57th Biel GMT R1: Vaishali outplays Jonas
R Vaishali made an impressive start at 57th Biel Chess Festival GMT 2024. She outplayed Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN) in the Challengers section. Her well-placed knights caused knightmare for his opponent. An incorrect attack on the knight only helped them improve their position and later win the game. R Praggnanandhaa could not follow through after a thematic knight sacrifice for two pawns on the kingside against Abhimanyu Mishra (USA). Four Indians - GM Koustav Chatterjee, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, GM Krishnan Sasikiran and GM Harsha Bharathakoti have made a perfect start 2/2 in the MTO. GMT Round 2 and MTO Round 3 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Biel Chess Festival
Abhimanyu Mishra stuns Praggnanandhaa
All three games of the Challengers section ended decisively. Salem Saleh (UAE), R Vaishali and Alexander Donchenko (GER) scored crucial four points in the first round.
Jonas - Vaishali: 0-4
GM R Vaishali (2488) won her first Classical rated game against GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN, 2653).
Black's knights are beautifully placed on c5 and d3. 21.Rhd1 helped Black to improve her knights' positions Nb2 22.Rdc1 Nc4 23.Qc3 Ra7 24.Ned4 Ne4 25.Qd3 Rc7 26.Bxe6+?
26.Bxe6+? is not actually a pawn gain for White. In fact, it turns White's position much worse Bxe6 27.Nxe6 Qb2+ 28.Nd2 Ncxd2 29.Nxc7 Nf1+! and Black won the game in another ten moves. A fantastic play by Vaishali.
Praggnanandhaa - Abhimanyu Mishra: 0-4
R Praggnanandhaa (2757) played only one Classical rated game against Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2604) in 2022 and he won that. This time, the World no.8 made a thematic knight sacrifice for two pawns on his opponent's kingside in Ruy Lopez.
White's difficult follow through in the above position is 22.Nxe5 according to the computer. 22...Qe7 23.Ng4+ Kg7 24.e5 and White has enough compensation. However, the game continued 22.Nh4 Rg8 23.Qf3 Kg7 24.Nf5+ Kh8 Black managed to put his king into safety and White's attack has fizzled out. Abhimanyu went on to win the game.
MTO: Vantika draws with the top seed Aryan
GM Koustav Chatterjee (2525), GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2592), GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2581) and GM Harsha Bharathakoti (2569) have made a perfect start 2/2. IM Vantika Agrawal (2390) held the top seed GM Aryan Chopra (2632) to a draw in Round 2. WIM Mounika Akshaya Bommini (2140) drew with IM Alexis Tahay (FRA, 2392).
ChessBase's very own Arne Kaehler is at the festival. He made some cool videos on the rest day, check them out.
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Scoring in GMT Classical
Win = 4 points
Draw = 1.5 point
Loss = 0
Replay Round 1 GMT Masters games
Replay Round 1 GMT Challengers games
Replay Biel MTO Round 1-2 games
Masters Round 1 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2661 | GM | Martirosyan, Haik M. | 1½ - 1½ | GM | Shankland, Sam | 2683 | 6 | |||
| 2 | 2 | 2721 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | 0 - 4 | GM | Le, Quang Liem | 2731 | 5 | |||
| 3 | 3 | 2757 | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 0 - 4 | GM | Mishra, Abhimanyu | 2604 | 4 |
Standings after Round 1
| Rank | Name | Games | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | GM LÊ Quang Liêm | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
| 2 | GM Haik MARTIROSYAN | 6 | 1 ½ | 7 | 8 ½ | |
| 3 | GM Abhimanyu MISHRA | 6 | 4 | 4 | 8 | |
| 4 | GM Sam SHANKLAND | 6 | 1 ½ | 4 | 5 ½ | |
| 5 | GM PRAGGNANANDHAA R | 6 | 5 | 5 | ||
| 6 | GM Vincent KEYMER | 6 | 5 | 5 |
Challengers Round 1 results
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2638 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | 4 - 0 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | 2620 | 6 | |||
| 2 | 2 | 2653 | GM | Bjerre, Jonas Buhl | 0 - 4 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2488 | 5 | |||
| 3 | 3 | 2633 | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | 4 - 0 | GM | Samunenkov, Ihor | 2535 | 4 |
Standings after Round 1
| Rank | Name | Games | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | GM Alexander DONCHENKO | 6 | 4 | 7 | 11 | |
| 3 | GM Saleh Salam | 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | |
| 2 | GM VAISHALI Rameshbabu | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
| 4 | GM Jonas BJERRE | 6 | 5 | 5 | ||
| 5 | GM Marc' Andria MAURIZZI | 6 | 4 | 4 | ||
| 6 | GM Ihor SAMUNENKOV | 6 | 3 | 3 |
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 2488 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | GM | Donchenko, Alexander | 2633 | 3 | ||||
| 2 | 1 | 2638 | GM | Salem, A.R. Saleh | GM | Bjerre, Jonas Buhl | 2653 | 2 | ||||
| 3 | 6 | 2620 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | GM | Samunenkov, Ihor | 2535 | 4 |
