Biel MTO 2021 R2: Vaishali stuns Gukesh
13 players are at 100% score of 2.0/2 at the conclusion of the second round at 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 MTO. Aravindh Chithambaram, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Narayanan S L, Abhimanyu Puranik and Vaishali are in the lead among the Indians. Vaishali defeated Gukesh in the second round as the latter made a tactical error. Aravindh outplayed Raunak positionally, Arjun Kalyan drew with Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan escaped from the jaws of defeat against IM Harshit Raja. Nihal suffered his first loss against Alekseenko in this event after a seven-hour-long grueling battle. GMT Classical Round 2 and MTO Round 3 starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Amruta Mokal
Nihal fights for seven hours against Alekseenko
Nihal Sarin fought valiantly for seven hours against Alekseenko but the Russian got the better of the Indian wunderkind. Alekseenko's knights proved to be mightier than Nihal's bishop pair, although the dark-square bishop remained stuck at the kingside for the better part of the endgame.
GMT: Alekseenko - Nihal: 1-0
Nihal lost a grueling battle against Alekseenko. The majority of the game was an endgame between Alekseenko's rook and two knights versus Nihal's rook and two bishops. It was the Russian's passed a-pawn which became the deciding factor of the game.
Perhaps keeping the rooks a little longer on the board would have made things difficult for White to make progress.
Black's final mistake in the game was 82...Bb6 as it cost him a valuable tempo. Maybe 82...Bc7 would have kept Black in the game a bit longer.
Gelfand - Pichot: 0-1
Argentina no.1 GM Alan Pichot scored a big victory over the legend GM Boris Gelfand.
The position is quite complex. 26.Qa3 cost White the game due to 26...Nc5 27.e3
Find the winning continuation for Black in the above position. Also find out what White should have played instead of 26.Qa3.
MTO: Shchekachev - Narayanan: 0-1
GM Andrei Shchekachev (FRA) got himself a great position against GM Narayanan S L. What is remarkable about this game is how Narayanan makes a comeback.
Generally, if someone gets a position like White has achieved, it is safe to assume that they will convert it. However, Narayanan decided to fight back 26...e5 because Black has to do something, otherwise White will simply crush him. 27.fxe5 Nd7 28.exf6 Nxf6 29.Bh3 Re8 30.Ne5 and we get the following position
There is only option for Black to strike here, 30...Rxe5 31.dxe5 Qxe5. This exchange sacrifice makes sense because White's king is exposed and Black gets a rapid activity. With a bit of inaccurate play, it allowed Black to push further and score a win.
Karthikeyan - Harshit: 0.5-0.5
GM Karthikeyan Murali was completely lost against IM Harshit Raja.
Black has more than one way to win here. The text 25...Rxe2 is correct, however better was 25...d2 as it's more definitive way for Black. Both were probably under time pressure, thus Black decided to go for a perpetual instead of pushing for a win as it was still completely winning for him.
Vaishali - Gukesh: 1-0
WGM Vaishali R scored a big victory over GM D Gukesh.
A rare tactical error by Gukesh 28...Rde8. Find out the winning continuation for White.
Highlights
Here are a few interesting finishes from Round 2:
Replay GMT Classical Round 1 games
Replay MTO Round 2 games
Photo Gallery
GMT Classical Round 1 results
Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
1 | 1 | 2658 | GM | Kamsky Gata | 1 - 0 | GM | Studer Noel | 2581 | 8 |
2 | 2 | 2648 | GM | Lagarde Maxime | ½ - ½ | GM | Keymer Vincent | 2591 | 7 |
3 | 3 | 2699 | GM | Alekseenko Kirill | 1 - 0 | GM | Nihal Sarin | 2620 | 6 |
4 | 4 | 2675 | GM | Gelfand Boris | 0 - 1 | GM | Pichot Alan | 2630 | 5 |
Round 2 pairings
Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
1 | 8 | 2581 | GM | Studer Noel | GM | Pichot Alan | 2630 | 5 | |
2 | 6 | 2620 | GM | Nihal Sarin | GM | Gelfand Boris | 2675 | 4 | |
3 | 7 | 2591 | GM | Keymer Vincent | GM | Alekseenko Kirill | 2699 | 3 | |
4 | 1 | 2658 | GM | Kamsky Gata | GM | Lagarde Maxime | 2648 | 2 |
GMT Overall standings
GMT Classical Scoring: Win - 4 points, Draw - 1.5 points and Loss - 0.
