Five players share first in Munich

The centrepiece of the 2nd Munich Chess Festival (24 May to 2 June) was a well-attended A-Open with 132 participants. A number of strong grandmasters took part, top seed was Vladimir Fedoseev.

Among the players most likely to challenge the grandmaster, who now plays for Slovenia, were Ukrainian Pavel Eljanov, seeded second, and the German grandmasters Dmitrij Kollars and Frederik Svane.

Vladimir Fedoseev took the lead from the very beginning, but was unable to shake off a few other players, including Pavel Eljanov and the less well-known Giga Quparadze from Georgia.

Pavel Eljanov

In the seventh round, the Georgian even managed to beat Fedoseev and took the sole lead with 6.0/7.

Fedoseev, Vladimir2702

0–1

Quparadze, Giga2496

2nd Muenchner Open-A 2024 Munich31.05.2024[Schulz,A]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 b6 5.g3 Ba6 6.a3 Bxd2+ 7.Nxd2 Bb7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Bg2 a5 9...d6 10.0-0 Nbd7 11.b4 Qe7 12.Bb2 a5 0-1 Raicevic,V-Nikolic,P (2515) YUG-ch36 Final Borovo 1981 (15) 10.b3 d6 11.0-0 Nbd7 12.Bb2 Re8 13.Re1 h6

The opening led to a typical position from the Bogo-Indian, in which Black swapped his black-squared bishop against a white knight. 14.d5 e5 15.Nd2 b5 16.cxb5 Bxd5 17.e4 Be6 18.a4 Nc5 19.Qc2 19.Bf1!? would prevent Black's counter c6 because White has 20.bxc6 Rc8 21.Bb5 19...c6! 20.bxc6 Rc8 21.Bf1 Rxc6! Well calculated. 22.Bb5 Rc8 23.Bc3 23.Bxe8? Nxb3 23...Re7 24.Rad1 24.Nc4 Ra7= 24...Qc7 Black has no problems and the position is equal. 25.Re3? A careless move. Ng4 Another strong possibility was 25...d5 26.Bb2 26.exd5 Nxd5 27.Ree1 Nxa4-+ 26...d4-+ 26.Rf3?! Better was 26.Re2!? Nxa4 27.bxa4 Qxc3 28.Qxc3 Rxc3 29.Nf1 and Black is only slightly better, e.g. Bc4 30.Bxc4 Rxc4 31.f3 Nf6 32.Ra2 Rc6 Black is a pawn up but White should be able to hold. 26...d5 27.exd5 Bxd5 Trapping the rook on f3. 28.Qf5 After 28.Rf5 g6 White's rook has no squares. 28...Be6 It was possible to take the rook as Black is better after 28...Bxf3 29.Qxf3 h5 However, Black had other ideas. 29.Qh5 e4 30.Rf4 Nxf2! 31.Rxf2 After 31.Kxf2 e3+! 32.Kg1 32.Kxe3 Bg4+ wins the queen 32...exd2 33.Rxd2 Ne4 34.Rxe4 Qxc3 Black keeps a clear advantage. 31...e3 32.Re2 exd2 33.Bxd2 Nxb3 34.Bf4

White survived the complications with only limited damages and still has chances. However, he still is a pawn down and his king is exposed. 34...Qa7+ 35.Be3 Qb7 36.Bf2 Rec7 37.Ree1 Rc2 38.Re2 Rxe2 39.Bxe2 Qe4 40.Bd3 40.Bb5 Rc1 41.Rxc1 Bd5-+ 40...Qxa4 41.Re1

41...Qd7 Now Black's passed a-pawn decides the game. 42.Qf3 a4 43.Rd1 Bg4 43...Bg4 z.B.: 44.Bh7+ Kxh7 45.Rxd7 Bxf3 46.Be1 Rc1 47.Kf2 Nc5 48.Ra7 Bc6 49.Rc7 Nd3+-+ 0–1

In the last two rounds, however, Quparadze did not manage to score more than two draws against Frederik Svane and the young German IM Alex Dac-Vuong Nguyen, and was caught up by the chasers.

The best woman in the field was Evgeniya Doluhanova, who finished 11th with 6.0/9.

The Ukrainian had an Elo-performance of more than 2400 and managed to beat two grandmasters during the tournament.

Final standings

...132 players

Games

Links

• Tournament page...
• Chess-results...