Peter Svidler wins 28th Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023, Gukesh shares second place
Boris Gelfand scored the sole victory in the final round of 28th TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament 2023. The win did not come easy. The legend started with three losses and then made three draws. The multi-stage endgame seemed to be heading towards a draw. His opponent, world's youngest GM Abhimanyu Mishra was unbeaten at 4/6. A draw would have allowed the boy to play tie-breaks against Peter Svidler. However, he crumbled in the final moments and Gelfand won. It means Peter Svidler won the tournament in his first appearance at this event. In the final round, he drew against D Gukesh who is now at the top of the FIDE Circuit leaderboard having 43.12 points. Gukesh shared second place with Nils Grandelius and Abhimanyu scoring 4/7 each. Photo: David Llada/TePe Sigeman & Co Tournament 2023
Gelfand scores a 125-move marathon win
Boris Gelfand headed into the final round of the tournament with three losses, three draws and zero wins. He is the winner of FIDE World Cup 2009 for a reason. He can endure long games. Abhimanyu Mishra should not feel bad about losing the game as he put up a good effort. The endgame is quite difficult to hold, even MVL mentioned it a few months ago.
Abhimanyu - Gelfand: 0-1
Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2550) was facing the legendary Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2678) for the first time in a rated game. While the youngster was undefeated 4/6, his opponent had a tough event till then 1.5/6. The game arrived at a multi-stage queen endgame. The first stage was a rook endgame. After the rooks were traded, pawns were promoted into a queen each which got traded and again both sides promoted a queen each. Only this time, Gelfand was left with an extra pawn.
The above endgame is neither easy to defend as White nor easy to win as Black. Earlier this year, former World Blitz champion, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also acknowledged that it is almost impossible to comprehend the nuances.
The 14th world champion, Vladimir Kramnik discussed a similar position with India's top talents a few years ago at a Gelfand-Kramnik camp held.
White did the right thing by bringing his king to the farthest corner from the g-pawn. So how did he lose then?
White's final decisive mistake was 121.Qd5. What he needed to do was give long distance checks 121.Qc5+ Kh2 122.Qc7+ Kh3 123.Qc8+ and it is not easy for Black to stop the checks. 121...Kf1 runs into 122.Qb5+ now the king cannot go to f2 or g1 as 123.Qb6+ forces a draw due to stalemate trick. 122...Kh2 123.Qd2 Qc6+ 124.Kb8 Kh1 and it was over for White. Abhimanyu played well. A long game certainly developed tiredness and fatigue, which got the better of him. Gelfand scored his sole win of the event after 125 moves in the final round.
Photo Gallery
Time Control
90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move (Malmö rules-no draws before move 40).
Replay Round 7 games
Round 7 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
| 1 | 4 | 2700 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | ½ - ½ | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2701 | 8 | |||
| 2 | 5 | 2664 | GM | Grandelius, Nils | ½ - ½ | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2689 | 3 | |||
| 3 | 6 | 2732 | GM | Gukesh, D | ½ - ½ | GM | Svidler, Peter | 2683 | 2 | |||
| 4 | 7 | 2550 | GM | Mishra, Abhimanyu | 0 - 1 | GM | Gelfand, Boris | 2678 | 1 |
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | TB1 | ||
| 1 | 2 | GM | Svidler, Peter | FID | 2683 | 4,5 | |
| 2 | 5 | GM | Grandelius, Nils | SWE | 2664 | 4 | |
| 6 | GM | Gukesh, D | IND | 2732 | 4 | ||
| 7 | GM | Mishra, Abhimanyu | USA | 2550 | 4 | ||
| 5 | 3 | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | NED | 2689 | 3,5 | |
| 6 | 8 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | IND | 2701 | 3 | |
| 7 | 1 | GM | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2678 | 2,5 | |
| 4 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | GER | 2700 | 2,5 |
Schedule
4th - 9th May - 3 p.m. CET (6:30 p.m. IST), 10th May - 12 p.m. CET (3:30 p.m. IST).
Links
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R6: A Close Race
@ 10/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R5: Abhimanyu holds Gukesh to a draw, still in lead with Svidler
@ 09/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R4: Arjun Erigaisi bounces back
@ 08/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R3: Svidler and Mishra join Gukesh in the lead
@ 07/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R2: Gukesh crushes Keymer, now World no.15
@ 06/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Tepe Sigeman & Co 2023 R1: Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh make a winning start
@ 05/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
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Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi set to face Gelfand, Svidler and world's best at 28th TePe Sigeman & Co 2023
@ 04/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |