Grenke Classic: Carlsen and Rapport to fight for first place

Carlsen beats Keymer, Keymer beats Ding

Magnus Carlsen secured a spot in the final match of the Grenke Chess Classic by beating Vincent Keymer in the penultimate round of the all-play-all section. Carlsen drew Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the next game to end the stage in sole first place with 7/10 points.

Clear second place went to Richard Rapport, who drew both his games on Sunday. Thus, Rapport gained the right to face Carlsen in Monday’s match for tournament victory.

The match will consist of two ‘fast-classical’ games (45 minutes for the game with 10-second increments), which will be followed by blitz encounters in case of a tie — first with a 10+2 time control and then with a 5+2 time control. If the tie remains, an Armageddon encounter will decide the outcome of the match.

Similar matches will decide who gets third and fifth places, with Vachier-Lagrave facing Keymer for third, and Ding Liren facing Daniel Fridman for fifth.

In the final standings of the round-robin, Carlsen (7 points), Rapport (6) and Vachier-Lagrave (5) finished in clear first, second and third places, respectively. However, a tie for fourth place between Ding, Keymer and Fridman (all with 4 points) meant a blitz double round-robin between the three would decide MVL’s rival in the match for third place.

Keymer, who only qualified to the tiebreaker after beating Ding in round 10, outscored his colleagues to become MVL’s opponent in Monday’s final confrontation.

Final standings

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	TB	Perf.
1		Carlsen,M	2830		7.0	10		0 1	½ ½	½ ½	1 1	1 1	31.00	2857
2		Rapport,R	2720		6.0	10	1 0		0 ½	½ 1	1 ½	½ 1	27.50	2802
3		Vachier-Lagrave,M	2728		5.0	10	½ ½	1 ½		½ ½	0 ½	½ ½	26.00	2728
4		Ding,L	2762		4.0	10	½ ½	½ 0	½ ½		½ ½	½ 0	21.00	2649
5		Fridman,D	2590		4.0	10	0 0	0 ½	1 ½	½ ½		½ ½	18.50	2684
6		Keymer,V	2738		4.0	10	0 0	½ 0	½ ½	½ 1	½ ½		18.00	2654
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

Endgame essentials you need to know Vol.1 & Vol 2

In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.

Carlsen 1 - 0 Keymer

Analysis by Klaus Besenthal

Vincent Keymer | Photo: Angelika Valkova

Keymer 1 - 0 Ding

Analysis by Klaus Besenthal

Improve your pieces - a winning system you need to know

In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.

Ding Liren | Photo: Angelika Valkova

All games

All games - Tiebreaks

Links

• Official website
• Grenke Classic: Magnus caps grand performance with a win (2019)
• Grenke Classic: Caruana clear first after clutch win (2018)
• Grenke Classic: Aronian misses win in exciting finale (2017)