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Rapport closes the gap to Carlsen

Written by Michael Busse on .

Easter Saturday was another big chess day in Karlsruhe. The top stars from the GRENKE Chess Classic as well as the players from the A, B and C Open played two games. The whole thing happened under the eyes of a prominent newcomer, namely Anish Giri. He replaced Jan Gustafsson as commentator at short notice, who travelled to Toronto for the Candidates Tournament (Giri on the right in the photo, next to Lawrence Trent - source: chess24). 

On site, numerous spectators followed the games on the huge screens:

 

GRENKE Chess Classic

round 7

Richard Rapport vs. Ding Liren 1:0

It was against his World Cup second that Ding Liren suffered his first defeat in the tournament after six draws. Rapport managed to create disorder on the chessboard and to find the more precise moves within this chaos. 

Magnus Carlsen vs. Daniel Fridman 1:0

If the world's best player plays with 98.5 percent accuracy, then one imprecise move is enough for the entire position to collapse. Why... Nc4 is an inaccuracy, becomes apparent when you look at the following moves.  Carlsen used Rb4 and Kd3 to put pressure on the knight and forced him to exchange for Bb6. White used the time Black needed to capture the b-pawn and exchange a rook to further advance the c-pawn and the king. Thanks to the more active position, the endgame was then won. 

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Vincent Keymer 0,5:0,5

Keymer had an exchange for a pawn with the black pieces. Stockfish valued the position at -6.88 in favor of Keymer. But Vachier-Lagrave had the combination of queen and knight on board and used it skilfully to force Keymer's king into a repetition of the position.  

Runde 8

Daniel Fridman vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0,5:0,5

With Rc4!! Fridman made a move in this game which Stockfish rates with two exclamation marks. Taking on c4 is out of the question, as is ... Rxd1. Vachier-Lagrave recognized this and played Rb8. A few moves later, there was a repetition of the position in this game as well. 

Ding Liren vs. Magnus Carlsen 0,5:0,5

The second "Battle of the Kings" also ended with a points split. Both played a faultless game, which ended with a perpetual check by Ding's queen. 

No need to despair: Magnus Carlsen

Vincent Keymer vs. Richard Rapport 0:1

Despite the advance of Black's pawns, the world looked reasonably fine for Keymer until move 32, but after 33.Qd1?? it's suddenly mate in 12 for Black, starting with Bc5+. Annoying for Keymer, who once again in this tournament cannot convert a good position into a success.   

Table and Schedule

With this victory, Rapport moves closer to Magnus Carlsen and reduces the gap to half a point. The two Germans Keymer and Fridman will have the opportunity to score tomorrow in rounds 9 and 10. 

 

GRENKE Chess Open: 

In the Open tournament, rounds 4 and 5 were on the program today. In the fourth round, there were no big surprises in the A-Open. Worth mentioning is the draw of the German champion in Chess960, IM Marius Fromm, against the favored Sanan Sjugirov. In round 5, Fromm then met the 12-year-old Romanian Henry Edward Tudor, who had scored half a point in the second round against the big favorite Arjun Erigaisi. Fromm was able to prevail in this duel. The seven pawns on the 4th rank make an unusual and pretty picture, albeit in favor of Black. 

At the top, Alexey Sarana somewhat surprisingly lost his game against the 2023 Junior World Champion, Marc'Andria Maurizzi. There was a quick draw in the US duel between Christopher Yoo and Hans Niemann, and the duel between the young stars Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus from Turkey and Abhimanyu Mishra also ended without a winner. Now six players are still equipped with a perfect score of 5.0 points: 

  • Ivan Saric
  • Marc´Andria Maurizzi
  • Dmitrij Kollars
  • Rasmus Svane
  • Vladimir Fedoseev
  • Dominik Horvath

In the B-Open, nine players have the maximum yield of 5 points, including the only 13-year-old Tamila Trunz from SG Porz. In the C-Open, seven players are still without losing a point. 

Tomorrow, the players of the GRENKE Chess Open will continue at 9 a.m. (attention, time change plus 1 hour!) and 3 p.m. with rounds 6 and 7.

