Sigeman: Giri and Hammer score – again

The 18th annual Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament, organised by the Limhamn Chess Club, is taking place in the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmo. As in the previous year, six players face each other in a round-robin tournament.

Round two results

Giri,A (2642) - Grandelius,N (2476) [E04]
18th Sigeman & Co Malmo SWE (2), 27.05.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c6 6.Ne5 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Qxd4 8.Bxb4 Qxe5 9.Na3 b5 10.Bd6 Qxb2 11.0-0 Nd5 12.e4 Nc3 13.Qg4 h5 14.Qg5 Ne2+ 15.Kh1 Qf6 16.Qd2 e5 17.Bxb8 Nd4 18.Bxe5 Qxe5 19.Rad1 Ne6 20.f4 Qc5 21.Nc2

The young Dutch Champion Anish Giri has mixed up the moves in the opening and now stands on the verge of defeat. 21...0-0 or even 21...c3 would have given his opponent good chances. 21...h4? Now the tide turns, and after 22.f5 hxg3 23.h3 Qe7 24.e5 Nd8? things go really bad for the 16-year-old Swede. 25.f6 gxf6 26.exf6 Qc7 27.Rfe1+ Ne6 28.Nd4 Bd7 29.Nxe6 Bxe6 30.Qg5 Rf8

Now White has a forced mate. 31.Rxe6+ fxe6 32.Qg6+ Qf7 33.Bxc6# 1-0.

Hector,J (2609) - Hillarp Persson,T (2542) [B89]
18th Sigeman & Co Malmo SWE (2), 27.05.2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qe2 Qc7 9.a3 b5 10.Ba2 Rb8 11.0-0 Be7 12.Nxc6 Qxc6 13.Bd4 0-0 14.f4 b4 15.axb4 Rxb4 16.Qd3 a5 17.Rfe1 Bd8 18.Kh1 a4 19.Nd1 e5 20.c3 Ba6 21.Qf3 Rb5 22.c4 Rb7 23.fxe5 dxe5 24.Bxe5 Re8 25.Bd4 Rd7 26.Bc3 Bxc4 27.Bxc4 Qxc4 28.Ne3 Qxe4??

29.Ng4 (ouch!) Nxg4 30.Qxg4 1-0.

Current standings

The most frequent participant in the Sigeman Chess Tournament is Swedish grandmaster Jonny Hector. This comes as no surprise, since he was born and raised in Malmo and represents the hosting club Limhamns SK. In addition to that, Jonny has always been popular with the local chess fans, since he is a very entertaining player who often produces spectacular games. Hector lives with his family in Helsingor in Denmark, not very far from Malmo.

For many years, he was a very active player who travelled all over Europe, playing various open tournaments. However, a couple of years ago he became a father and decided to play less. The effect of this was somewhat surprising, the last couple of years he has played better than ever before. Among other things, he has managed to win all nine games in the Danish chess league. Earlier this year, he also won the Brønshøj 75-year jubilee chess tournament with 8 points in 9 games, ahead of, among others, Tiger Hillarp. Never in his career has his official rating been higher than today.

Hector makes his fourteenth start in the Sigeman Chess Tournament and in his current form, he must be one of the contenders for first place.

IM Nils Grandelius, Sweden (2476)

For a number of years, Nils Grandelius has been Sweden's most interesting young chess player. In last year's tournament he was rated number six out of six players, but did not let this bother him at all. Instead, he came very close to winning the tournament, but had to settle for second place, after English veteran Nigel Short.

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. Twice he has won a grandmaster tournament in Olomouc in the Czech Republic, securing two qualifying results out of the three he needs to become a grandmaster. Not having secured his third and final grandmaster norm was probably a great disappointment to him for a while, since the grandmaster title is important to anyone who wants to play chess professionally, with more invitations and better conditions. For a while it looked like the final grandmaster norm would come in the Corus "C" tournament this year, but a poor finish destroyed his chances.

Unfortunately, the five rounds at the Sigeman & Co tournament, in which Nils is playing for a second time, would be to few to make a grandmaster result possible. However, he managed to secure the grandmaster title right before the tournament, and with this out of the way, he will once again be a strong contender for first place.

Photos by Calle Erlandsson