Biel GMT 2021 R2: Nihal holds Gelfand to a draw

by Shahid Ahmed - 29/07/2021

All four games ended in a draw in the second round of 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 GMT. Nihal held Gelfand to a draw. Studer and Pichot topped the previous day's seven-hour battle by playing for seven hours and 40 minutes in an interesting game where the momentum shifted from Studer to Pichot's favor until it returned to equilibrium. Vaishali continues her impressive run as she drew with GM Maksim Chigaev (RUS). IM Harshit Raja defeated the bullet specialist GM Andrew Tang (USA). GMT Classical Round 3 and MTO Round 4 starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Studer-Pichot marathon runs for 7 hours 40 mins, Ganguly shares the lead with Salem

Nihal Sarin played well against Boris Gelfand to hold him to a draw by perpetual check. Perhaps the most interesting game of the day was between Noel Studer and Alan Pichot. Studer having the advantage first, was unable to capitalize it. Later Pichot had a clear way to win, but he missed it. The game ran for 7 hours and 40 minutes and it was 138 move long interesting battle with a lot of layers. Ganguly joined the lead with Salem Saleh with a 100% score of 3.0/3. They will face each other in the fourth round.

Nihal played a good game against Gelfand | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Surya Sekhar Ganguly is one of the leader 3.0/3 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

GMT: Nihal - Gelfand: 0.5-0.5

Nihal made an interesting draw with Gelfand.

Position after 26.Nh7

Instead of choosing to defend the d3-pawn, Nihal found an active play on the kingside 26.Nh7. White responded 26...Rxd3 with 27.Rxg7+ which Black has to take Bxg7 28.Rxg7+ Ke6 29.Ng5+ Kf6 30.Rg6+ and Black cannot get out of perpetual. Even if the king goes to the back rank, White always has a Nh7-f6+ perpetual. There is also an alternative of trying to promote the h-pawn.

Studer - Pichot: 0.5-0.5

Switzerland's very own Noel Studer had a very interesting marathon encounter with Alan Pichot (ARG).

Position after 25...Qa7

White has a clear advantage in the above position, and it is just a matter of time for White to convert the passed a-pawn. However, in reality, it is not as easy as it sounds. 26.Na4 was probably the best way for White to continue as Nb6 is the threat and a5-pawn is tactically defended.

Position after 41.Kh3

The game continued 41...Rh1+ 42.Kg4 and White managed to escape. The better choice was 41...Qf1+ 42.Kg4 Rd4+ and now Black is completely irrespective of the fact whether White decides to take the rook at d4 or play 43.f4. Seven hours and 42 minutes, 138-moves later the game ended in a draw.

Pichot had a better and definitive chance than Studer in the marathon game | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Replay GMT Classical Round 2 games

Photo Gallery

Fistbump is rapidly replacing handshake owing to the Covid-19 pandemic | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Kamsky has a 2-1 score against Lagarde in this event so far | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Vincent Keymer getting checked randomly | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

A bird's eye view of Nihal-Gelfand's game | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

It was a good opportunity for Studer to score his first victory over Pichot in this tournament | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Alan Pichot had a more clear chance at win | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

The GMT participants | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT Classical Round 2 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2581	GM	Studer Noel	½ - ½	GM	Pichot Alan	2630	5
2	6	2620	GM	Nihal Sarin	½ - ½	GM	Gelfand Boris	2675	4
3	7	2591	GM	Keymer Vincent	½ - ½	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2699	3
4	1	2658	GM	Kamsky Gata	½ - ½	GM	Lagarde Maxime	2648	2

Details

Round 3 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	2648	GM	Lagarde Maxime		GM	Studer Noel	2581	8
2	3	2699	GM	Alekseenko Kirill		GM	Kamsky Gata	2658	1
3	4	2675	GM	Gelfand Boris		GM	Keymer Vincent	2591	7
4	5	2630	GM	Pichot Alan		GM	Nihal Sarin	2620	6

Details

GMT Overall standings

GMT Classical Scoring: Win - 4 points, Draw - 1.5 points and Loss - 0.

MTO Round 3 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	14
2	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
3	5	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
4	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	6
5	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
6	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
7	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	1½	½ - ½	2	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	33
8	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
9	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	1½	1 - 0	1½	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	34
10	36	IM	Seul Georg	2372	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
11	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24
12	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	1	1 - 0	1½	FM	Tahay Alexis	2349	39
13	15	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	1	½ - ½	1	FM	Stelmaszyk Nico	2296	43
14	50		Pahud Cédric	2200	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
15	55	WIM	Rakhmangulova Anastasiya	2167	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	3		3	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
2	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2½		2½	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17
3	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	2½		2½	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	5
4	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	2½		2½	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
5	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	2½		2½	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
6	18	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	2½		2½	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	11
7	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	2½		2½	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	33
8	25	GM	NR Visakh	2516	2		2	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4
9	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	2		2	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	7
10	10	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	2		2	IM	Gschnitzer Adrian	2420	31
11	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	2		2	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	28
12	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	2		2	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
13	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	2		2	IM	Haimovich Tal	2388	35
14	38	FM	Papadiamandis Elliot	2363	2		2	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
15	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	1½		2	IM	J Sai Agni Jeevitesh	2322	40

Details

Replay the livestream

54th International Biel Chess Festival GMT Classic Tournament Round 2 - Live Commentary by GM Artur Neikšāns | Video: Biel Chess Festival

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