Top juniors in 2022: Vincent Keymer

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/10/2023 – The new generation of chess stars is here, with no fewer than nine players aged 19 or younger rated above 2650 at the time. In a 7-part series, we will look at the performances of the top juniors in 2022. Penultimate in line is 18-year-old Vincent Keymer. In September last year, the unassuming boy from Mainz crossed the 2700 rating barrier for the first time in his career. And just a couple of weeks ago, he proudly took home the silver medal from the World Rapid Championship in Almaty! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

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Optimism and hard work

Vincent KeymerAlmost five years ago, on Easter Monday 2018, a 13-year-old stole the spotlight from Magnus Carlsen and company at the Grenke Chess Festival. Vincent Keymer had just won the strong Grenke Open with a surprising 8/9 performance, outscoring the likes of Anton Korobov and Alexei Shirov. Rated barely above 2403 and still an IM, Keymer’s story until reaching 2700 was not one of flash, but one of solid progress.

A pupil of Peter Leko, the youngster has come to value highly what the Hungarian legend radiates seamlessly — optimism and a great work ethic. Keymer told André Schulz in a 2018 interview:

With Peter everything is great fun. He is a positive person and radiates his positive approach to chess. The training days with him are very intense, and even during breaks we go biking together or take a walk and talk.

After his rating remained in the 2500-2600 band for a year and a half (including the lockdown period), he reached a 2602 Elo in August 2021 and never looked back. Keymer entered 2022 with a 2664 rating and gained 30 points throughout the year, hitting a peak of 2700 points in October. Such progress is not as explosive as some of their colleagues’, but it also signals a sturdy foundation, not one that might easily crack in the future.

Besides his participations in strong round-robin events, Keymer played plenty of games in the Bundesliga, representing Schachfreunde Deizisau in the league’s 13 out of 15 rounds. But it was in another team event that the German reached the coveted 2700-rating mark, as he scored 6½ points in the first 7 rounds of the Polish Ekstraliga. The remarkable start propelled him to a 2712.8 live rating, but two final losses left him with precisely 2700 points in the next official FIDE ranking.

Earlier in the year, Keymer had played two legs of the FIDE Grand Prix — he had gained the right to participate by finishing fifth at the extremely strong Grand Swiss in 2021. The German played in both Berlin legs, failing to impress in the first one but scoring a commendable 3½/6 in the second, only falling short of qualifying to the semifinals after losing to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in rapid playoffs.

His most successful showings in classical chess, however, were seen in Prague and Magdeburg. Keymer won the Challengers’ tournament in the Czech capital after collecting 6½/9 points and beating Hans Niemann in blitz tiebreakers, while at the German Masters, he excelled as the top seed in an all-German field, scoring 7/9 to leave his closest chaser a full point behind.

Not one to focus on quick-paced time controls, Keymer’s biggest accomplishment of the year came at the World Rapid Championship in Almaty. The youngster entered the tournament as the 54th seed (with a modest 2590 rating), but found himself fighting for first place with the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In the end, he got to take home a well-deserved silver medal and a 40.4 rating gain, which allowed him to cross the 2600-barrier in this time control for the first time in his young career.

Together with the naturalized Alireza Firouzja, who now represents France, Keymer is one of the two most promising chess talents from Western Europe, as more and more Asian prodigies — mostly from India — continue to rise through the ranks.

Vincent Keymer

Full information at ratings.fide.com

Keymer vs. Svane - German Masters 2022

 

