Vaishali Beats Top Seed As Praggnanandhaa Falls To Mishra
Lowest-seed GM Vaishali Rameshbabu stunned top-seed GM Jonas Bjerre to win with Black in the first round of classical games in the 2024 Biel Chess Festival Challengers, but her brother GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu suffered the opposite fate. The top seed in the Masters lost to the lowest-rated player, GM Abhimanyu Mishra, while GM Liem Le tops the table after defeating GM Vincent Keymer.
Round two starts Wednesday, July 17, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
There was just one (spectacular) draw as the classical section of the triathlon tournaments in Biel began.
Classical Chess Round 1 Results: Masters And Challengers
There are four points for a win and 1.5 for a draw in classical chess in Biel, which combined with the results of the Rapid tournament saw Le and GM Alexander Donchenko take the early lead.
Masters And Challengers Standings After Classical Chess Round 1
Biel Masters Round 1: Mishra Shocks Praggnanandhaa
Praggnanandhaa 0-4 Mishra
When Mishra as a 12-year-old set the record as the youngest-ever grandmaster, he immediately set his sights on becoming the youngest player ever to cross 2700, but gaining rating is seldom a steady rise, and that challenge has proved much tougher. This year, for example, he pulled out of the GRENKE Chess Open and the World Junior Championship early after results had gone against him, and the 15-year-old's current 2604 rating is lower than it was last November.
You could feel how much it meant, therefore, when he got to beat one of the biggest stars of modern chess, Praggnanandhaa. He told Angelika Valkova on the live commentary:
"Firstly, I’d like to thank the organizers for inviting me to this amazing tournament. I got to play three games against the world number-eight, and I have 2.5/3. These also weren’t quick games. I cannot ask for anything more, so thank you!"
I got to play three games against the world number-eight, and I have 2.5/3.
—Abhimanyu Mishra
Mishra, before looking at his game, asked for something unusual in an age when most players would like to know the silicon verdict as soon as possible:
"This was a very crazy game. I have one request. Could you please not tell me whatever inaccuracies or mistakes I made in this game? I’m just thinking that when I get back to my room I’m going to use this for training."
There was certainly plenty of material, after a Ruy Lopez exploded into life when Mishra invited his Indian opponent to go for a thematic knight sacrifice on g5. In what followed Praggnanandhaa soon looked to have at least enough compensation for the piece, but he lost his way in the complications. Mishra stayed cool and eventually converted what became an overwhelming material advantage.
Mishra was rightly proud of his achievement, and used it for some advertising!
"If anyone in corporate is watching, despite breaking all the national and international records—I broke the youngest grandmaster in the world—despite doing all this, I haven’t got any corporate support, I don’t have a single sponsor, so if anyone would like to reach out, that would be amazing!"
I haven't got any corporate support, I don't have a single sponsor, so if anyone would like to reach out, that would be amazing!
—Abhimanyu Mishra
There was action on all boards.
Martirosyan 1.5-1.5 Shankland
GM Sam Shankland played the hyper-aggressive King's Indian Defense and revealed afterward that he'd had the final position on move 28 in his home preparation. He called it "a little bit frustrating:"
"I thought this was one of the best pieces of preparation I’ve done in a very long time and I was hoping to win with it, but unfortunately for me this guy defended perfectly, so what can you do?"
I thought this was one of the best pieces of preparation I've done in a very long time.
—Sam Shankland
Shankland noted that "White has to walk a hell of a tightrope not to lose immediately," but that's just what Armenian number-one GM Haik Martirosyan did, avoiding Shankland's trap at one key moment.
That game took Martirosyan to the top of the standings, but he would be overtaken by the player who's won the last two Biel Chess Festival titles.
Keymer 0-4 Le
Chess can be the cruelest of sports. For 39 moves 19-year-old Keymer had been carefully nursing a small advantage against Le, and if he'd reached move 40 with the status quo intact he'd have another hour added to his clock in which to continue the grind.
Instead, with five seconds remaining, he blundered and suddenly it was the Vietnamese number-one who was having all the fun. He went on to demonstrate wonderful technique to squeeze out a win.
Challengers Round 1: Vaishali Stuns Bjerre
23-year-old Vaishali has been a revelation in the last year as she's earned the grandmaster title and emerged as a strong challenger at the top of women's chess. Her ambitions may stretch further than that, as she began the classical section in Biel by defeating the top seed, with the black pieces.
Bjerre 0-4 Vaishali
Vaishali played the French Defense and grabbed a potentially poisoned pawn on b2. Bjerre was unable to punish that boldness, however, and when he grabbed a pawn of his own it proved fatal—Vaishali seized the chance to launch a checkmating attack that earned her 7.2 rating points to put her on the brink of 2500 and the women's top-10.
That win took Vaishali into the lead, but not for long. First GM Saleh Salem took over after a complicated game resolved into a win when GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi was another to blunder on move 40 and allow a transition into a hopeless endgame.
Maurizzi makes move 40 with 2 seconds to spare, but his move is a losing blunder! https://t.co/Y9axFuPtqp #BielChess pic.twitter.com/cm2olCC6Rd
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 16, 2024
The final say, however, went to Donchenko, who ground out a seven-hour win against GM Ihor Samunenkov, with the 15-year-old living to regret entering a passive endgame where, in Donchenko's words, "you are suffering in this position with no end in sight." How tired was the German grandmaster after his win?
"Tired enough that probably I will not prepare, I will just get some dinner and go to sleep very soon. I’m actually a fan of this time control, but if you actually get to play seven hours you feel it!"
In round two of classical chess attention will again turn to the siblings. Vaishali has the white pieces against Challengers leader Donchenko, while if Praggnanandhaa is going to bounce back he'll have to do it with Black against Masters leader Le!
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 ten 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.
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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.