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The GRENKE Chess Media Team has released the following 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 

 

Big surprise for top-seeded Erigaisi

Written by Michael Busse on .

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

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: 

 

Carlsen with double victory, Rapport with double defeat

Written by Michael Busse on .

GRENKE Chess Classic

Day 3 of the GRENKE Chess Classic was very successful for Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian took the lead in the GRENKE Chess Classic after two successes against Vincent Keymer and Richard Rapport. Before the games could begin, the organizers had to cope with the 2,551 players who streamed into the venue, the Schwarzwaldhalle Karlsruhe, to play in the GRENKE Chess Open. 

 

round 5

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Richard Rapport 1:0

The game opened with the Winawer Variation of the French Defence, which led to imbalances and a chaotic position. Rapport defended MVL's mate-in-1 threat (on a7)  with 49 ... d4? instead of playing 49...Nxa1. The evaluation bar then made a few more swings, but in the end the Frenchman managed to bring the game home. 

Vincent Keymer vs. Magnus Carlsen 0:1 

Carlsen surprisingly opted for the Benoni Defence with Black. Keymer responded with his Benoni main line, for which Carlsen had obviously prepared. The two not only engaged in a theoretical debate on the board, but also in a duel of glances.

Keymer had three extra pawns in the meantime, but a rather unpleasant position. Carlsen then took advantage of a tactical mistake by White. With... Nd5 he attacked the knight and the rook (using the bishop on g7) at the same time. That was enough to win. 

The two opponents were observed by their respective girlfriends, who apparently get along well with each other.

This time, Wolfgang Grenke, the founder of GRENKE AG and long-time promoter of chess, had the honour to make the symbolic first move:

 

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

Fridman and Ding both played a rock-solid game in which neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage. Ding saw that his extra pawn would be of no use to him in the opposite-coloured bishop endgame, and agreed to a draw. 

round 6

Daniel Fridman vs. Vincent Keymer 0,5:0,5

In an absolutely dominant position, Keymer - as he did yesterday against Carlsen - unexpectedly found himself in an "only move" situation in which he could not find the only winning move. ... Kxh4 allowed White to drive away the well-placed black rook with Kc1. The right (computer) move would have been... g5. 

A few moves later, the valuation bar again showed a winning opportunity for Keymer. But Fridman managed to lure Keymer into perpetual check, which eventually resulted in a draw. 

Magnus Carlsen - Richard Rapport 1:0

And another Benoni - but this time for Carlsen with the white pieces! Carlsen played very accurately and finally got a queen against two rooks, but was able to achieve a safer king and a dangerous center pawn. The victory for Carlsen was therefore inevitable in the end, and Rapport had to resign. 

Ding Liren vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0,5:0,5

The sixth draw in the sixth game for Ding! The world champion is obviously trying to regain his recently lost self-confidence through solid play. He seems to be succeeding in this, because he is playing much more stable than recently. In the game, none of the players was able to develop a clear winning plan, and so the game ended in a draw by repetition. 

Table and outlook

Carlsen's double victory and Rapport's double zero caused a lot of confusion in the standings. Magnus Carlsen is now at the top with a one-point lead. The rest of the field is close together. 

Friday, March 29 is a day off for the players. On Saturday, it will continue again from 3 p.m. Spectators in the Schwarzwaldhalle Karlsruhe are very welcome. 

 

GRENKE Chess Open

For the players of the Open, the tournament started today with the first round. On Friday, rounds two and three will continue at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. 

Several top players are on the list. There are some well-known names such as Hans Niemann (pictured), Arjun Erigaisi or the German national players Blübaum and Kollars. 

On the top boards, the favorites won. For some amateurs, the game against a well-known grandmaster will have been a career highlight. Felix Gerlach of Schachfreunde Brackel, for example, kept up well against former European champion Matthias Blübaum until Blübaum captured the knight on f4 with his rook. Gerlach replied with gxf4, overlooking the fact that ...Qd2+ would cost his rook. The correct reply would have been to capture the opponent's knight with the rook himself - a nice motif.

 

 

Links to all the games of the day: GRENKE Chess Classic and Open 2024 - Chess.com

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

photos: Angelika Valkova

Screenshots: chess24 / chess.com 

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