Can Karthikeyan Murali win Biel MTO 2021?

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/08/2021

Karthikeyan Murali 6.5/8 is on the verge of winning the 54th Biel International Chess Festival MTO 2021. He just needs a draw in the final round as he has a better tie-breaks than his pursuers. A win would guarantee his championship. Although Gukesh could spoil his chances since he will face Karthikeyan in the final round. Gukesh, Salem and Eljanov are the only three players at 6.0/8. Nihal drew his game against Kamsky in the penultimate round. Thus his chances of winning the event got dashed. Alekseenko outplayed Gelfand to bring himself in the championship picture. The final round of GMT and MTO will start at 2:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Harshit Raja becomes India's 69th GM

Karthikeyan is playing steady as he drew with GM Tamas Banusz (HUN) in the penultimate round. Although he had a slight opportunity in the endgame, he decided against it. Harshit Raja drew his game against GM Denis Wagner (GER) to score his final GM-norm and become the latest grandmaster of India.

Karthikeyan is on the verge of winning the tournament | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GMT R6: Kamsky - Nihal: 0.5-0.5

Kamsky opted for the Exchange variation in the Ruy Lopez. Pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the game liquidated into an equal queen endgame after 30 moves. Draw became the obvious result and Nihal's hopes of winning the event got shattered.

Kamsky ended Nihal's hopes | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Alekseenko - Gelfand: 1-0

Alekseenko outplayed Gelfand to keep himself in the championship contention.

Alekseenko can win the GMT | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Biel Chess Festival GMT Round 6 (hosts GM Arturs Neiksans and WGM Dina Belenkaya) | Video: Biel Chess Festival

MTO: Karthikeyan - Banusz: 0.5-0.5

Karthikeyan made a solid draw with Tamas Banusz (HUN). However, his only chance was in the endgame.

Position after 25...Be7

White could have tried 26.Rb1 instead of 26.Rd4. The rook, c-pawn and the bishop got exchanged consecutively. The game reached to a drawn knight endgame.

Praggnanandhaa - Salem: 0-1

Praggnanandhaa went wrong early in the game when he sacrificed a pawn which his opponent used it against him.

Position after 14.b4

14.b4 was uncalled for. A simple 14.Qc3 or Bd2 would have sufficed. Black took the pawn 14...Qxb4+ 15.Bd2 Qa4 16.Qb2 cxd4 17.Nxd4. White needed to play 17.Nd6+ which was also possible in the previous move. Pragg went wrong in the opening twice in this event and he lost on both occasions.

GM R Praggnanandhaa 5.0/8 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Ganguly - Gukesh: 0-1

Ganguly made a questionable pawn sacrifice in the endgame, followed by an exchange of queens which gave his opponent, Gukesh, a decisive advantage.

Position after 22.h4

White should have exchanged the rooks 23.Rxd8+ Rxd8 24.c3 but 23.h4 allowed Black to take the pawn 23...Bxh4 then 24.Qc7 Qxc7 25.Rxc7 b5 and White can do very little to save the game.

GM D Gukesh 6.0/8 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Tang - Sethuraman: 0-1

Sethuraman made a quick work of GM Andrew Tang (USA) in just 23 moves.

Position after 29.b3

White had already made a few incorrect decisions, 29.b3 was the big one. Find out the best continuation for Black.

GM Sethuraman 5.5/8 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

IM Harshit Raja drew with GM Dennis Wagner (GER) to become India's 69th grandmaster. Read more about his journey here.

India's 69th GM - Harshit Raja | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GM Arjun Erigaisi 5.5/8 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

GM Raunak Sadhwani 5.5/8 | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Highlights

Here are a few interesting finishes from MTO Round 8

GM Andrew Tang (USA) lost to GM Sethuraman SP

GM Raunak Sadhwani defeated IM Vignesh N R

GM Daniil Yuffa (RUS) won against FM Elliot Papadiamandis (FRA)

IM Laura Unuk (SLO) defeated Cristian Vasquez Toledo (CHI)

Replay GMT Round 6 games

Replay MTO Round 8 games

GMT Round 6 results

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

Details

Round 7 pairings

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

Details

MTO Round 8 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	6	½ - ½	5	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	6
2	7	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	5	½ - ½	5½	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
3	11	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	1
4	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	15
5	10	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	22
6	24	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	4
7	13	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	28
8	17	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	29
9	33	WGM	Vaishali R	2393	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	19
10	20	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	30
11	3	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	4	½ - ½	4	GM	NR Visakh	2516	25
12	34	IM	Bänziger Fabian	2392	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	9
13	14	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	23
14	21	GM	Korpa Bence	2536	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	27
15	16	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	3½	1 - 0	4	FM	Papadiamandis Elliot	2363	38

Details

Round 9 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	15	GM	Gukesh Dommaraju	2578	6		6½	GM	Murali Karthikeyan	2606	12
2	1	GM	Saleh Salem A.R.	2682	6		6	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2671	2
3	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	5½		5½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2614	10
4	6	GM	Banusz Tamas	2631	5½		5½	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	2555	20
5	19	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2567	5½		5½	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2630	7
6	22	GM	Kantor Gergely	2527	5½		5	GM	R Praggnanandhaa	2608	11
7	28	IM	Kalyan Arjun	2503	5		5	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2625	8
8	9	GM	Narayanan S.L.	2624	5		5	GM	Wagner Dennis	2572	17
9	29	IM	Raja Harshit	2484	5		5	GM	Fedorchuk Sergey	2598	13
10	27	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2509	5		4½	GM	Dragnev Valentin	2569	18
11	30	IM	NR Vignesh	2428	4½		4½	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2652	3
12	35	IM	Haimovich Tal	2388	4½		4½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2589	14
13	31	IM	Gschnitzer Adrian	2420	4½		4½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2578	16
14	23	GM	Valsecchi Alessio	2527	4½		4½	IM	Unuk Laura	2407	32
15	48	WGM	Eric Jovana	2250	4½		4½	GM	Tang Andrew	2525	24

Details

Links

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