Annotated by Michal Krasenkow for ChessBase Magazine

 
Keymer, Vincent26721–0Svane, Rasmus2640
German Masters 2022
Magdeburg21.08.2022[Krasenkow,M]
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3 d5 4.Bb2 c5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.g3 Nc6 7.Bg2 d4?! An ambitious move. However, it is not so easy for Black to keep his gains in the centre so it is probably safer to play 7...Be7 waiting for d2-d4 with a transposition to the Tarrasch Defence. 8.0-0 Be7 9.Na3 0-0 10.Nc4 Be6 10...Bf5 doesn't prevent 11.e3 , which happened in an earlier (albeit online) game by Vincent Keymer: Rc8 =11...Re8 12.exd4 cxd4 13.Re1 Rc8 12.exd4 cxd4 13.Re1 Re8 14.Nfe5 Nxe5 15.Rxe5 , and now Black should have played Rc5 16.Rxc5 Bxc5 17.Bxb7 Nd5! with counterplay for the sacrificed pawn. 11.e3 Rc8 11...dxe3 12.dxe3 Qxd1 13.Rfxd1 Rad8 14.Nfe5 Nxe5 15.Bxe5 b6 16.h3 Rxd1+ 17.Rxd1 Rd8 18.Rxd8+ Bxd8 19.f4 Nd7 20.Bd6 1/2 (50) Mendonca,L (2536) -Nitish,B (2447) Dhaka BAN 2022 11...Bd5 0-1 (44) Praggnanandhaa,R (2608) -Martinez Alcantara,J (2620) chess.com INT 2021 12.exd4!? cxd4 13.Re1 12.Nce5 Perhaps 12.exd4 , clarifying the pawn structure, is not worse: cxd4 13.Re1 13.Rc1 Bd5 14.d3= , and now whatever except Nb4?! 15.Nxd4 Bxg2 16.Kxg2 b5 17.Ne5 Rxc1 18.Qxc1 Qd5+ 1/2 (32) Keymer,V (2655)-Nguyen,T (2623) Bremen 2022 19.Nef3 Nxa2 20.Qc7± 13.Nce5!? Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qb6 15.Re1 Rfd8 16.Rc1 Bc5 17.Nd3 Bf8 18.Rxc8 Rxc8 19.Nf4 Bf5 20.Re5 0-1 (42) Savina,A (2342)-Buksa,N (2337) Ankara 2018 13...Bd5 GM Ding Liren is reasonably aiming for neutralizing White's light-squared bishop. 14.Nce5 Nxe5 15.Nxe5 Re8 1/2 (69) Giri,A (2777)-Ding,L (2778) Shamkir 2018 CBM 184 [Roiz,M] 16.Bxd5!? Qxd5 17.Qf3 12...Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Qb6
The queen heads to a6 but it is not a good place for it. 13...dxe3!? 14.dxe3 Qc7 14...Bd5 15.Bh3 1/2 (50) Salaun,Y (2329)-Delaunay,S (2357) France 2005 15.Qc2 15.Rc1!? 15.Qe2!? Nd7 16.Nd3 15...Nd5 16.Rad1 Rfd8= 17.Nc4?! b5 18.Ne5 c4 0-1 (33) Pogromsky,M (2411)-Yudin,S (2497) Sochi 2019 14.Rc1 14.exd4 cxd4 - see above. 14...dxe3 15.dxe3 Qa6 16.a4 Rfd8 17.Qc2 Nd5?!       A pseudo-active move. It was more important to get rid of White's strong centralized knight: 17...Nd7! 18.Nc4 18.Be4 Nxe5 19.Bxh7+?! Kf8 20.Bxe5 g6 is favorable for Black, even if he can't capture White's astrayed h7 bishop at once. 18...Nb6!= 18.Be4! Nf6?! And this retreat makes things even worse. 18...Nb4 19.Bxh7+ Kf8 20.Qe4 is now good for White as Black's king is unsafe. 18...g6 was a better option. 19.Nxg6? hxg6 20.Bxg6 is not dangerous at all. 19.Bd3 Qb6 19...Qd6 was a bit better but not a piece of cake anyway: 20.Rcd1 Qc7 21.Nc4 h6 22.e4! 20.Nc4 Bxc4 Otherwise Black loses his ill-fated h7 pawn after 21.Bxf6. 21.Bxc4± With two strong bishops and a kingside pawn advantage, White's position is, I am not shy to say, strategically winning. Ne8?! 21...Qc6 , preventing e3-e4 at least for a while. In that case, however, White can simply play 22.Rfd1 as the exchange of rooks and even queens is not a problem for him. 22.e4 Nc7 23.f4 Ne6 That was Black's idea; however, his plan is too slow. 24.e5 Qc6 24...Nd4? doesn't work due to 25.Bxd4 cxd4 =25...Rxd4 26.Bxf7+! Kxf7 27.Qf5+ 25.Rce1 a6 26.a5 Nd4
This is possible now but doesn't solve any problems. 27.Bxd4 The simplest course. White's remaining bishop will be much stronger than Black's. However, 27.Qd3!? was "harsher": ∆Ne6 28.Qe3 Nd4 29.f5! Nc2 30.Qf4 Nxe1 31.Rxe1+- -> 27...cxd4 This pawn will be blocked. An attempt to make use of the d-file was not better, though: 27...Rxd4 28.f5 Rcd8 28...Bg5 29.f6 Rd2 30.Qe4 Qxe4 31.Rxe4± 29.f6! gxf6 29...Rd2 30.Qe4 30.Qf5 30.Re2!? 30...Rd2 31.Re4 R8d4! 32.Qg4+ Kf8 32...Kh8 33.Bxf7 33.Qh5! Rxc4 34.Qxh7! Rg2+! 35.Kh1 Rxg3! 36.bxc4 , and White should win. 28.Qd3 Qc5 29.f5 Bg5 30.e6 Qxa5?!
And now Black simply loses his d4 pawn. 30...Be3+ 31.Kg2 Kh8 31...Qxa5 32.f6!? 32.exf7 Qxa5 33.Qe4 , although White should win in a long run. 31.exf7+ Kh8 32.Qxd4! b5 33.Qe4 33.Be6! Ra8 33...Rxd4 34.Bxc8+- 34.Bd7 Rf8 35.Re8+- would have ended the game much faster but, of course, slow torture is hardly more pleasant for Black. 33...Rf8 34.Be6 Rcd8 35.Re2 Qb6+ 36.Kg2 a5 37.Bd5 Qc5 38.Rd1 a4 39.b4 Qa7 40.Rd3 Bf6 40...a3 41.Ba2!? 41.Qf3 h6 42.Rde3 Qd7 "The lesser evil" 42...Rxf7 43.Bxf7 Qxf7 was hopeless enough. 43.Ba2 Qd6 43...Rxf7 44.Rd3!? Qxd3 45.Qxd3 Rxd3 46.Re8+ Kh7 47.Bxf7+- 44.Re6!? Qd4 44...Qxb4 45.Rxf6 gxf6 46.Qh5+- 45.Qc6 Kh7 46.R6e4 Qd3 47.Re8 a3 48.Qc5 g6 49.fxg6+ Kxg6 50.Bb1
1–0

With famous classical examples from the works of the giants, the author talks in detail about principles of chess and methods of play that we can use during every stage of the game.


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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.

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