Biel: Kamsky defends lead, Alekseenko and Keymer score

by André Schulz
8/4/2021 – In the penultimate round of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Kirill Alekseenko (pictured) and Vincent Keymer came to victories, while Gata Kamsky defended his lead with a draw against Nihal Sarin. In the Masters Open, the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan remains sole first. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival
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The Biel Chess Festival 2021 is coming to an end – the final round of the Grandmaster Tournament and the Masters Tournament will start on Wednesday, 4 August, 11 am local time.

The Grandmaster Tournament is a triathlon, with a rapid, a blitz and a classical tournament. The results are added up but the tournaments are weighted differently: in the classical tournament a win yields 4 points and for a draw you get 1.5 points.

After 5 of 7 rounds Gata Kamsky was first in the overall standings, and in the penultimate round he had to defend his lead against one of his pursuers, Nihal Sarin, which he managed to do with a draw.

Alan Pichot and Maxime Lagarde also drew their game but Kirill Alekseenko won  a along endgame against Boris Gelfand and is now only 1.5 points behind Kamsky in the overall standings.

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.b3 f6 6.d3 e5 7.Nh4 g6 8.f4 exf4 9.Bxf4 Nh6 10.0-0 Nf7 11.Qe1 Bg7 12.Nd2 0-0 13.Qg3 d6 14.Nhf3 Be6 15.Rae1 Qd7 16.h3 Rae8 17.Kh1 Kh8 18.Nc4 Ne5 19.Ncxe5 fxe5 20.Be3 Rf7 21.Rf2 Ref8 22.Ref1 Kg8 23.Kg1 Qe7 24.Bg5 Bf6 25.Be3 Bg7 26.a3 a6 27.Kh2 Rf4 28.Re2 R4f7 29.Qe1 h6 30.Ref2 Qd7 31.Qa5 Qc8 32.Qc3 Kh7 33.b4 cxb4 34.axb4 Kg8 35.Qa3 Kh7 36.b5 c5 37.Qxa6 Qxa6 38.bxa6 Ra8 39.Ng5+ hxg5 40.Rxf7 Bxf7 41.Rxf7 Kg8 42.Rd7 Rxa6 43.Kg3 c4 44.Kg4 Ra2 45.dxc4 Rxc2 46.Rxd6 Rxc4 47.Rxg6 Rxe4+ 48.Kf3 Ra4 49.Rxg5 Kf7 50.Rg4 Ra3 51.Ke4 Bf6 52.Rg3 Bh4 53.Rg4 Bf6 54.Bg5 Ke6 55.Bxf6 Kxf6 56.Rg8 Ra4+ 57.Kf3 Ra3+ 58.Ke4 Ra4+ 59.Kf3 Ra3+ 60.Kg4 Ra4+ 61.Kg3 Ra3+ 62.Kh4 e4 63.Re8 Kf5 64.g4+ Kf4 65.g5 Ra1 66.Rf8+ Ke5 67.Kh5 Rg1 68.h4 e3 69.Re8+ Kf4 70.g6 Kf3 71.Kh6 e2 72.g7 Kf2 73.h5 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Alekseenko,K2699Gelfand,B26751–02021B3054th Biel GM 20216.4

Vincent Keymer also won – he defeated Noel Studer.

 
N. Studer vs V. Keymer, Biel 2021

This remarkable position started as a Nimzo-Indian. Both sides still have all their pawns, but three pairs of minor pieces have been exchanged. Black has a "good" bishop and more space on the kingside, while White has a knight which can be an advantage in closed positions.

23...g5 Black advances on the kingside.

24.f4 Qg7 25.Rcc1 Rae8 Black has a couple of ideas how to become active while White can just react.

26.Nc2 h6 27.a4 Rf7 28.fxe5 Rxe5 29.Nd4 The exchange on e5 gave White's knight at least some squares.

29...Re4 30.Ne6 Qe5 31.g3 Bg6 32.Nd8 Rd7 33.Nc6 Qe8 34.Nd4 Qe5 35.Nc6 Qe8 36.Nd4 A tacit draw offer that Black declines.

36...Rf7 37.Ne6 Qe7 38.Qb2 Rf6!? Black lays a bait, the pawn on c7.

39.Nxc7 39.Qc3!? Bf7 40.Nd4

39...Bf7 40.Na8 White wants to win the pawn on b6 but usually knights are not particularly strong when standing in the corner of the board. However, 40.Ne6 Bxe6 41.dxe6 Qxe6 is also better for Black.

40...f4! The right time for an attack.

41.Nxb6 fxg3 42.Nc8 42.hxg3 Rg4–+ (42...Rf3–+)

42...Qd8 43.hxg3 Rf3 44.Kg2 44.Qg2 Bh5 45.Na7 Qe8–+

44...Bh5 45.Qc2 Re5 46.Rh1 Rfxe3 47.Rxh5 Re2+ 48.Qxe2 Rxe2+ 49.Kf3 Qe8 White has no adequate defense against the mate on e4. 0–1

In the classical tournament Vincent Keymer is now half a point behind Gata Kamsky but in the overall standings he is on place four.

Ranking of the classical tournament with 1.0 point for a win

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Kamsky Gata 4,0 0
2 Alekseenko Kirill 3,5 0
  Keymer Vincent 3,5 0
4 Gelfand Boris 3,0 0
5 Lagarde Maxime 2,5 0
  Pichot Alan 2,5 0
  Nihal Sarin 2,5 0
  Studer Noel 2,5 0

Overall standings

1 GM Gata Kamsky 27 14 11 6 31
2 GM Kirill Alekseenko 27 12½ 8 9 29½
3 GM Nihal Sarin 27 7½ 10 9½ 27
4 GM Vincent Keymer 27 12½ 6 7 25½
5 GM Maxime Lagarde 27 8½ 9 7 24½
6 GM Boris Gelfand 27 11 4 7 22
7 GM Alan Pichot 27 8½ 5 6½ 20
8 GM Noel Studer 27 8½ 3 4 15½

Games Grandmaster Tournament

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
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1.c343351%2426---
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1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.b3 24 e5 44 2.Bb2 6 d6 15 3.c4 1:19 Nf6 1:30 4.e3 5:22 g6 46 5.d4 6:51 exd4 14 6.Qxd4 7:39 Bg7 16 7.Nf3 6 0-0 10 8.Be2 31 Re8 2:55 9.0-0 1:16 Na6 7:01 10.Nc3 15:33 Nc5 22:46 11.Rad1 2:54 a5 6:13 12.Ba1 20:52 Bf5 11:41 13.Qd2 1:39 Qb8 10:20 14.Qc1 6:36 Qa7 6:53 15.Nd4 8:13 Bd7 1:41 16.Ndb5 53 Qb6 3:03 17.Bb2 5:13 Bxb5 20:54 18.cxb5 5:23 a4 1:02 19.b4 2:18 a3 4 20.bxc5 7:45 axb2 5 21.cxb6 3 bxc1Q 6 22.Rxc1 5 cxb6 50 23.Bf3 11 Re7 1:19 24.Rfd1 1:35 Rc7 2:09 25.Nd5 1:01 Nxd5 38 26.Bxd5 1 Rac8 52 27.Rxc7 40 Rxc7 2 28.Bb3 2:00 Bf8 3:42 29.g3 1:47 Rc5 1:00 30.a4 18 Be7 1:34 31.Bd5 2:33 Kf8 1:18 32.Bxb7 1:43 Rc4 3 33.Ra1 7 Bf6 44 34.Ra2 47 Bc3 1:33 35.Kg2 47 h5 2:11 36.Bd5 1:35 Rc5 15 37.Rc2 1:20 f5 1:12 38.f4 1:18 Ke7 40 39.Kf3 5 Kf6 34 40.e4 35 fxe4+ 34 41.Kxe4 50:47 Ba5 4:36 42.Re2 0 Rc1 41 43.Kf3 0 Rf1+ 12:12 44.Kg2 0 Re1 28 45.Rxe1 0 Bxe1 4 46.h4 0 Bb4 1:21 47.Kf3 0 Ba5 1:14 48.Ke2 0 Bb4 9 49.Be4 0 Ba5 1:15 50.Kf3 0 Bb4 25 51.Bc6 0 Ba5 1:04 52.Bd7 0 d5 4:50 53.Bc6 0 Ke6 1:30 54.g4 0 hxg4+ 4:47 55.Kxg4 0 Kf6 1:54 56.Bxd5 0 Bb4 3:45 57.Be4 0 Bd2 4:47 58.Bc2 0 Be1 2:47 59.Bd3 0 Bd2 1:36 60.Bb1 0 Be1 12 61.Bc2 6:34 Bd2 15:23 62.Kf3 5 Kg7 9:18 63.f5 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Nihal Sarin2620Lagarde,M2648½–½2021A0154th Biel GMT Classical 20217.3

MTO Master Open

In the Master Open the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan drew against Tamas Barnusz but is still sole leader. Salem Saleh, Pavel Eljanov and Gukesh follow half a point behind.

Standings after 8 rounds

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Murali Karthikeyan 6,5 37,0
2 Saleh Salem A.R. 6,0 36,0
3 Eljanov Pavel 6,0 36,0
4 Gukesh Dommaraju 6,0 31,5
5 Banusz Tamas 5,5 36,5
6 Sethuraman S.P. 5,5 33,5
7 Erdos Viktor 5,5 33,5
8 Chigaev Maksim 5,5 33,0
9 Sadhwani Raunak 5,5 32,0
10 Erigaisi Arjun 5,5 31,0
11 Kantor Gergely 5,5 30,0
12 Ganguly Surya Shekhar 5,0 37,5
13 Raja Harshit 5,0 36,5
14 Wagner Dennis 5,0 36,5
15 Kalyan Arjun 5,0 35,5
16 R Praggnanandhaa 5,0 35,0
17 Fedorchuk Sergey 5,0 34,0
18 Narayanan S.L. 5,0 33,0
19 Budisavljevic Luka 5,0 30,5
20 Vaishali R 4,5 37,0

73 players

Games Master Open

 
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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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