56th Biel GMT R2: Arjun Erigaisi misses against David Navara

by Shahid Ahmed - 20/07/2023

GM Arjun Erigaisi had a great opportunity to win against GM David Navara (CZE) for the first time at 56th Biel Chess Festival GMT 2023. Despite finding the correct way to gain substantial advantage, the teenager could not find the intricate maneuver of his rooks, before creating an escape route for his king. This draw helped the Czech Republic no.1 to maintain his sole lead in the GMT 15.5/22. GM Aryan Chopra and IM Aditya S Samant scored comfortable victories to become the early leaders with GM Yan Liu (CHN) 3/3. IM Harikrishnan A Ra continues his great form as he drew a difficult endgame against GM Pranav Anand. Round 3 GMT and Round 4 MTO starts today from 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Biel Chess Festival

MTO R3: Aryan Chopra and Aditya Samant in a three-way lead

GM Arjun Erigaisi had a great opportunity to register his first win against GM David Navara (CZE) at this event

GMT Round 2: Arjun - Navara: 1.5-1.5

Both Classical rated games earlier between GM Arjun Erigaisi (2710) and GM David Navara (CZE, 2689) ended in draws. Arjun gained a significant upper hand by sacrificing his knight to break the center wide open.

Position after 22.e6

White sacrificed his knight 21.Nxd5! exd5 22.e6! now the best way for Black to minimize the damage is to go 22...Bxd4 23.exd7+ Kxd7 24.Qxd4 Qxd4 25.Rxd4 Kc6. The Czech Republic no.1 opted for 22...Bxe6? 23.Nxe6 fxe6 24.Qxd5 gave White a decisive advantage Kf7 25.Qd7+ Be7 26.Rd3 Rh7 27.Rf3+ Kg8 28.Rxe6 Rd8 29.Qxe7 Rxe7 30.Rxb6 Rd1+ 31.Ka2 Ree1 32.b4 a4

Position after 32...a4

White does not need to play 33.b3 immediately to prevent the checkmate. He needed to improve the position of his rooks first before creating an escape route for his king. Thus, 33.Rg6+ Kh8 34.Rf8+ Kh7 35.Rf7+ Kf8 36.b3 Ra1+ 37.Kb2 a3+ 38.Kc3 a2 now the difference maker happens 39.Rgf6 makes the checkmate threat which forces Black to retreat one of his rooks 39...Re8 40.Kb2 now a2-pawn drops. Black's last threat is eliminated and White is winning comfortably. Playing 33.b3? directly allowed Black to salvage a draw Ra1+ 34.Kb2 a3+ 35.Kc3 Re7 now White is unable to make any checkmate threats.

It is universally known that GM David Navara is an absolute gentleman both on and off the board

Liem Quang Le (VIE) scored the sole win of the round against Bassem Amin (EGY)

MTO Round 3: Harikrishnan - Pranav: 0.5-0.5

IM Harikrishnan A Ra (2406) had a complex rook and same color bishop endgame against GM Pranav Anand (2510).

Position after 51...Kf6

The idea behind 51...Kf6 is quite simple. Black wants to go Ra3 and deliver Rf3# White has many ways to defend it, however, it is not easy to figure out which is the best. 52.h3 is one of the obvious choices. White went for 52.Rc2? Ra3 53.e5+ Kg6? 54.Bg2 and the game ended in a draw in another dozen moves. According to the computer, 53...Ke7 would have maintained a decisive advantage for Black. The difference is, now Be4 is no longer a check which gives Black enough time to use the c4-passed pawn and win the game.

IM Harikrishnan A Ra won Beauty Award for his second round victory against GM Nikita Meshkovs (LAT)

GM Aryan Chopra defeated Renjie Huang (CHN) to move to 3/3

IM Aditya S Samant defeated FM Teimur Toktomushev (UKR) comfortably to move to 3/3

The longest game of the day was between GM Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera (CUB) and IM Irene Kharisma Sukandar (INA). It went for 8 hours and 1 minute spanning 168 moves when a draw was agreed

Replay 56th Biel International Chess Festival 2023 GMT Classical Round 2 Live commentary by GM Arturs Neiksans (LAT) and Angelika Valkova (UKR) | Video: Biel Chess Festival

