The wait is certainly worth it
How long would you be willing to wait for something that you earned? Daniel Fridman won the GRENKE Chess Open 2019 nearly five years ago. He qualified to the Classic but the tournament could not take place in 2020 due to pandemic. Finally it did in 2024 and Fridman definitely played a good game against Magnus Carlsen. The final result obviously does not indicate Fridman's efforts. Speaking of waiting, Vincent Keymer will have to wait a little longer to score his first-ever win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. He will get another opportunity against MVL with the black pieces at this very event.
Rapport - Carlsen, Round 1
The rook and minor piece endgame is equal. Ideally it should end in a draw. However, Carlsen blundered 40...Nd2+?? 41.Rxd2 and he resigned as Rxd2 runs into Be3+ fork.
Round 2: Fridman - Carlsen: 0-1
Daniel Fridman (GER, 2575) faced the World no.1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2823) for the first time in a rated game. The 2019 GRENKE Open winner nearly waited five years to play in the GRENKE Classic. He was facing a wounded Carlsen as he suffered a surprising defeat in the first round.
Magnus sacrificed his knight for two pawns. 22...Nxg4 23.fxg4 Bxg4 24.Bh3 Qd7 25.Bxg4 Qxg4+ 26.Kf2 and things were not easy for Black.
32...Bh6 is the correct way for Black. Instead, the game continued 32...g3 33.Ra8! White forced the rook exchange Rxa8 34.Qxf3 Qh3 35.Rh1 Rf8 36.Rxh3 Rxf3 37.Bxf2 White returned the extra material to prevent pawn promotion Rxf2+ 38.Kb3 g2 39.Rg3 and Black had to fight for another 29 moves to win the game.
Keymer - Vachier-Lagrave: 0.5-0.5
Vincent Keymer (GER, 2738) has never beaten Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2728) in a rated game in any format. Yesterday, he had a great opportunity to improve that statistic slightly in his favor. Out of the seven rated games they played against each other, the Germany no.1 got white pieces only once. This was the second time in their eighth encounter.
Vachier-Lagrave made an incorrect rook exchange which resulted in White getting a decisive advantage in the resultant knight endgame. The question is, how should white proceed here? The game continued 41.h5 and it eventually ended in a draw.
Replay Round 1-2 games
Round 3 pairings
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Daniel Fridman
Richard Rapport vs. Vincent Keymer
Magnus Carlsen vs. Ding Liren
Round 4 pairings
Richard Rapport vs. Daniel Fridman
Magnus Carlsen vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Ding Liren vs. Vincent Keymer
Format
6 players, double round robin (2 games with reversed colors against each player)
Time control: 45 minutes per game, with a 10 sec increment from move 1
No draw offers before move 40
Places 1, 3 and 5 will be decided in 2 games with reversed colors. In the case of a score of 1-1, a tiebreaker decides: 2 games 10+2 (10 minutes + 2 sec increment per move), if necessary 2 more games 5+2, if then necessary: Armageddon (6 minutes for White, 5 minutes for Black, in case of a draw the Black player wins).
