55th Biel GMT R5: Gukesh beats Keymer five times in-a-row in ten days
D Gukesh has won all five games against Vincent Keymer at 55th Biel Chess Festival. First he defeated the Germany no.1 in Chess960 then Rapid, next twice in Blitz and now in their Classical encounter too. All of these happened within a span of ten days. Gukesh is now at 28/48, just two points behind the tournament leader, Liem Quang Le 30/48. The youngest Indian to reach 2700, is closely followed by Andrey Esipenko 27/48 and Nodirbek Abdusattorov 26.5/48. Aryan Chopra lost the game and lead to Kirill Alekseenko. GMT Round 6 and MTO Round 8 starts today at 2 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. IST). Photo: Simon Bohnenblust/Biel Chess Festival
Gukesh has Keymer's number
Until 55th Biel Chess Festival, D Gukesh and Vincent Keymer did not face each other in any over-the-board tournament. They had three decisive games online, two were in favor of the German. That statistics changed a lot when Gukesh beat the Germany no.1 for five times in three different formats and also in the most-popular chess variant, Chess960/Fischer Random chess.
GMT Round 5: Keymer - Gukesh: 0-1
Vincent Keymer (GER, 2686) opted for QGD Exchange variation against Gukesh (2684). He opted not to castle and expand on the kingside. The attack did not pan out the way he wanted and his queenside became vulnerable.
White played 28.Rb2 directly which allowed Bxe5 29.fxe5 b4 30.axb4 Reb8 31.Rhb1 a3 32.Rb3 a2 33.Ra1 Rxb4 and Black managed to gain an entry via b-file. The difference between playing 28.Rb2 directly and going for 28.Rb4 first is now Black needs to play Ba5 which means Reb8 is no longer possible as it is controller by the bishop at e5. Thus, the invasion on the queenside is no longer successful for Black. 34.Rxb4 Rxb4 35.Rxa2 Rxd4 Black soon gained another pawn and arrived at winning rook ending which was a comfortable endgame for Gukesh to win.
MTO: Aryan - Alekseenko: 0-1
GM Aryan Chopra (2610) was on the verge of scoring another victory. He made a tiny miscalculation in the endgame against GM Kirill Alekseenko (2708) which turned things into the latter's favor.
21...Reb8 makes a deadly threat of Rb1+ and force the g2-bishop to become a temporary vegetable at f1. However, that is not forced as 22.Bd5 can avoid the predicament. 22...Rb1+ 23.Kg2 Rxa1 24.Bxa1 and White's bishops are free to push for a win. Of course it is not easy, still better than the game continuation 22.Rxa5 which ran into Rxd3! It works because 23.exd3 is a blunder Rb1+ 24.Bf1 e2 and now the pawn promotion is unstoppable. 23.Ba7 Rd1+ 24.Bf1 Rbb1 now White cannot avoid the loss of the bishop which means it is over for White.
A total of 114 players including 26 GMs, 23 IMs and 3 WIMs are taking part from 31 countries across the world. The nine-round Swiss League tournament is organized by Biel-Bienne Chess at Biel Congress House, Biel, Switzerland from 13th to 22nd July. The sole rest day is Sunday 17th July. The time control is 90 minutes/40 moves with 30 seconds increment + 30 minutes.
Replay GMT Round 5 games
Round 5 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 3 | 2686 | GM | Keymer Vincent | 0 - 1 | GM | Gukesh D | 2684 | 8 |
| 2 | 4 | 2684 | GM | Salem A.R. Saleh | 0 - 1 | GM | Le Quang Liem | 2722 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 2664 | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | 0 - 1 | GM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | 2688 | 1 |
| 4 | 6 | 2682 | GM | Esipenko Andrey | ½ - ½ | GM | Kamsky Gata | 2655 | 7 |
Round 6 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 8 | 2684 | GM | Gukesh D | GM | Kamsky Gata | 2655 | 7 | |
| 2 | 1 | 2688 | GM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | GM | Esipenko Andrey | 2682 | 6 | |
| 3 | 2 | 2722 | GM | Le Quang Liem | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | 2664 | 5 | |
| 4 | 3 | 2686 | GM | Keymer Vincent | GM | Salem A.R. Saleh | 2684 | 4 |
Replay MTO Round 7 games
Round 7 results
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 13 | GM | Aryan Chopra | 2610 | 5 | 0 - 1 | 5 | GM | Alekseenko Kirill | 2708 | 2 |
| 2 | 7 | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2632 | 5 | ½ - ½ | 5 | GM | Visakh N R | 2503 | 23 |
| 3 | 15 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2608 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Fedoseev Vladimir | 2686 | 3 |
| 4 | 27 | IM | Pranav Anand | 2463 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Sargsyan Shant | 2661 | 5 |
| 5 | 20 | GM | Iniyan P | 2533 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2623 | 9 |
| 6 | 10 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2619 | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Mendonca Leon Luke | 2567 | 17 |
| 7 | 14 | GM | Huschenbeth Niclas | 2610 | 4 | 0 - 1 | 4½ | GM | Muradli Mahammad | 2523 | 21 |
| 8 | 4 | GM | Martirosyan Haik M. | 2672 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | IM | Licznerski Lukasz | 2451 | 30 |
| 9 | 8 | GM | Lagarde Maxime | 2631 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2445 | 32 |
| 10 | 34 | IM | Krishna C R G | 2430 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2612 | 11 |
Round 8 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 23 | GM | Visakh N R | 2503 | 5½ | 6 | GM | Alekseenko Kirill | 2708 | 2 | |
| 2 | 21 | GM | Muradli Mahammad | 2523 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2632 | 7 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Fedoseev Vladimir | 2686 | 5 | 5 | GM | Erdos Viktor | 2586 | 16 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Sargsyan Shant | 2661 | 5 | 5 | GM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2479 | 24 | |
| 5 | 9 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2623 | 5 | 5 | GM | Aryan Chopra | 2610 | 13 | |
| 6 | 10 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2619 | 5 | 5 | IM | Pranav Anand | 2463 | 27 | |
| 7 | 17 | GM | Mendonca Leon Luke | 2567 | 5 | 5 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2608 | 15 | |
| 8 | 11 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2612 | 4½ | 5 | GM | Iniyan P | 2533 | 20 | |
| 9 | 1 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2720 | 4½ | 4½ | CM | Prraneeth Vuppala | 2457 | 29 | |
| 10 | 32 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2445 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Martirosyan Haik M. | 2672 | 4 |
