Vincent Keymer arrived in Samarkand with high expectations, aiming to qualify for the Candidates Tournament for the first time in his career. The 20-year-old had enjoyed a strong year, climbing to tenth place in the official FIDE ranking after winning both the German Championship and the Chennai Masters. Earlier in the year, he had also claimed first place at the inaugural tournament of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Weissenhaus, famously defeating Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen in the knockout stages.
The German grandmaster's tournament, however, was not without setbacks, as in round five he was defeated by 18-year-old French champion Marc'Andria Maurizzi. Keymer quickly recovered, producing three wins in his next four games to get back into contention, defeating Robert Hovhannisyan, defending champion Vidit Gujrathi and long-time leader Parham Maghsoodloo. These victories meant that Keymer entered the penultimate round tied for first place, facing fellow co-leader Matthias Bluebaum with the white pieces.
The all-German clash against Bluebaum was one of the most consequential games of the event. Keymer built up a winning advantage, showing excellent preparation and endgame technique, but then committed a single, decisive mistake. The uncharacteristic oversight allowed Bluebaum to escape with an all-important draw. The result left Keymer with no option but to win his final-round game in order to keep realistic chances of qualifying, since his tiebreak score was lower than most of his direct rivals.
Vincent Keymer knows that he has blundered away his huge advantage against Matthias Bluebaum (who eventually qualified to the Candidates) | Photo: Michal Walusza
In the last round, Keymer was paired with Arjun Erigaisi, the second seed, and had the black pieces. Once again he outplayed his opponent in the middlegame and obtained an advantage, although this time the edge was less clear than against Bluebaum. The position was highly complex, and finding a concrete winning plan at the board was not a straightforward task. Keymer continued to press, but gradually allowed Arjun to escape into an equal endgame.
Given the tournament situation and the level of resistance posed by the Indian grandmaster, it is understandable that Keymer did not find the narrow path to victory. Nevertheless, as captured by the cameras, Keymer was well aware that he had let opportunities slip.
In the detailed analysis below, Wolfram Schön identifies three critical moments where Black could have played more accurately: on move 31, where 31...Be6 would have set tougher problems than Keymer's 31...Ba6; on move 36, where 36...Re8 was preferable to 36...Rc7 (diagram); and on move 40, where 40...Be8 was stronger than the text move 40...Bxd5.
The following annotated game examines these key moments in depth (annotations by Walter Schön marked with "WS").
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Giri, Anish | 2746 | 8 | 2668 | |
| 2 | GM | Bluebaum, Matthias | 2671 | 7,5 | 2695 | |
| 3 | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 2754 | 7,5 | 2684 | |
| 4 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | 2751 | 7,5 | 2668 | |
| 5 | GM | Mishra, Abhimanyu | 2611 | 7 | 2731 | |
| 6 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | 2771 | 7 | 2687 | |
| 7 | GM | Woodward, Andy | 2557 | 7 | 2686 | |
| 8 | GM | Niemann, Hans Moke | 2733 | 7 | 2668 | |
| 9 | GM | Nihal, Sarin | 2693 | 7 | 2666 | |
| 10 | GM | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | 2748 | 7 | 2663 | |
| 11 | GM | Liang, Awonder | 2698 | 7 | 2659 | |
| 12 | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2711 | 7 | 2657 | |
| 13 | GM | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2741 | 7 | 2649 | |
| 14 | GM | Yakubboev, Nodirbek | 2681 | 7 | 2645 | |
| 15 | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2712 | 7 | 2640 | |
| 16 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2738 | 7 | 2637 | |
| 17 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | 2714 | 7 | 2634 | |
| 18 | GM | Sevian, Samuel | 2692 | 7 | 2633 | |
| 19 | GM | Esipenko, Andrey | 2687 | 7 | 2630 | |
| 20 | GM | Sargsyan, Shant | 2653 | 6,5 | 2693 | |
| 21 | GM | Shirov, Alexei | 2616 | 6,5 | 2685 | |
| 22 | GM | Pranav, V | 2596 | 6,5 | 2679 | |
| 23 | GM | Van Foreest, Jorden | 2692 | 6,5 | 2655 | |
| 24 | GM | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2722 | 6,5 | 2639 | |
| 25 | GM | Saric, Ivan | 2655 | 6,5 | 2627 |
