Kramnik Challenge: Keymer in the sole lead

A reduced field

Unlike the two previous events in the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, the field at the Kramnik Challenge was reduced from 20 players to 16 after a number of players were unable to compete. A large Indian contingent of Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Nihal Sarin is in action in the RTU Open in Riga, while Gunay Mammadzada, Olga Badelka and Nurgyul Salimova are all playing the European Women’s Championship in Iasi, Romania. 

As a consequence, instead of playing five games per day, the participants are playing four games per day this time around. 

German grandmaster Vincent Keymer, who finished the Gelfand Challenge in sole third place, had the best start, scoring three wins and a draw on Thursday. The 16-year-old from Mainz beat Christopher Yoo with the black pieces in round 2, a result which might turn out to be critical for the final standings, since Yoo is currently in shared second place.

Master Class Vol.5: Emanuel Lasker

The name Emanuel Lasker will always be linked with his incredible 27 years reign on the throne of world chess. In 1894, at the age of 25, he had already won the world title from Wilhelm Steinitz and his record number of years on the throne did not end till 1921 when Lasker had to accept the superiority of Jose Raul Capablanca. But not only had the only German world champion so far seen off all challengers for many years, he had also won the greatest tournaments of his age, sometimes with an enormous lead. The fascinating question is, how did he manage that?

Yoo got in trouble early on — 13...Bxc3 14.Qxc3 Nb4 15.Kd2 Rc8 16.Qa3 and Black has made the most of his initiative, activating his pieces while weakening White’s king. 

There followed 16...Rc2+ 17.Ke1 Qxa3 18.bxa3 Re8, bringing yet another piece to the attack and creating a bind that lasted until the very end of the game. Yoo defended stubbornly, but his position was simply busted.

Also in round 2, a duel between Russian rising stars saw Volodar Murzin getting the better of Polina Shuvalova with the black pieces. In a rook endgame a pawn down, Shuvalova could have saved a draw had she found the right rook check on move 77.

The Accelerated Dragon - a sharp weapon against 1.e4

After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6! leads to the so-called "Accelerated Dragon Defense". On this DVD the Russian grandmaster and top women player Nadezhda Kosintseva reveals the secrets of her favourite opening.

77.Rh4+, which was played in the game, was not the way to go. As endgame specialist Karsten Müller demonstrates by showing all relevant variations, 77.Rc8+ would have defended for White.

In another lengthy game — this one lasting over 100 moves — Dinara Saduakassova did not find the correct plan to break the fortress put up by Balaji Daggupati in an ending with rook and pawn against knight and pawn.

Magical Chess Endgames Vol. 1 & 2 + The magic of chess tactics

In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.

Three moves after playing 99...Rh8, Saduakassova accepted a draw, since there was no way to break through with the rook. However, as GM Müller proves below, 99...Kf5 would have allowed Black to enter a winning pawn endgame after trading the rook for the knight.

Standings after round 4

All games

Links

• Official site
• The Kramnik Challenge for young stars kicks off Thursday