Biel MTO 2021 R4: Ganguly, Karthikeyan and Pragg in the lead 3.5/4

by Shahid Ahmed - 30/07/2021

The third round of 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 GMT witnessed 50% decisive games. Nihal drew with Pichot, Gelfand and Studer scored a win each. In the MTO section, Ganguly drew with Salem in an exciting battle. Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan Murali joined the lead with Ganguly, Salem and Fedorchuk at 3.5/5 each respectively. IM Harshit Raja continues his good run as he drew with GM Tamas Banusz (HUN). IM Vignesh N R drew with compatriot GM Arjun Erigaisi. GMT Classical Round 4 and MTO Round 5 starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Nihal makes a draw with Pichot

Nihal Sarin thwarted all attempts by his opponent Alan Pichot and made a solid draw. Boris Gelfand and Noel Studer scored a win each over Vincent Keymer and Maxime Lagarde respectively. Tournament leader Gata Kamsky (18 points) drew with Kirill Alekseenko who is in pursuit at 15 points. Nihal has now jumped to the third place at 13 points.

Pichot is still undefeated in the Classical event | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT: Pichot - Nihal: 0.5-0.5

Nihal had a well-fought draw with Pichot. The Argentine prevented all of his opponent's attempts to stir up trouble.

MTO: Ganguly - Salem: 0.5-0.5

Ganguly and Salem had an exciting draw.

Position after 29...Qb7

30.Bxc6 leads to an interesting continuation, 30...Bxc6 31.Nxc6 Rb3 32.Qc4 Rb5 33.Rg1. The game continued 30.Qd3

Position after 41...f6

White could have tightened the grip 42.g5 fxg5 43.Qxd7 gxf4 44.Qxd5+ Rf7 45.e6 Re7 46.Nc5 and White is in full control. 42.Kg2 was played and the game ended with a draw by perpetual check.

Salem always plays exciting games | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

IM Harshit Raja held GM Tamasz Banusz (HUN) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GM Visakh N R lost to GM Sethuraman S P | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from MTO Round 4

GM Tamasz Banusz (HUN) drew with IM Harshit Raja

GM Raunak Sadhwani defeated IM Tal Haimovich (ISR)

FM Elliott Papadiamandis (FRA) drew with GM Bence Korpa (HUN)

Replay GMT Classical Round 3 games

Replay MTO Round 4 games

Photo Gallery

Maxime Lagarde (FRA) lost to Noel Studer (SUI) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) drew with Gata Kamsky (USA) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Boris Gelfand (ISR) defeated Vincent Keymer (GER) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Alan Pichot (ARG) and Nihal Sarin fist bump | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Nihal eagerly awaits the blitz event | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

The playing arena | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT Classical Round 3 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	2648	GM	Lagarde Maxime	0 - 1	GM	Studer Noel	2581	8
2	3	2699	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	½ - ½	GM	Kamsky Gata	2658	1
3	4	2675	GM	Gelfand Boris	1 - 0	GM	Keymer Vincent	2591	7
4	5	2630	GM	Pichot Alan	½ - ½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2620	6

Details

Round 4 pairings

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

Details

GMT Overall standings

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

MTO Round 4 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
2	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17
3	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	5
4	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
5	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
6	18	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	11
7	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	2½	1 - 0	2½	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	33
8	25	GM	NR Visakh	2516	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4
9	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	7
10	10	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Gschnitzer Adrian	2420	31
11	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	28
12	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
13	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Haimovich Tal	2388	35
14	38	FM	Papadiamandis Elliot	2363	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
15	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	1½	1 - 0	2	IM	J Sai Agni Jeevitesh	2322	40

Details

Round 5 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	3½		3½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
2	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	3½		3½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
3	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	3		3½	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	13
4	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	3		3	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
5	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	3		3	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
6	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	3		3	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20
7	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	3		3	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
8	3	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	2½		2½	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	23
9	5	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	2½		2½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24
10	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	2½		2½	GM	Shchekachev Andrei	2515	26
11	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	2½		2½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	14
12	15	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	2½		2½	IM	Unuk Laura	2407	32
13	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	2½		2½	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
14	19	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	2½		2½	FM	Papadiamandis Elliot	2363	38
15	21	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	2½		2½	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	34

Details

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54th International Biel Chess Festival GMT Classic Tournament Round 3 - Live Commentary by GM Artur Neikšāns | Video: Biel Chess Festival

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