Day 2: A tough day for the top seeds

Written by Aditya Pai on 19 April 2019.

The second wave of norm aspirants hit the top-ranked grandmasters of the Grenke Chess Open on Friday morning and this time, it managed to upset the top seed of the event Etienne Bacrot. Besides, many others had to press for long hours and, in some cases, even wait for a miracle of sorts to reach victory. As the day progressed more casualties were witnessed as to GMs like Gata Kamsky, Alexey Sarana and Borki Predojevic signed peace in the following round.

The enormous playing hall | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

GRENKE Chess Open kicks off with a new participation record

Written by Aditya Pai on 19 April 2019.

Once the lots for colours for the GRENKE Chess Classic were drawn at the Kongresszentrum in Karlsruhe, the three open events of the festival went underway with close to two thousand participants making their first move together. The GRENKE Chess Festival, thus, officially began with a star-studded field consisting of renowned names like Etienne Bacrot, Gata Kamsky, Anton Korobov, Alireza Firouzja and many more in the A group.