GRENKE Chess congratulates all players who achieved a norm at GRENKE Chess Open:
GM-Norm:
Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan (TUR)
Horvath, Dominik (AUT)
(Tiglon, Bryce (USA)) GM-norm application already submitted since 2024-02-13
IM-Norm:
Dahl, Christoph (GER)
Knüdel, Torben (GER)
Frank, Adam (CZE)
WGM-Norm:
Dolzhykova, Kateryna (GER) - photo
With a triumph for Magnus Carlsen, the GRENKE Chess Classic came to an end on Easter Monday. The Norwegian once again showed his class and defeated Richard Rapport in the match for first place with 1.5:0.5. In the duel for third place, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won in the tiebreak against Vincent Keymer. Ding Liren secured fifth place with a 1.5:0.5 against Daniel Fridman.
For Keymer, the position looked uncomfortable in the middlegame, but he managed to achieve an even endgame by exchanging a few pieces. As a result, the game ended in a draw.
"Magnus Carlsen doing Magnus Carlsen things," said chess.com commentator Lawrence Trent about the Norwegian's first game. Carlsen took the initiative early on and was in control at all times. After f7! (the only winning move) Rg8 and Rxh7 are threatened, and Black runs out of moves.
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Ding showed his usual face again in this game. After yesterday's win over Fridman, he seems to be stabilizing. Qc5! threatens Qxh5, and after ... g6 White wins a rook due to the lack of coordination of Black's rooks (e.g. Qd4+ Kg8 Qc4+). Fridman therefore resigned immediately.
In an even position, Daniel Fridman decided to repeat the moves. With this, Ding Liren secured the 5th place in the tournament.
99.1 percent accuracy for both players is the highest in this tournament - proving that world-class players can achieve the highest level even in shorter time controls.
Rapport had to win the game at all costs to keep his chance of 1st place alive. He was given several opportunities to do so, but Carlsen - who said he was already thinking about giving up - escaped again and again. "Another Houdini job from Carlsen," commentator Lawrence Trent said, referring to the famous magician.
In the following position, Rapport with White apparently had mate in mind and moved his king out of the pin with Kh3?. In time trouble, he overlooked the fact that in the end it was not the rooks but the g-pawn (via g4-g5) that could bring him the decision. Instead, Kh3? Ke1 Rf5 and a repetition of moves followed. A dramatic finish with a well deserved winner: Magnus Carlsen!
Due to the two draws, Vincent Keymer and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had to go into a tiebreak to play out third place. The first game ended in a draw. In the second game, Vachier-Lagrave was able to take advantage of some of Keymer's inaccuracies.
The GRENKE Chess Classic 2024 thus ends with the following result:
The winner of the A-Open was the American Hans Niemann. He was the only player to score eight points out of a possible nine. He only drew against Christopher Yoo and the young Turk Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who earned his last GM norm in the tournament. In the last round, Niemann defeated the Serbian Velimir Ivic, while the other players (Saric-Erigaisi, Kollars-Fedoseev) drew.
winner of the A-Open Hans Niemann
In the B-Open, Hicham Boulahfa from the Netherlands triumphed. A draw in the last game against Matis Frappini secured his success.
The C-Open was won by the Swiss Felix Phung, who scored 8.5 out of a possible 9 points.
Organizer Sven Noppes looks back on the past few days with pride: "I am glad that we were able to make so many people happy with the tournament." Only seven weeks of preparation time were available between the final clarification of the financing by the main sponsor GRENKE and the Easter weekend. But a lot of commitment and an incredible number of volunteers made the event possible.
A big "thank you" also goes to all the players, to chess.com for the live broadcast and to the sponsors of the tournament:
The GRENKE Chess Media Team would like to thank all readers and viewers and hopes to see you again in 2025.
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New GRENKE Chess YouTube-Videos:
Also visit the GRENKE Chess YouTube channel to watch more videos and interviews from the final day.
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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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
In the tiebreak for 4th place there were the following results:
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:
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.
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:
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