GMT Scoring

Rapid: Win = 2 points, Draw = 1 point and Loss = 0

Classical: Win = 4 points, Draw = 1.5 points and Loss = 0

Replay GMT Round 2 games

Replay MTO Round 3 games

GMT Round 2 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	2728	GM	Le, Quang Liem	1 - 0	GM	Amin, Bassem	2694	5
2	6	2710	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	½ - ½	GM	Navara, David	2689	4
3	7	2654	GM	Moussard, Jules	½ - ½	GM	Yu, Yangyi	2735	3
4	1	2693	GM	Deac, Bogdan-Daniel	½ - ½	GM	Keymer, Vincent	2690	2

Details

Current GMT standings

GM David Navara (CZE) maintains his sole lead 15.5/22 | Source: Official site

Round 3 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	2690	GM	Keymer, Vincent		GM	Le, Quang Liem	2728	8
2	3	2735	GM	Yu, Yangyi		GM	Deac, Bogdan-Daniel	2693	1
3	4	2689	GM	Navara, David		GM	Moussard, Jules	2654	7
4	5	2694	GM	Amin, Bassem		GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	2710	6

Details

MTO Round 3 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	1	GM	Bu, Xiangzhi	2676	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Chasin, Nico	2455	20	PGN
2	3	GM	Aryan, Chopra	2626	2	1 - 0	2		Huang, Renjie	2445	22	PGN
3	25	IM	Materia, Marco	2436	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Quesada Perez, Luis Ernesto	2553	8	PGN
4	9	GM	Liu, Yan	2542	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Licznerski, Lukasz	2430	26	PGN
5	32	IM	Harikrishnan, A Ra	2406	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Pranav, Anand	2510	10	PGN
6	11	IM	Samant, Aditya S	2510	2	1 - 0	2	FM	Toktomushev, Teimur	2206	64	PGN
7	5	GM	Albornoz Cabrera, Carlos Daniel	2591	1½	½ - ½	2	IM	Sukandar, Irine Kharisma	2358	42	PGN
8	31		Jinan, Jomon	2409	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son	2645	2	PGN
9	29	WGM	Huang, Qian	2422	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Yuffa, Daniil	2603	4	PGN
10	33	IM	Shlyakhtenko, Robert	2401	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Erdos, Viktor	2571	6	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	3	GM	Aryan, Chopra	IND	2626	3	4	10
2	9	GM	Liu, Yan	CHN	2542	3	4	9,5
3	11	IM	Samant, Aditya S	IND	2510	3	3	9,5
4	32	IM	Harikrishnan, A Ra	IND	2406	2,5	4,5	9
5	20	IM	Chasin, Nico	USA	2455	2,5	4,5	8,5
6	8	GM	Quesada Perez, Luis Ernesto	CUB	2553	2,5	4,5	8
	10	GM	Pranav, Anand	IND	2510	2,5	4,5	8
8	1	GM	Bu, Xiangzhi	CHN	2676	2,5	4	9
9	42	IM	Sukandar, Irine Kharisma	INA	2358	2,5	4	8
10	2	GM	Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2645	2,5	3,5	10

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	9	GM	Liu, Yan	2542	3		3	GM	Aryan, Chopra	2626	3
2	2	GM	Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son	2645	2½		3	IM	Samant, Aditya S	2510	11
3	42	IM	Sukandar, Irine Kharisma	2358	2½		2½	GM	Bu, Xiangzhi	2676	1
4	4	GM	Yuffa, Daniil	2603	2½		2½	IM	Muthaiah, Al	2445	21
5	8	GM	Quesada Perez, Luis Ernesto	2553	2½		2½	IM	Harikrishnan, A Ra	2406	32
6	10	GM	Pranav, Anand	2510	2½		2½	IM	Materia, Marco	2436	25
7	18	IM	Saraci, Nderim	2472	2½		2½	FM	Deuer, Marius	2374	39
8	20	IM	Chasin, Nico	2455	2½		2		Peng, Xiongjian	2489	13
9	34	IM	Morawietz, Dieter	2396	2		2	GM	Albornoz Cabrera, Carlos Daniel	2591	5
10	6	GM	Erdos, Viktor	2571	2		2	IM	Ajay Krishna, S	2390	35

Details

Links

Official site

GMT details

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