Harikrishna finishes second in Biel GMT Rapid

by Shahid Ahmed - 20/07/2020

Pentala Harikrishna continued his momentum from the previous day as he scored an unbeaten 10 points to secure second position. Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek won the Rapid event by scoring 12 points. Harikrishna came very close to defeating him but the game ended up in a draw. Both of them remained undefeated in the Rapid. German GM Vincent Keymer also scored 10 points. He finished third according to the tie-break score. Monday 20th July is a rest day. Classical part of the GMT (Grandmaster Triathlon) will begin from Tuesday 21st July. Currently Wojtaszek has a two point lead heading into the Classical part of the festival. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Wojtaszek wins the Rapid event

Pentala Harikrishna scored 10 points to finish second in the Rapid event of the 53rd Biel Chess Festival GMT. The Rapid event had 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. Blitz will have the regular scoring system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 point for a draw. Classical format will have 4 points for a win and 1.5 points for a draw. It is safe to assume that the point structure has been made such to discourage draws. In case of a tie in the final standings after the conclusion of Rapid, Blitz and Classical, the Chess960 standings will be used as a tie-breaker which will go in favor of Harikrishna as he won the Chess960 event. Wojtaszek scored 12 points to win the Rapid event. Both Harikrishna and Wojtaszek remained undefeated in the Rapid.

Harikrishna made a brilliant start | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

A Winning Start

Harikrishna continued his previous day's momentum into the Rapid event of the GMT as he capitalized on his opponent Michael Adams' blunder.

Adams - Harikrishna, Round 1

Position after 39...Qf5

How should white react to black's threat on d3-pawn after 39...Qf5 ? White blundered here with 40.d4. Find out why it is a mistake.

Naiditsch's pinned knight

In Round 2, Harikrishna pinned Naiditsch's knight and after incorrectly defending the position, all his pieces got cramped up and eventually arrived at a lost Rook endgame.

Harikrishna - Naiditsch, Game 2

Position after 28...Kf8

Find out why 28...Kf8 is a mistake and what was the better alternative.

A Radical game

After having two uneventful draws against Studer and Keymer in Round 3 and 4 respectively, Harikrishna had a brilliant game against Radoslaw Wojtaszek in Round 5. He almost got a winning position after a timely exchange sacrifice.

Harikrishna - Wojtaszek, Game 5

Position after 29...Qe8

Find out the correct continuation for white after 29...Qe8.

Harikrishna could have influenced the overall standings | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Endgame prowess encore

Harikrishna repeated his endgame prowess for the second consecutive day against Romain Edouard as he capitalized on his opponent's positional error and won the game in just 27 moves.

Replay all games

Without spectator

One of the measures that the organizers have included in their Corona protection concept is strict access control to the venue. To ensure that there are never more than 300 people in the Biel Congress Centre, unfortunately no spectators are admitted to this year's edition of the chess festival.

All players in action during Round 1 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Final Standings in Rapid

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	4	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	POL	2662	6,0	0,0	17,50	5
2	2	GM	Harikrishna Pentala	IND	2690	5,0	0,5	15,75	3
3	3	GM	Keymer Vincent	GER	2487	5,0	0,5	13,50	4
4	7	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2689	4,0	0,0	10,00	3
5	1	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	AZE	2584	2,5	0,0	4,50	2
6	6	GM	Anton Guijarro David	ESP	2718	2,0	0,5	6,75	0
7	5	GM	Edouard Romain	FRA	2654	2,0	0,5	5,00	1
8	8	GM	Studer Noel	SUI	2437	1,5	0,0	4,50	1

Details

Replay the live stream

Live commentary by legendary Australian GM Ian Rogers | Video: Biel Chess Festival

Links

Official site

Related news:

	Wojtaszek wins 53rd Biel GMT, Harikrishna finishes second @ 30/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Can Harikrishna win 53rd Biel Chess Festival GMT? @ 29/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Biel GMT Round 5: Harikrishna scores a brilliant win against Wojtaszek @ 28/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Hard luck for Harikrishna in Biel GMT Blitz @ 26/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Biel GMT Round 4: Harikrishna beats Keymer @ 25/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Biel GMT Round 3: Harikrishna survives a scare @ 24/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Biel GMT Round 2: Adams scores the sole victory @ 23/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	53rd Biel GMT: Harikrishna starts with a draw @ 22/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Harikrishna wins Biel Chess960 @ 19/07/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)