Sigeman: The 'Giriminator' leads with 3.0/3

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 three results

Hillarp Persson,T (2542) - Giri,A (2642) [A12]
18th Sigeman & Co Malmo SWE (3), 28.05.2010
1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.b3 Bg4 4.e3 e6 5.Bb2 Nd7 6.h3 Bh5 7.Nc3 Ngf6 8.g4 Bg6 9.Nh4 Nc5 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Qe2 a5 12.f3 e5 13.g5 Nh5 14.Rg1 d4 15.Nd1 Be7 16.h4 Ne6 17.Bh3

White has not done at all well by given the black knights free rein (there's a pun in there somewhere). The Dutch Champion does not hold back but proceeds in his typical aggressive and optimistic style: 17...Nhf4!? 18.exf4 Nxf4 19.Qf1 Rxh4 20.Nf2 a4 21.b4? a3 22.Bc1 d3 and the rest is almost painful to watch: 23.Rb1 Qd4 24.Rh1 Qxc4 25.Bd7+ Kxd7 26.Rxh4 Qxa2 27.Rxf4 Qxb1 28.Rxf7 Qxc1+ 29.Nd1 Qc4 0-1. On the Playchess server some spectators coined a new name for the lad: "Giriminator".

Anish Giri won three, while Pia Cramling lost her third game in a row in a Slav ending she should have held. The Swedish grandmaster is clearly not in good form in this tournament.

Youngsters: Anish Giri from Holland, 15, and Nils Grandelius from Sweden, 17

Current standings

Portraits

Almost since she started playing chess, Pia Cramling has been Sweden's best female chess player. She soon also became one of Sweden's best chess players, regardless of gender. Nowadays, she is a rare visitor in Swedish chess tournaments, since she has been living in Spain for many years and mostly plays in southern Europe. Last season she played for Team Viking in the Swedish league, but she also plays in the Spanish, French and German chess leagues.

Pia became a grandmaster in 1992, at a time when two of her Sigeman opponents were not even born and one of them was only three years old. Her playing style is sound and solid and she has great technical skills, something which might be hard for some of the younger opponents, since they tend to try to decide their games already in the opening or in the middle part of their games.

In last year's Swedish Championship Pia finished second to Emanuel Berg. Recently she has had a number of good results, the latest being her win in the Women's European Cup earlier this year. This was the second time Pia won this title. Her latest appearance in the Sigeman Chess Tournament was in 2001, when she finished third to Gulko and Timman. She is participating in the Sigeman Chess Tournament for the fifth time.

Photos by Calle Erlandsson