Biel MTO 2021 R7: Karthikeyan maintains his sole lead 6.0/7

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/08/2021

Karthikeyan Murali remains in the sole lead as he drew with Pavel Eljanov in the seventh round of 54th Biel International Chess Festival MTO 2021. Eljanov maintains his chase 5.5/7. They are followed by eight players at 5.0/7. IM Harshit Raja continues his quest for the GM title as he drew with GM Alexander Donchenko. Raunak Sadhwani showed great tenacity against Sethuraman to salvage a draw. Nihal drew with Keymer and Kamsky won his game against Pichot. The gap increased to four points now. Nihal must beat Kamsky in the penultimate round to keep his chances of finishing first. The sixth round of GMT and eighth round of MTO will start at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Ganguly, Pragg and Gukesh in the hunt

Karthikeyan drew with GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR) to maintain his sole lead 6.0/7. Eljanov is still trailing by a half point 5.5/7. Eight players are at 5.0/7. They are - Salem, Ganguly, Banusz, Praggnanandhaa, Chigaev, Erdos, Kantor and Gukesh.

Karthikeyan maintains his sole lead 6.0/7 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT R5: Nihal - Keymer: 0.5-0.5

Nihal refused threefold repetition twice before making the draw on the third occasion he could not find enough reason to go on against Keymer.

Nihal drew with Keymer | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Gelfand - Lagarde: 1-0

Rook endings are very common and quite critical. One wrong move and the possibility of draw just disappears in thin air.

Position after 36.b6

Find out one thing which Black should not do here to keep his chances of a draw.

To learn more about decisions in the endgame, you can get the book - Decision Making in Major Piece Endings by Boris Gelfand, available now on our site.

Gelfand's technical wins are very educational | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Biel Chess Festival GMT Round 5 (hosts GM Arturs Neiksans and WGM Dina Belenkaya) | Video: Biel Chess Festival

MTO: Eljanov - Karthikeyan: 0.5-0.5

Karthikeyan had a well-fought draw with Eljanov to maintain his sole lead.

Sethuraman - Raunak: 0.5-0.5

Raunak showed great tenacity to save the game from a difficult position against Sethuraman.

Position after 47...Bd3

47...Bd3 serves two purposes - prevents a6 as well as threatens Bf1 to capture on g2. White just needed to focus on rolling the connected passed pawns on the queenside because even if g2 and h3 falls, White's pawns will be much quicker than Black's. White made a mistake of playing 48.Kg1 g5 49.Nd1 and Black happily traded the rooks because the resultant knight vs bishop ending with a split passed pawn is relatively easier to defend.

Raunak Sadhwani 4.5/7 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Praggnanandhaa - Visakh: 1-0

Pragg bounced back strong after a forgettable loss against Eljanov in the previous round.

Position after 19.Rb5

White played a prophylactic move 19.Rb5 to make sure Black cannot leave the a5-pawn unprotected in the future. 19...Bf6 20.Ba3 Re8 21.c5 and White won the game comfortably.

R Praggnanandhaa 5.0/7 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Valsecchi - Gukesh: 0-1

Gukesh made a nice combination against GM Alessio Valsecchi (ITA).

Position after 29.b3

Black's position was already good, but 29.b3 invited trouble. Find out the winning continuation for Black.

D Gukesh 5.0/7 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

IM Harshit Raja drew with GM Alexander Donchenko (GER) | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Vaishali - Yuffa: 1-0

Vaishali completely turned around a difficult position into a win after her opponent GM Daniil Yuffa (RUS) messed up the move order during an exchange.

Position after 22.Be4

What should Black do here, 22...Ng4 or Bxg3 ? Find out the difference between the move order.

WGM R Vaishali 4.5/7 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from MTO Round 7

GM Salem A R Saleh (UAE) defeated GM Andrew Tang (USA)

WGM R Vaishali defeated GM Daniil Yuffa (RUS)

IM Vignesh N R defeated with GM Valentin Dragnev (AUT)

WGM Eric Jovana (SRB) lost to GM Abhimanyu Puranik

Replay GMT Round 5 games

Replay MTO Round 7 games

GMT Round 5 results

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

Details

Round 6 pairings

Round 6 on 2021/08/03 at 14:00
Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2581	GM	Studer Noel		GM	Keymer Vincent	2591	7
2	1	2658	GM	Kamsky Gata		GM	Nihal Sarin	2620	6
3	2	2648	GM	Lagarde Maxime		GM	Pichot Alan	2630	5
4	3	2699	GM	Alekseenko Kirill		GM	Gelfand Boris	2675	4

Details

GMT Overall standings

MTO Round 7 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	5	½ - ½	5½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
2	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
3	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
4	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	4	1 - 0	4½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24
5	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20
6	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
7	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	4	1 - 0	4	GM	NR Visakh	2516	25
8	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	15
9	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17
10	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	4	½ - ½	3½	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	3
11	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	27
12	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	3½	1 - 0	3½	IM	Unuk Laura	2407	32
13	33	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
14	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
15	19	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	3½	1 - 0	3½	FM	Tahay Alexis	2349	39

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	6		5	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	6
2	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	5		5½	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
3	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	5		5	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
4	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	5		5	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	15
5	10	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	5		5	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	22
6	24	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	4½		4½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4
7	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	4½		4½	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	28
8	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	4½		4½	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
9	33	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	4½		4½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
10	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	4½		4½	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	30
11	3	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	4		4	GM	NR Visakh	2516	25
12	34	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	4		4	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
13	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	4		4	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	23
14	21	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	4		4	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	27
15	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	3½		4	FM	Papadiamandis Elliot	2363	38

Details

Links

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