With a day's delay due to the change in the field of participants, defending champion Vishy Anand started today in the NC World Masters 2022. With Black he played against yesterday's day winner Michael Adams.
Anand was able to simplify the game quickly with Black, but could not achieve more. After some exchange of pieces, the game ended in a draw, the first on stage in the Gold Hall of the Kongesszentrum der Westfalenhallen. Anand said of the opening phase:
"I know the variation in classical chess and there Black is completely fine. At the board I then consider whether there is a difference in No Castling Chess, but the variation is balanced even without castling, as Black can play well with ...f6 and ...Ke7 anyway."
The second game in the NC World Masters offered everything one could expect from this chess variation. Both kings were under fire throughout the game and there were numerous tactical intricacies. Daniel Fridman (in the analysis at the picture) calculated them better than Dmitrij Kollars at the crucial moment and emerged victorious in this contested game.
Deutschland Grand Prix combative but peaceful
The German Grand Prix also offered very combative chess. But all three games ended in a draw. Rasmus Svane, for example, had a chance with Black against the previous leader Luke McShane.
In the diagram position Svane with Black had to make his 40th move before the time control.
40...Re7 41.Rff8 b5 42.f4 Rg3 43.Ra8+ Kb7 44.Rgb8+ Kc7 was the continuation of the game and a short time later it was agreed to draw, as the black king was too open.
But on the darned 40th move there was an option to win the game:
40...a5!
If now 41.Rff8 is followed by 41...Ra6! and the king is activated.
On 41.b5!?, with the idea 41...cxb5? 42.Rff8 and White mates, 41...Rc3! and Black eliminates the white pawn on c5 and comes into the open.
Bogdan-Daniel Deac pressed for a long time with White against Erwin L'Ami, but the endgame was not to be won.
In the game between Matthias Blübaum and David Navara all the pieces disappeared from the board first and the points were also shared here. Tomorrow Pavel Eljanov returns to the tournament and David Navara switches to live commentary.
In the Sportland NRW Women´s Cup WGM Priyanka Nutakki and FM Lara Schulze caught up with the leader IM Zoya Schleining with victories. Lara Schulze wants to attack the WGM norm in the tournament. Today she was able to beat Katharina Ricken in a short game with Black by opening the h-file and winning in a mate attack.
She herself showed the game to press spokesman Patrick Zelbel afterwards:
Lara Schulze dismantles the Double Fianchetto
In the Sportland NRW Cup it was a largely peaceful day. With 4 draws, FM Christoph Dahl remained in the lead. The only decisive game was Timo Leonhard's victory over 11-year-old youngster Sauat Nurgaliyev. Leonhard was happy about his first win and wants to annoy other players in the course of the week.
In the Sparkassen Open A, there was a fierce battle for the top positions. All 4 games among the leaders found a winner. GM Sanikidze beat GM Hausrath in the first grandmaster duel of the tournament. GM Warmerdam did not seem to be able to get beyond a draw against IM Meins for a long time, but then his persistence paid off in the rook ending and he finally managed to win. Besides the two grandmasters, IM Adrian Gschnitzer and IM Julian Kramer are still perfectly on track with 4 out of 4.