This Friday afternoon, with the audience, the press and the autograph collectors all in place at the Elite Plaza Hotel in Malmo, the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament started.
The poster boy of the tournament, world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen, faced Indian start player Erjun Erigaisi in his first classical chess game in almost a year. Magnus Carlsen stopped and thought for almost ten minutes already at the second move, when Erigaisi chose the Russian defense. They opted for a pretty harmless variation and the game ended in a draw after 36 moves.
Carl Cederstam will analyze a game from each round, the analusis can be found here: TePe Sigeman game analysis
Second Draw
Today’s second draw was agreed upon between the young Turkish star Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest. In the Catalan opening, they both followed a variation that was played already back in 1980, between Robert Hübner and Boris Spassky, until van Foreest deviated at the 14th move with 14.Be3. The position was balanced throughout the game and a draw was agreed upon at move 30.
A Loss for the Home Team
The other two games came to a conclusion, and unfortunately (from a Swedish perspective), local hero Nils Grandelius was one of the players that lost. In an even position, Grandelius played 26…Rd8, which allowed Woodward’s bishop to reach f8 via a check at b4 and exchanging the rooks. Grandelius fought on, but after another 20 moves, he was forced to resign. Nils will get a chance to bounce back in the second round, but it will not be easy, since he will be facing Magnus Carlsen.
A Critical Mistake
This means that Andy Woodward shares the lead with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won quickly after Jiner Zhu making a critical mistake at move 23, when she put her knight at the d4 square. Abdusattorov found the strong 23…Rc8, which meant that Jiner Zhu’s queen became overloaded and she was forced to relinquish a pawn. Abdusattorov won yet another pawn, and at move 38, Zhu gave up. World number 4 Abdusattorov has won three tournaments in a row – London, Wijk aan Zee and Prague – he has now also had a very good start in this tournament.