TePe Sigeman: Gukesh off to a fiery start

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/5/2023 – With back-to-back wins over Jorden van Foreest and Vincent Keymer, Dommaraju Gukesh grabbed the sole lead at the TePe Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmö. Three players stand a half point back: local hero Nils Grandelius, 8-time Russian champion Peter Svidler and 14-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra. Gukesh will play black in the next two rounds, first against Grandelius and then against Arjun Erigaisi. | Photos: David Llada

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Six decisive results (out of eight)

How to deal with the potential problem of elite GMs taking a safety-first approach and signing too many draws in a closed tournament? The organizers of the Tata Steel Festival and the TePe Sigeman & Co event have figured out that it is all about choosing the right lineup. Six out of eight games finished decisively in the first two rounds in this year’s edition of the tournament in Malmö.

ChessBase contributor Thorsten Cmiel tweeted after all four games had decisive results in the second round (the magical photo was taken by David Llada):

After two rounds, Dommaraju Gukesh is leading the standings with a perfect score. The Indian prodigy defeated Jorden van Foreest and Vincent Keymer, and has now climbed to 15th place in the live ratings list.

Three players — from three different generations — stand a half point back with 1½/2. Peter Svidler (b. 1976), Nils Grandelius (1993) and Abhimanyu Mishra (2009) have all collected a win and a draw so far in Malmö.

Nils Grandelius

Nils Grandelius | Photo: David Llada

Van Foreest won the event back in 2021, but did not have the best start this year. The Dutchman had only played two rated games against Gukesh before their first-round confrontation, and both had ended drawn. This time around, Gukesh first neutralized White’s attacking chances on the kingside and then converted a tough endgame with an extra pawn.

Standings after round 2

All games

Typical opening mistakes

Avoiding mistakes in the opening and even learning from mistakes is a valuable tool to improve your chess. Ruslan Ponomariov, former FIDE World Champion, demonstrates basic patterns that will help you navigate through the game more easily.

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.