Photo: Peter Doggers
Short summary ahead of the last round on Thursday:
- If Arjun Erigaisi beats Andy Woodward in the last round of the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament, he will win the tournament.
- If Erigaisi’s game ends in a draw, he will be forced to play a tie-break with the winner in the game Magnus Carlsen-Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
- In case there is a draw between Carlsen and Erdogmus and Erigaisi draws, then Erigaisi is still the winner.
- If Erigaisi loses, the tournament winner is the winner of the game Carlsen-Erdogmus.
Also, there are other possibilities if Erigaisi loses – even Nodirbek Abdusattorov has a small chance – but the above scenarios are the main ones.
Please note that the last round starts three hours earlier then the previous rounds. The first move of the last round of the tournament will be made at 12.00 CET.
Magnus Carlsen had a good day at the board on Wednesday, where he launched real fireworks against Andy Woodward. After the game, Carlsen was all smiles, he felt that he was once again on top of his game. With this win, Carlsen joined Erdogmus on 4 points, going into the last round on Thursday at 12.00.
However, one player is half a point ahead of them – Arjun Erigaisi. The Indian grandmaster, who has climbed to place number seven on the world chess federation rating list during the tournament, won a long game against Jiner Zhu. This was a game where the advantage shifted back and forth. Finally, Erigaisi clearly had the upper hand, but Zhu once again showed her fighting spirit. She came very close to saving half a point. In the interview after the game, Erigaisi said that he thought she kept finding good resources and played incredibly well.
The game was not decided until move 50, where Zhu played Kc3, instead of Ke3. This gave Erigaisi the upper hand, and he took good care of his chances and secured the entire point. This win means that Erigaisi has the lead with 4½ points. Of course, all Indian chess fans will follow his game on Thursday. Winning a tournament where Magnus Carlsen is one of the opponents would be huge!
Swedish chess fans got to see Nils Grandelius scoring yet another half point. At move 41, Grandelius played 41…c5, which gave van Foreest a change to trade his two rooks for the Swede’s queen with 42.Rf7 Qxf7 43.Rxf7 Kxf7.
However, van Foreest chose not to call, and instead played 42.g5. After Grandelius answer 42….Qxg5 43.Qxg5 hxg5, the computer analysis evaluated the position as totally even. 15 moves later, the draw was a fact.
Standings before the last round
1) Erigaisi 4½p
2-3) Carlsen, Erdogmus 4p
4) Abdusattorov 3½p
5) van Foreest 3p
6) Woodward 2½p
7) Zhu 1½p
8) Grandelius 1p