Praggnanandhaa Bounces Back As Vaishali Misses Win In Last Seconds
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu finally won a classical game at the 2024 Biel Chess Festival as he defeated GM Sam Shankland to reenter the world top-10. It was almost a perfect day for the family as Vaishali Rameshbabu was on the brink of beating GM Saleh Salem and topping the Challengers before she blundered on move 40 with just three seconds to spare. GM Liem Le and Salem lead their groups going into Sunday's Blitz.
The Blitz starts Sunday, July 21, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
It was International Chess Day and a chance to help set a record...
World record broken! On occasion of the @FIDE_chess centenary today, most #chess games within 24 hours shall be played. It is not midnight yet, but it is clear, the record will be achieved, so @GWR handed tonight at #BielChess the certificate to FIDE-representative Laurent Freyd! pic.twitter.com/DrMT2ctaDm
— Biel Chess Festival (@BielFestival) July 20, 2024
...while in the top events, all six games could, and perhaps should, have finished decisively on Saturday. In the end, however, half were drawn.
Classical Chess Round 5 Results: Masters And Challengers
The results mean that Le and Salem continue to lead going into Sunday's 10 rounds of blitz chess. Then the bottom two players in each section will be eliminated.
Standings After Classical Chess Round 5: Masters And Challengers
Biel Masters Round 5: Praggnanandhaa Wins On Demand
Praggnanandhaa 4-0 Shankland
If Praggnanandhaa had drawn or lost this game, his chances of qualifying for the last stage of the Biel Chess Festival—three final classical rounds on Tuesday-Thursday—would have been minimal, since he'd need a phenomenal blitz tournament to make up a four-point (or more) deficit to GM Vincent Keymer. That meant the Indian star was willing to take some risks, with his 12.Qd2?! in an Anti-Berlin inviting trouble.
Shankland correctly grabbed the pawn on e4 with his knight, going for an exchange sacrifice soon afterward. In fact, the 2018 U.S. champion correctly sacrificed the exchange twice to produce a position where Praggnanandhaa's two rooks were battling a pair of bishops. It was a fascinating and murky struggle, but the Indian GM prevailed.
That win saw Praggnanandhaa climb back up to world number-nine on the live rating list, but more importantly, for now, it puts him within striking distance of the players ahead.
Mishra 1.5-1.5 Keymer
In fact, Praggnanandhaa could easily have ended the day level with Keymer, while Mishra could be the leader, since the player who set the record as the youngest GM ever was winning a wildly complex clash at various moments. There was never any absolutely clear goal-scoring opportunity, however, and when Keymer survived a nerve-wracking time scramble the players quickly agreed a draw.
The final game to finish, in either section, could have seen Le, the tournament winner in 2022 and 2023, take a commanding lead.
Le 1.5-1.5 Martirosyan
This 81-move clash between two fine technicians produced a study-like endgame where the Vietnamese number-one almost managed to convert an extra pawn. Full analysis would take serious study, but with the help of tablebases we can at least point to the clear chances that were missed.
Neither player made a serious mistake until move 53.
Biel Challengers Round 5: Vaishali Seconds From Victory
The Challengers was set up perfectly, since Vaishali, who trailed leader Salem by a point, had the white pieces in the final round of classical chess. A win would have seen her take a three-point lead into the Blitz.
Vaishali 1.5-1.5 Salem
Vaishali has picked up 23.6 rating points in just five rounds of classical chess, but it could have been four points more, since against Salem she twice reached a winning position. The second time it seemed there was no chance she'd let it slip, but in mutual time trouble she went astray on move 40, the last move before an hour was added to her clock.
She reached that mark with three seconds to spare, while Salem instantly executed the saving move with just five seconds left.
Vaishali makes move 40 with just 3 seconds to spare... and it's a blunder, giving up the winning position! #BielChess pic.twitter.com/g7rVs7opEZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 20, 2024
Shortly afterward a draw was agreed that saw Salem keep his slender lead.
The remaining two games saw GMs Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Igor Samunenkov lose and find themselves all but doomed to be eliminated however well they play in the Blitz. GM Alexander Donchenko won a topsy-turvy game against Maurizzi to end on a plus score for classical chess. He commented:
"From the positions I had in the classical games, I can be very happy with my three points [two wins, two draws, and one loss], because the game against Vaishali, honestly if you could lose more than once, I should have lost that game more than once, and also I had very good chances to lose to Salem, so I took what I could and we’ll see how the blitz goes. I’m still in contention!"
The game against Vaishali, honestly if you could lose more than once, I should have lost that game more than once!
—Alexander Donchenko
GM Jonas Bjerre has work to do in Blitz to keep his hopes alive, but at least he finished things off impressively against Samunenkov.
That was the seventh loss in eight games for Samunenkov, but for long periods he's been matching his opponents, and it should be a valuable experience for the 15-year-old.
The players will now play each other twice in 10 rounds of 3+2 blitz on Sunday, with normal scoring (one point for a win, half for a draw) before two players are eliminated in each section.
Then the remaining players will face each other in classical chess with colors reversed in the final three rounds. With four points for a win there, the leaders can't rest on their laurels!
How to watch?
The live broadcast was hosted by GM Arturs Neiksans and Angelika Valkova.
The 2024 Biel Chess Festival runs July 13-26 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, and features over 20 individual events. The main ones are the six-player Masters and Challengers GM Triathlons where the players compete in five rounds of Rapid chess (2 points for a win/1 for a draw), five rounds of Classical (4/1.5), and 10 rounds of Blitz (1/0.5). The top four then play three more rounds of Classical against each other, with colors reversed. Ties are settled by the standings of the Chess960 tournament held on the opening day.
Previous coverage:
- Day 6: Keymer Beats Praggnanandhaa As Le, Salem Snatch Lead
- Day 5: Vaishali Enters Top 10 With 3rd Win In A Row
- Day 4: Vaishali, Mishra Continue Giant-Killing In Biel
- Day 3: Vaishali Beats Top Seed As Praggnanandhaa Falls To Mishra
- Days 1-2: Praggnanandhaa, Martirosyan, Donchenko Star As Biel Chess Festival Begins
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
