Chess Classic & Open
Four Winners
After the 6th round of the GRENKE chess open 4 players are leading the tournament with 5,5/6. With Richard Rapport, Vladimir Fedoseev und Nils Grandelius we see 3 top grandmaster in this group as well as Meilis Annaberdiev who snug into the group of the leading four players. The International Master from Turkmenistan surprised everyone with a quick win with the black pieces against a much higher rated grandmaster.
Vladimir Fedoseev is playing for the tournament win
The Russian grandmasters Nikita Vitiugov and Maxim Matlakov lost some of their momentum in round 6. Both grandmasters playing with the white pieces were huge favorites for a full point but neither of them could break thru the defense of their opponents and had to agree to a draw. Vitiugov and Viktor Erdos didn't show any fighting spirit and the game finished in a draw after only 18 moves. Matlakov tried to go all the way to score the full point, but Kado Kulaots didn't make any crucial mistakes and was awarded with half a point.
The other favorites played their games well and won. Richard Rapport accomplished a victory on board 3 against Allexander Graf. The Hungarian top-player had to withstand some tough moments in his game. Graf sacrificed a knight to destroy the cover on the white king but the attack soon ran out of steam after the experienced grandmaster couldn't find the right attacking moves. Rapport managed to go into a winning endgame which he safely won.
Richard Rapport
Vladimir Fedoseev scored a "Big Point" with a victory with the black pieces over Aleksandar Indjic. With a fine maneuver he split up white's pawn structure and then he used those weaknesses to infiltrate his heavy pieces into the white's camp which decided the game in black's favor.
A big chance to win the game was missed by Alexander Moiseenko against Gabor Papp. The Ukrainian grandmaster had with a rook and a h-pawn a theoretical won position on the board but didn't manage to convert the advantage into a full point. Nils Grandelius played the better game against Sasa Martinovic. The Swedish Grandmaster outplayed his Croatian opponent and won in a spectacular way by promoting his passed pawn.
The surprise of the tournament is Meilis Annaberdiev from Turkmenistan. the international master won his 6th round game with the black pieces against Marin Bosiocic. It looked like the Croatian grandmaster underestimated his opponent and aggressively sacrificed a piece in the opening, but the sacrifice was not sound and was easily refuted by Annaberdiev which finished the game with a quick win for him.
Meilis Annaberdiev from Turkmenistan
From the German side of view Rasmus Svane is still playing a very good tournament . The young man from Lubeck drew his game with black against the strong grandmaster Igor Kovalenko and is now with 5 points in the group of those pursuing the favorites . In this group is also Nikolas Lubbe, Andreas Heimann and Johannes Carow. Rainer Buhmann tournament doesn't' go as well as expected. The player of the national team has 4 points and way under the expectation in the wide midfield of the tournament.
In the category for the best woman are 3 players in the lead with 4/6 points. Besides Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and Elena Levushkina, who drew their game playing each other which gave Swaminathan Soumya from India the chance to join this group.
Swaminathan Soumya it looks like the temperatures in Karlsruhe are a bit too low for her