Freestyle Challenge: Keymer leads, Ding struggles

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
2/10/2024 – The first day of the preliminary rapid stage in the Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge saw Vincent Keymer emerging as sole leader with 3½/4 points. To reach this score, the German star defeated Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, while his one draw was signed in his game against Magnus Carlsen. Gukesh D and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are sharing second place a half point back.
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Three youngsters excel

Out of the eight players participating in the innovative Freestyle G.O.A.T. Challenge, four were born between 2003 and 2006, and four were born between 1982 and 1992. On the first day of rapid chess action, the younger group had three of its representatives emerging atop the standings, with Vincent Keymer as the sole leader with 3½ points, followed by Gukesh D and Nodirbek Abdusattorov sharing second place a half point behind.

Alireza Firoujza is sharing fourth place with Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, all with 2 points, while Levon Aronian (½ point) and world champion Ding Liren (0 points) had the worst starts in the preliminary rapid stage.

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The single round-robin with a time control of 25 minutes for the game plus 10-second increments per move serves as a way to set up the pairings for the main event, the knockout with a classical time control, so the likes of Aronian and Ding can very much bounce back from their disappointing start.

What we found out after the glamorous opening ceremony — besides getting to see the players wearing fashionable jackets designed by Frank Rudolf — is that the participants get 10 minutes before each round to discuss the potential ideas in the randomly drawn ‘freestyle’ position they are about to discuss over the board.

The ChessBase India team made their way to the event and shared a video of the preparation before round 3 — when position 292 was drawn. Remarkably, Ding sat silently by himself while Firouzja stayed resting in his room.

Three more rounds of rapid, freestyle chess remain to be played on Saturday, with the marquee matchup between Ding and Carlsen set to take place in round 5, the first of the day.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Amruta Mokal

As expected, strange opportunities emerged in the freestyle positions. In round 1, for example, Caruana could have played a (correct) bishop sacrifice as early as on move 3.

Ding v. Caruana

Engines here evaluate 3...Bxg2 as completely equal, with a lively game likely to take place after 4.Kxg2 Qg6+ 5.Kf3 Qg4+ 6.Ke3+ Qe4+

Analysis diagram

Black’s queen will grab the knight on b1 next, recovering the sacrificed piece, though he will be underdeveloped compared to his opponent.

None of this appeared on the board, though, as Caruana went for 3...e6 in the first diagrammed position. Caruana would go on to inflict a first loss on an out-of-form world champion, who blundered his bishop in an inferior yet playable endgame.

Unlike Caruana, Abdusattorov did find the ...Bxg2 idea — on move 7, facing Aronian.

Aronian v. Abdusattorov

7...Bxg2 8.Kxg2 Qg6+ 9.Kh3 followed, and Black had a slight edge.

Aronian eventually found shelter for his king on the queenside, and even got an edge. However, the 40-year-old faltered in an endgame in which his extra rook was trying to deal with his opponent’s connected passers.

Black managed to escape with a half point from this position thanks to his central pawns being so far advanced.

After this draw, Abdusattorov went on to beat Ding and Firouzja, while Aronian lost his next three rapid encounters.

Keymer was surely inspired on the first day of action. After safely holding Carlsen to a draw with the black pieces, he defeated Aronian, Ding and Caruana in consecutive games.

In round 3, he obtained a 31-move victory over Ding. The initial setup allowed Keymer to castle on the first move, in a game that was analysed by Perlen vom Bodensee for the tournament’s official website.

Ding, Liren28180–1Keymer, Vincent2627
Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge
08.02.2024[Perlen vom Bodensee]
1.c4 One of Vincent Keymer's freestyle laws after day one: "Watch out for early tricks!" Like 1.c4, attacking the h7 pawn. 0-0 Castling on move one, by far not the only instance this happened and is about to happen at the WEISSENHAUS Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge. 2.0-0 The same goes for castling on move two. c5 3.b3 b6
With both kings castled to the same side and the structure symmetrical, will this be a slow positional grind? Ha, wait for it. 4.Bb2 f6 5.f3?! Keeping the symmetry is already a semi-serious inaccuracy. f2-f3 would be a fine move in order to restrict a bishop on b7. Without a bishop on b7, it hardly improves the white position. Another Vincent Keymer law would have applied here: "Make sure to get your queen in." 5.Bc2 to be followed by Qb1 is what the machine suggests. 5...d5! ...d4 and ...e5, grabbing a huge amount of space and further restricting the poor bishop/queen combo on b2 and a1 looks like a positional threat. 6.cxd5 Only move (next to the odd-looking 6.e3) in order to prevent 6...d4? Suprinsingly, the silicon overlord doesn't think so. Qxd5 7.Bd3 Protects d2 and, eventually, makes sure his queen gets in. Nhf7 8.Qb1 Qh5! The black queen is way ahead. Threatens h2 - and, not obvious yet, sacrifices an exchange. 9.Ng3 The black queen must move, Bb5 will follow. Qh4 10.Bb5
The rook will fall. But Black gets fabulous compensation plus a pawn. 10...Bxg3 11.hxg3 Qxg3 12.Nf2 e5 13.Ne4 Qg6 14.Bxe8 Rxe8 With the black pawns chained on black squares, the white bishop ist out of the game while the black bishop is already eyeing the white kingside. "King safety is an issue here," Keymer explained after the game. 15.e3 White dreams of breaking with d2-d4, freeing his bishop and opening files for his rook. Also, there's ...Nd8-e6-f4 in the air, so better control the f4 square. 15.Kf2! The computer suggestion to keep it in the balance. Prevents ...Ne6 most of all, plans to become active with moves like g4 and/or Rh1. Ne6? 16.Ng3! preventing ...f5. Queens will be exchanged and with that, the black compensation is gone. White is better even. 15...Ne6 Now the white kingside is about to be softened up. 16.Nf2 Queen trade? f5 Of course not. 17.Nh3 Bb7 Only now! The bishop works as an attacker on the long diagonal. Next will be a knight jump to g5, and the white king will face nasty tactics on the light squares. 18.d4
Desperately looking for counterplay, but only further softening himself up. However, what else? The alternative was to hold still and suffer while the black position is much easier to play. 18...Nfg5 19.Nxg5 Nxg5 Thanks to 18.d4, the obvious threat of 20...Sxf3+ comes together with the threat of breaking through with 20...cxd4 21.exd4 ...e4! 20.d5! The best try to keep it somewhat closed. e4! The best move to break through nevertheless. 21.fxe4 Giving back the exchange and hoping for the best was the only way: 21.f4 Nf3+ 22.Kf2 Nxe1 23.Rxe1 21...Rxe4 The black attack quickly becomes overwhelming. 22.Rd1 Nh3+! 23.Kh2 Qd6+ 23...Rh4! is even better, but being fixated on the ...Qd6+ motif (see the game), Keymer missed the simple 24.gxh3 Qg4 with mate. 24.g3 24.Kxh3 Rg4! and mate in the next move. 24...Ng5 25.Rxf5 Qh6+ 26.Kg1 Rxe3 27.Rdf1 White has refused to be mated and now threatens mate himself. But Keymer had it all worked out. Rxg3+ 28.Kf2 Qh3! Beautiful silent move where a mere mortal wouldn't expect it. 29.Ke1 Nf3+
The point of 28...Qh3! The rook f5 hangs, White has to take on f3... 30.R5xf3 Rxf3 31.Rxf3 Qxf3 ...resulting in a lost endgame. 0–1

Video analysis by IM Robert Ris

Video analysis by GM Daniel King

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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