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:
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.
On day two of the GRENKE Chess Classic in Karlsruhe the spectatores saw top-class games again. In rounds three and four, we saw brilliant attacking moves, forced exchange sacrifices, tricky queen endgames and, last but not least, "the rescue maneuver of the decade".
The English-language commentary alongside the German national coach Jan Gustafsson was taken over by IM Lawrence Trent, who stood in for the ill Peter Leko. Gustafsson and Trent are a well-rehearsed team from their time together at chess24.
Here are the short reports about the individual games:
round 3
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Daniel Fridman 0:1
Fridman managed an important and, with Black, unexpected victory against the number three in the rapid world rankings. In this position, he found ... Rb3!, which is the right move. After the provoked exchange of rooks, White can no longer stop the b-pawn.
Magnus Carlsen vs. Ding Liren 0,5 : 0,5
GRENKE CEO Sebastian Hirsch symbolically opened the "Battle of the Kings" (Rapid World Champion vs. World Champion in classical chess) with the move 1.d4. Carlsen simply left the pawn and pressed the clock. Both players neutralized each other. Ding Liren was forced to give up the exchange at first, but forced Carlsen to return it later. The game ended in a draw.
Richard Rapport vs. Vincent Keymer 0,5 : 0,5
Queen endgames often end in perpetual check, and so it was in this game. The German number 1 did not allow any danger with the black colors. Leader Rapport will have been satisfied with half a point after the balanced course of the game.
round 4
Richard Rapport vs. Daniel Fridman 1:0
With this victory, Rapport consolidated his lead in the standings. Fridman's move 20...Rc1 looks dangerous at first glance, but in retrospect it turns out to be overambitious. After 21.Qd2 Nc6 22.Ra3! the black rook and the black knight are not sufficiently anchored in the opponent's fortress.
Magnus Carlsen vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 0,5 : 0,5
Britta Wirtz, CEO of the host Messe Karlsruhe, had the honour of making the first move in this game:
A short time later, Carlsen convinced with the move Nc7!! After... Nxc7, Rxd6 with the threats Rxh6# and e5 comes to board. However, Carlsen later lost his advantage, allowing Vachier-Lagrave to score a draw.
Ding Liren vs. Vincent Keymer 0,5 : 0,5
"Keymer's unfinished masterpiece," chess24 wrote about the game. In a complete winning position, the young German with Black finds himself in a situation where the natural-looking move ... Ke4 suddenly leads to a draw. The black king prevents the queen, which emerges from the black f-pawn, from giving checks on the long diagonal. In addition, White's pawn on a4 prevents Black from using Qb5+ to force the white king in front of his pawn.
GM Ilja Zaragatski, commentator in the German-speaking Chess.com stream, could hardly believe that this position did not result in a win, and described Ding's lucky draw as the "rescue maneuver of the decade". And world-class player Anish Giri tweeted: "Next time they tell you luck doesn't exist in chess show them this."
Table and outlook:
After two days, Richard Rapport leads the standings by a full point, followed by three players with two points each: Ding Liren, Keymer and Carlsen. They are closely followed by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Daniel Fridman.
Tomorrow the big GRENKE Chess Open starts, with 2,774 players currently registered. The stars from the GRENKE Chess Classic will start their games at the same time as the players from the Open. The schedule is 6:30 p.m. as the starting time, but delays cannot be ruled out due to the enormous number of participants. The organizers around tournament director Sven Noppes are looking forward to all participants and welcome them warmly. The Schwarzwaldhalle in Karlsruhe has already been prepared for the large number of chess fans:
