Biel, Round 4: Kamsky and Gelfand draw

by ChessBase
7/31/2021 – Two legends met yesterday at the Biel Chess Festival: Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand, both former World Championship runners-up and World Cup winners. With a draw, Kamsky defended his lead in the overall standings. Frenchman Maxime Lagarde is the new runner-up, as the Frenchman defeated Kirill Alekseenko in round 4. | Photos: Official site

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

Kamsky leads the main event

Two legends met yesterday at the Biel Chess Festival: Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand, both former World Championship runners-up and World Cup winners. With a draw, Kamsky defended his lead in the tournament ranking. The new first chaser is the Frenchman Lagarde, who overtook Alekseenko with a win. Keymer was also victorious, as the German defeated the Argentine Pichot. Noël Studer and Nihal Sarin drew.

Yesterday in Biel, there was a replay of the semi-final of the 2011 Candidates’ Tournament: Boris Gelfand had then beaten Gata Kamsky in the tie-break blitz, before beating Grischuk in the final, thus qualifying to challenge, in 2012, the then reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand. While Kamsky was unable to exact revenge today, he should not be unhappy with a draw that puts him in the 3½ points ahead of the runner-up in the overall standings.

Biel Chess Festival 2021

The playing hall

Frenchman Maxime Lagarde is the new runner-up behind Kamsky. Lagarde won the direct duel with Kamsky’s previous rival, Kirill Alekseenko, as the Russian, who was better at times, made decisive mistakes in time trouble. Like Lagarde, Vincent Keymer also won his first classical game in round 4. Against Alan Pichot, he managed to steadily build up his position and then safely convert it into a win.

Vincent Keymer

Vincent Keymer

After his opening defeat, Nihal Sarin drew for the third time in a row on Friday. Inspired by his victory in the previous round, Noël Studer, playing with white, got a good position, but the Indian managed to hold the draw.

Overall standings

Rank

Name

Country

Games

Classic

Rapid

Blitz

TOTAL

1

GM Gata Kamsky

USA

11

11

 

19½

2

GM Maxime Lagarde

FRA

11

7

9

 

16

3

GM Kirill Alekseenko

RUS

11

7

8

 

15

4

GM Nihal Sarin

IND

11

10

 

14½

5

GM Vincent Keymer

GER

11

7

6

 

13

6

GM Alan Pichot

ARG

11

7

5

 

12

7

GM Boris Gelfand

ISR

11

7

4

 

11

8

GM Noël Studer

SUI

11

7

3

 

10

All games - Classical

 

Masters Tournament

The Master Tournament saw two top duels among 2600+ rated players: Karthikeyan Murali, playing with black, defeated top seed Salem Saleh to take the lead with 4½ points, while young Indian star Praggnanandhaa drew with his compatriot Surya Shekhar Ganguly, which means both have so far collected 4 points in the tournament. Also on 4 points after 5 rounds are Tamas Banusz from Hungary, Pavel Eljanov from Ukraine and Sethuraman S.P. from India.

Saturday is a rest day in the Masters Tournament.

Current standings - Top 20

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

...73 players

All games

 

Links


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register