opponents Ding and Fridman played a game at the highest level without any visible mistakes. In the end, White danced around the black king with his knight, who in turn couldn't do anything useful either.

Magnus Carlsen vs. Vincent Keymer 1:0

Carlsen put a lot of pressure on the h-file and dominated the game. He converted his superior position to victory with the beautiful Rxe5!. Without the black knight, the f-pawn can promote unhindered.

Richard Rapport vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0,5:0,5

Instead of securing his Nc3, Rapport set up a nice trap with Ba2. After... dxc3, Qxg6 would follow since the pawn on f7 is pinned. Black, of course, did not fall for this and brought his king to safety on h7. Both players neutralized each other as the game progressed.

round 10

Daniel Fridman vs. Richard Rapport 0,5:0,5

In this game, Rapport showed great defensive skills in the endgame. With... g6 he sacrificed his last pawn. In doing so, he foresaw that White's double pawn would ultimately be useless. The game ended in a stalemate.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Magnus Carlsen 0,5:0,5

You need to have calculated everything in order not to double the rooks in the following position, but to play Nf6. But MVL's calculation paid off, and after a series of forced exchanges, the points were shared in this game as well.

Vincent Keymer vs. Ding Liren 1:0

Finally the long-awaited first victory for Vincent Keymer! In a complicated tactical position, the German kept the overview and won.

After ten rounds, the standings were as follows. There was a tie between three players in 4th place, which led to a tiebreak:

Tiebreak

In the tiebreak for 4th place there were the following results:

Ding - Keymer 0,5:0,5
Fridman - Ding 1:0
Keymer - Fridman 1:0
Keymer - Ding 1:0
Ding - Fridman 1:0
Fridman - Keymer : (did not take place, unnecessary)

The winner of the tiebreak was Vincent Keymer. After his success against Ding in round 10, he defeated Ding once again in the tiebreak and also won against Fridman. Anish Giri summed up the events on chess24 as follows: "Today is a Vincent show."

Of particular note is the move Bd3! in the game between Keymer and Fridman, after which Fridman immediately resigned:

Tomorrow there will be the following pairings:

Match for 1st place: Carlsen vs. Rapport
Match for 3rd place: Vachier-Lagrave vs. Keymer
Match for 5th place: Ding vs. Fridman

You can almost feel sorry for World Champion Ding Liren. At the beginning of the tournament he played very solidly, but then more and more of his positions collapsed. Chess24 commentator Lawrence Trent: "His radar is off." After all, he managed to get his first win in the tournament in his last game against Daniel Fridman.

GRENKE Chess Open:

In the Open tournament, rounds 6 and 7 were played today. The number of draws on the top boards is increasing as the top players now compete against each other.

After the 6th round, Ivan Saric was the only player with a perfect score of 6 points. He defeated Austria's Dominik Horvath. Vladimir Fedoseev and Rasmus Svane drew, as did Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Dmitrij Kollars.

In round 7, Saric also had to accept the first share of points. The Spaniard David Anton Guijarro wrested a draw from him. Arjun Erigaisi, who had worked his way back up the ladder after his draw against the young Romanian Tudor, also couldn't get beyond a share of the points against Frederik Svane with the black colours. Vladimir Fedoseev, on the other hand, defeated the young American Christopher Yoo.

There are now three players at the top with 6.5 points:

Ivan Saric
Velimir Ivic
Vladimir Fedoseev

In the B-Open, after the 6th round, the Dutchman Hicham Boulahfa and the Pole Michal Mikula were tied with 6 points. In the direct duel, Hicham Boulahfa prevailed and is now alone at the top of the table with 7/7. He is followed by five players with 6.5 points, including 12-year-old Tamila Trunz.

In the C-Open there is also a player with a record of 7 wins, namely Emre Demiroers of "Unser Fritz Wanne-Eickel".

Tomorrow, the players of the GRENKE Chess Open will continue at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. with the last two rounds 8 and 9. Afterwards the award ceremony will take place.

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The GRENKE Chess Media Team has created the following YouTube videos today:

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Link to all games of the GRENKE Chess Classic: GRENKE Chess Classic - Chess.com

Link to all games of the GRENKE Chess Open: LIVE - GRENKE Chess Open

GRENKE Chess Social Media Links: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Gallery: Fotos - GRENKE Chess Open

Screenshots: chess24 / chess.com