Harikrishna finishes second in Biel GMT Rapid
Pentala Harikrishna continued his momentum from the previous day as he scored an unbeaten 10 points to secure second position. Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek won the Rapid event by scoring 12 points. Harikrishna came very close to defeating him but the game ended up in a draw. Both of them remained undefeated in the Rapid. German GM Vincent Keymer also scored 10 points. He finished third according to the tie-break score. Monday 20th July is a rest day. Classical part of the GMT (Grandmaster Triathlon) will begin from Tuesday 21st July. Currently Wojtaszek has a two point lead heading into the Classical part of the festival. Photo: Biel Chess Festival
Wojtaszek wins the Rapid event
Pentala Harikrishna scored 10 points to finish second in the Rapid event of the 53rd Biel Chess Festival GMT. The Rapid event had 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. Blitz will have the regular scoring system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 point for a draw. Classical format will have 4 points for a win and 1.5 points for a draw. It is safe to assume that the point structure has been made such to discourage draws. In case of a tie in the final standings after the conclusion of Rapid, Blitz and Classical, the Chess960 standings will be used as a tie-breaker which will go in favor of Harikrishna as he won the Chess960 event. Wojtaszek scored 12 points to win the Rapid event. Both Harikrishna and Wojtaszek remained undefeated in the Rapid.
A Winning Start
Harikrishna continued his previous day's momentum into the Rapid event of the GMT as he capitalized on his opponent Michael Adams' blunder.
Adams - Harikrishna, Round 1
How should white react to black's threat on d3-pawn after 39...Qf5 ? White blundered here with 40.d4. Find out why it is a mistake.
Naiditsch's pinned knight
In Round 2, Harikrishna pinned Naiditsch's knight and after incorrectly defending the position, all his pieces got cramped up and eventually arrived at a lost Rook endgame.
Harikrishna - Naiditsch, Game 2
Find out why 28...Kf8 is a mistake and what was the better alternative.
A Radical game
After having two uneventful draws against Studer and Keymer in Round 3 and 4 respectively, Harikrishna had a brilliant game against Radoslaw Wojtaszek in Round 5. He almost got a winning position after a timely exchange sacrifice.
Harikrishna - Wojtaszek, Game 5
Find out the correct continuation for white after 29...Qe8.
Endgame prowess encore
Harikrishna repeated his endgame prowess for the second consecutive day against Romain Edouard as he capitalized on his opponent's positional error and won the game in just 27 moves.
Replay all games
Without spectator
One of the measures that the organizers have included in their Corona protection concept is strict access control to the venue. To ensure that there are never more than 300 people in the Biel Congress Centre, unfortunately no spectators are admitted to this year's edition of the chess festival.
Final Standings in Rapid
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
1 | 4 | GM | Wojtaszek Radoslaw | POL | 2662 | 6,0 | 0,0 | 17,50 | 5 |
2 | 2 | GM | Harikrishna Pentala | IND | 2690 | 5,0 | 0,5 | 15,75 | 3 |
3 | 3 | GM | Keymer Vincent | GER | 2487 | 5,0 | 0,5 | 13,50 | 4 |
4 | 7 | GM | Adams Michael | ENG | 2689 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 10,00 | 3 |
5 | 1 | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | AZE | 2584 | 2,5 | 0,0 | 4,50 | 2 |
6 | 6 | GM | Anton Guijarro David | ESP | 2718 | 2,0 | 0,5 | 6,75 | 0 |
7 | 5 | GM | Edouard Romain | FRA | 2654 | 2,0 | 0,5 | 5,00 | 1 |
8 | 8 | GM | Studer Noel | SUI | 2437 | 1,5 | 0,0 | 4,50 | 1 |