MTO Round 2 results
Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
1 | 19 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | 2567 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Saleh Salem A.R. | 2682 | 1 |
2 | 2 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2671 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Korpa Bence | 2536 | 21 |
3 | 4 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2644 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Valsecchi Alessio | 2527 | 23 |
4 | 20 | GM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2555 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Chithambaram Aravindh | 2641 | 5 |
5 | 6 | GM | Banusz Tamas | 2631 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | NR Visakh | 2516 | 25 |
6 | 24 | GM | Tang Andrew | 2525 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | Chigaev Maksim | 2630 | 7 |
7 | 8 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2625 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Budisavljevic Luka | 2509 | 27 |
8 | 26 | GM | Shchekachev Andrei | 2515 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Narayanan S.L. | 2624 | 9 |
9 | 28 | IM | Kalyan Arjun | 2503 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | GM | R Praggnanandhaa | 2608 | 11 |
10 | 12 | GM | Murali Karthikeyan | 2606 | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | IM | Raja Harshit | 2484 | 29 |
11 | 30 | IM | NR Vignesh | 2428 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Fedorchuk Sergey | 2598 | 13 |
12 | 14 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2589 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Gschnitzer Adrian | 2420 | 31 |
13 | 33 | WGM | Vaishali R | 2393 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | GM | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2578 | 15 |
14 | 16 | GM | Yuffa Daniil | 2578 | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | IM | Haimovich Tal | 2388 | 35 |
15 | 58 | Schweizer Simon | 2142 | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | GM | Wagner Dennis | 2572 | 17 |
Round 3 pairings
Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
1 | 1 | GM | Saleh Salem A.R. | 2682 | 2 | 2 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2589 | 14 | |
2 | 13 | GM | Fedorchuk Sergey | 2598 | 2 | 2 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2671 | 2 | |
3 | 5 | GM | Chithambaram Aravindh | 2641 | 2 | 2 | GM | Yuffa Daniil | 2578 | 16 | |
4 | 17 | GM | Wagner Dennis | 2572 | 2 | 2 | GM | Banusz Tamas | 2631 | 6 | |
5 | 23 | GM | Valsecchi Alessio | 2527 | 2 | 2 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2625 | 8 | |
6 | 9 | GM | Narayanan S.L. | 2624 | 2 | 2 | GM | Dragnev Valentin | 2569 | 18 | |
7 | 7 | GM | Chigaev Maksim | 2630 | 1½ | 2 | WGM | Vaishali R | 2393 | 33 | |
8 | 28 | IM | Kalyan Arjun | 2503 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Erdos Viktor | 2614 | 10 | |
9 | 11 | GM | R Praggnanandhaa | 2608 | 1½ | 1½ | IM | Bänziger Fabian | 2392 | 34 | |
10 | 36 | IM | Seul Georg | 2372 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Murali Karthikeyan | 2606 | 12 | |
11 | 29 | IM | Raja Harshit | 2484 | 1½ | 1½ | GM | Tang Andrew | 2525 | 24 | |
12 | 4 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2644 | 1 | 1½ | FM | Tahay Alexis | 2349 | 39 | |
13 | 15 | GM | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2578 | 1 | 1 | FM | Stelmaszyk Nico | 2296 | 43 | |
14 | 50 | Pahud Cédric | 2200 | 1 | 1 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | 2567 | 19 | ||
15 | 55 | WIM | Rakhmangulova Anastasiya | 2167 | 1 | 1 | GM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2555 | 20 |