Grandelius-Shirov Grandelius played his favorite move 6.d3 against the Ruy Lopez. His position looked promising but Shirov defended well and in the end the game fizzled out into a drawish rook ending. Van Foreest-Niemann In a sharp Italian variation, Van Foreest sacrificed a pawn, which seemed to give a promising …
The penultimate round gave us two more decisive games. Grandelius failed to close in on leader Niemann, who goes into round 7 a full point clear of Erigaisi and Grandelius. Niemann-Grandelius A solid Grünfeld indian with several early exchanges. Grandelius neutralised white’s small advantage and the draw was an obvious …
Adams-Navara In an unusual variation of the Sicilian Navara found 22…g5, an interesting way to create counter-play. The resulting rook endgame was slightly better for black, but never offered any realistic winning chances. Grandelius-Salem The game began as the Panov variation of the Caro-Kann, but after …
Erigaisi-Grandelius Erigaisi surprised with the unusual 7.Bb5 in the Scotch game. Grandelius was under pressure until he was allowed to play 15…dxe4, followed by Nf5 and could safely steer the game towards a draw. Navara-Van Foreest Navara chose a surprisingly timid line against Van Foreest’s accepted queen’s gambit. Both …