Biel MTO 2021 R2: Vaishali stuns Gukesh

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/07/2021

13 players are at 100% score of 2.0/2 at the conclusion of the second round at 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 MTO. Aravindh Chithambaram, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Narayanan S L, Abhimanyu Puranik and Vaishali are in the lead among the Indians. Vaishali defeated Gukesh in the second round as the latter made a tactical error. Aravindh outplayed Raunak positionally, Arjun Kalyan drew with Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan escaped from the jaws of defeat against IM Harshit Raja. Nihal suffered his first loss against Alekseenko in this event after a seven-hour-long grueling battle. GMT Classical Round 2 and MTO Round 3 starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Nihal fights for seven hours against Alekseenko

Nihal Sarin fought valiantly for seven hours against Alekseenko but the Russian got the better of the Indian wunderkind. Alekseenko's knights proved to be mightier than Nihal's bishop pair, although the dark-square bishop remained stuck at the kingside for the better part of the endgame.

Vaishali made a good start | Photo: Amruta Mokal

GMT: Alekseenko - Nihal: 1-0

Nihal lost a grueling battle against Alekseenko. The majority of the game was an endgame between Alekseenko's rook and two knights versus Nihal's rook and two bishops. It was the Russian's passed a-pawn which became the deciding factor of the game.

Position after 61...Ra6

Perhaps keeping the rooks a little longer on the board would have made things difficult for White to make progress.

Position after 82...Bb6

Black's final mistake in the game was 82...Bb6 as it cost him a valuable tempo. Maybe 82...Bc7 would have kept Black in the game a bit longer.

After suffering two losses, Alekseenko finally got his first win against Nihal | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Gelfand - Pichot: 0-1

Argentina no.1 GM Alan Pichot scored a big victory over the legend GM Boris Gelfand.

Position after 25...Bd4

The position is quite complex. 26.Qa3 cost White the game due to 26...Nc5 27.e3

Position after 27.e3

Find the winning continuation for Black in the above position. Also find out what White should have played instead of 26.Qa3.

Pichot made a perfect start | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

MTO: Shchekachev - Narayanan: 0-1

GM Andrei Shchekachev (FRA) got himself a great position against GM Narayanan S L. What is remarkable about this game is how Narayanan makes a comeback.

Position after 26.g4

Generally, if someone gets a position like White has achieved, it is safe to assume that they will convert it. However, Narayanan decided to fight back 26...e5 because Black has to do something, otherwise White will simply crush him. 27.fxe5 Nd7 28.exf6 Nxf6 29.Bh3 Re8 30.Ne5 and we get the following position

Position after 30.Ne5

There is only option for Black to strike here, 30...Rxe5 31.dxe5 Qxe5. This exchange sacrifice makes sense because White's king is exposed and Black gets a rapid activity. With a bit of inaccurate play, it allowed Black to push further and score a win.

Resourceful scored an excellent victory

Karthikeyan - Harshit: 0.5-0.5

GM Karthikeyan Murali was completely lost against IM Harshit Raja.

Position after 25.Rcd1

Black has more than one way to win here. The text 25...Rxe2 is correct, however better was 25...d2 as it's more definitive way for Black. Both were probably under time pressure, thus Black decided to go for a perpetual instead of pushing for a win as it was still completely winning for him.

A win against Karthikeyan would have been a fantastic start for Harshit | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Vaishali - Gukesh: 1-0

WGM Vaishali R scored a big victory over GM D Gukesh.

Position after 28...Rde8

A rare tactical error by Gukesh 28...Rde8. Find out the winning continuation for White.

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from Round 2:

GM Raunak Sadhwani lost to GM Aravindh Chithambaram

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly defeated GM Luka Budisavljevic (SRB)

IM Georg Seul (GER) defeated GM Alexander Donchenko (GER)

IM Noaman Omar (UAE) lost to WIM Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (UKR)

Replay GMT Classical Round 1 games

Replay MTO Round 2 games

Photo Gallery

Gata Kamsky beat Noel Studer for the third time in this event | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Maxime Lagarde and Vincent Keymer now has three different results in all three of their encounters | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Nihal Sarin getting checked randomly | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Alan Pichot has scored 2.5/3 against Gelfand so far | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

The GMT participants | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

The entire playing arena for both GMT and MTO | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT Classical Round 1 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	2658	GM	Kamsky Gata	1 - 0	GM	Studer Noel	2581	8
2	2	2648	GM	Lagarde Maxime	½ - ½	GM	Keymer Vincent	2591	7
3	3	2699	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	1 - 0	GM	Nihal Sarin	2620	6
4	4	2675	GM	Gelfand Boris	0 - 1	GM	Pichot Alan	2630	5

Details

Round 2 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2581	GM	Studer Noel		GM	Pichot Alan	2630	5
2	6	2620	GM	Nihal Sarin		GM	Gelfand Boris	2675	4
3	7	2591	GM	Keymer Vincent		GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2699	3
4	1	2658	GM	Kamsky Gata		GM	Lagarde Maxime	2648	2

Details

GMT Overall standings

GMT Classical Scoring: Win - 4 points, Draw - 1.5 points and Loss - 0.

MTO Round 2 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	19	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
2	2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	21
3	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	23
4	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	5
5	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	1	1 - 0	1	GM	NR Visakh	2516	25
6	24	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	7
7	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	27
8	26	GM	Shchekachev Andrei	2515	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
9	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	1	½ - ½	1	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	11
10	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
11	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	13
12	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Gschnitzer Adrian	2420	31
13	33	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	1	1 - 0	1	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	15
14	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Haimovich Tal	2388	35
15	58		Schweizer Simon	2142	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17

Details

Round 3 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	2		2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	14
2	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	2		2	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
3	5	GM	Chithambaram Aravindh	2641	2		2	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
4	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	2		2	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	6
5	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	2		2	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
6	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	2		2	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
7	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	1½		2	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	33
8	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	1½		1½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
9	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	1½		1½	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	34
10	36	IM	Seul Georg	2372	1½		1½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
11	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	1½		1½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24
12	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	1		1½	FM	Tahay Alexis	2349	39
13	15	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	1		1	FM	Stelmaszyk Nico	2296	43
14	50		Pahud Cédric	2200	1		1	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
15	55	WIM	Rakhmangulova Anastasiya	2167	1		1	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20

Details

Replay the livestream

54th International Biel Chess Festival GMT Classic Tournament Round 1 - Live Commentary by GM Artur Neikšāns | Video: Biel Chess Festival

Links

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