Tegernsee Masters: Donchenko and Bluebaum lead, Keymer in quarantine

Bluebaum and Donchenko in the lead

Two young players that have been showing good results this year are sharing the lead after three rounds — German numbers one and three Matthias Bluebaum and Alexander Donchenko. The co-leaders will face each other in round 4, when Bluebaum will have the white pieces. At the German Masters in August, Donchenko played white in their direct matchup and lost the game in 43 moves. 

A contemporary of theirs, Italian GM Pier Luigi Basso, is the only player a half point behind, while German number two Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is on 1½ points after losing with black against Donchenko on Monday.

Unfortunately for young Vincent Keymer, who arrived as the fourth seed, he had to withdraw from the tournament after the health authorities from the district of Mainz-Bingen placed him in a 14-day quarantine — a week before the start of the event, the 15-year-old sat in the same classroom as another kid who later tested positive for Covd-19. The participants of the tournament were not affected by the administrative order. 

Keymer only got to play a game, against IM Ashot Parvanyan. Since Keymer won with white, simply taking him off the lineup had no impact on the standings table.

Vincent Keymer

Donchenko kicked off the event with a nice win over GM Alexandr Fier. When the Brazilian played 31...Ng3, his position was already in tatters:

Sicilian Dragon: The Real Deal! Part 1: Understanding The Dragon

In this first part, the emphasis is on themes and ideas as the viewer is armed with tactical and positional motifs and concepts after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6.

White’s bishops are in perfect attacking spots against Black’s weakened king. There followed 32.Rxg3 Qxg3 33.Re3 Qg4 34.Rxe6 Qxe2 35.Bxe2 and Black resigned five moves later.

The participants of the 2020 Tegernsee Masters

In round 2, it was Bluebaum’s turn to win with white using the bishop pair. After strategically outplaying 14-year-old Leon Luke Mendonca, the German number one opened up the kingside at the right time:

Trompowsky for the attacking player

Tap into your creative mind and start the game on a fresh note. The Trompowsky (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5) is an opening outside of conventional wisdom. Create challenges and make your opponent solve problems early on.

Black’s previous 23...Qd7 was a mistake, as it allowed 24.hxg6 hxg6 25.gxf5 gxf5 26.Nxe4 dxe4 27.Kh1 when White has the upper hand on the kingside after the simplifications:

With Black’s light-squared bishop and queen cut off from the action, White went on to get the win without any hassle — 27...Kh8 28.Bh5 Ng5 29.Rg1 Nf3 30.Rg6 Rg8 31.Rh6+ Kg7 32.Bf4 and Black resigned soon after.

Matthias Bluebaum

Donchenko obtained a key win in round 3, when he beat Nisipeanu with the white pieces. Nisipeanu’s crucial mistake came on move 21:

Power Play 24: A repertoire for black against the Catalan

On this DVD Grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black against the Catalan, based around maintaining the rock of a pawn on d5. Keeping central control ultimately gives Black good chances to launch an attack against the enemy king.

The experienced grandmaster born in Brasov played 21...Rfd8 here, instead of the correct 21...Nxc4, at least grabbing a pawn before White captures on f6 ruining Black’s kingside structure. After the text, Donchenko found 22.Nxf6+ gxf6 and the good-looking 23.b3, giving up two rooks for the queen — 23...Qxa1 24.Be3 Qxf1 25.Kxf1 Rb7 26.Qc3 Rd1+ 27.Kg2:

Donchenko had foreseen that this position was winning, and went on to elegantly prove he had the upper hand — 27...Kg7 28.Bd4 Ng4 29.Bxf6 (giving up a piece temporarily) Nxf6 30.Qe5.

Black resigned after 30...Re1 31.Kf3. 

Alexander Donchenko

Standings after Round 3

All games

Links

• Official site