Sigeman: Caruana leads, Grandelius in second place

The Limhamn Chess Club is staging the 20-year jubilee of the annual Sigeman Chess Tournament. It is taking place in the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmo, Sweden, and is an eight-player round robin. The rate of play is 40 moves/2hours + 20 moves/1 hour + 30 minutes for the rest of the game. The games start at 14:00h CEST, except the final round, which begins at 12:00 noon.

In round two Nils Grandelius played a scrappy game against GM Emanuel Berg, who is 30 points higher on the rating scale. It is interesting to replay the moves with a chess engine running – and a lot of fun exploring the alternatives.

After some inaccurate play Hans Tikkanen got mauled and then mated by the top seed in this event.

Another tactical battle was seen in the following round three game, which is pure fun to replay.

Dutch champion Anish Giri scored his first win by outplaying his opponent in the endgame.

Current standings

Simultaneous exhibition with chess legend Ulf Andersson

As a joke on the last board GM Emanuel Berg is waiting to play his colleague Ulf Andersson

Nils Grandelius

Sweden's most interviewed chess player has, for a long time, been Nils Grandelius, who makes his fourth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. Grandelius has an aggressive and innovative playing style and is totally fearless. He is a very active tournament player and has spent the last few years touring Europe playing chess. He won the grandmaster tournament in Olomouc in the Czech Republic in both 2008 and 2009, earning his first two grandmaster norms. In 2010 he secured the grandmaster title in a tournament in Bosnia, where he finished sixteenth with seven points in ten rounds against very tough opposition. At the Chess Olympics in Chanty-Mansiysk in 2010 he was Sweden's top scorer with 7½ points in ten games.

His best result in 2011 was his victory in the European Youth Chess Championship for players up to 18 years old, which was played in Albena in Bulgaria. It was the first time in many years that a Swedish junior achieved that kind of success in a championship tournament. He was also part of the Swedish team in the recent European Cup team event, which was played in Greece. Nils has gathered a lot of experience from playing against tough opponents and with a little bit of luck, he might very well win the tournament.

Anish Giri

Anish is part of a truly cosmopolitan family. Together with his two sisters, his Nepalese dad and Russian mother, he has lived in St Petersburg in Russia and Osaka in Japan, and the family now lives in Holland. An odd effect of moving is that Anish became a grandmaster without ever having been an International Master. He had five qualifying results when he needed only three, but by then he had left Russia. The results were never registered, and suddenly he had become a grandmaster instead. After moving to Holland he has also won the Dutch Championship.

Giri makes his third start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament. First time he participated, in 2010, he won the tournament with a score of 4½/5, a result which equaled a rating of 2900, and last year he shared first place with Hans Tikkanen and Wesley So. In the Chess Olympics in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2010, he scored eight points in eleven rounds at table four, playing for the strong Dutch team. His score was the third best of all players at this board. This year also started well with a victory in Reggio Emilia in Italy, but in the big tournament at Wijk aan Zee he had a hard time in the very strong Group A tournament and finished last. The means that he, despite having won the Sigeman Chess Tournament the last two years, is looking for revenge.

Photos by Calle Erlandsson

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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