Keymer Beats Praggnanandhaa As Le, Salem Snatch Lead
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is out of the world top-10 after losing to GM Vincent Keymer, who said he'd played 1.e4 for the first time "in like nine years" in round four of the 2024 Biel Chess Festival Masters classical section. GM Liem Le took over as leader by defeating GM Sam Shankland while in the Challengers we also have a new leader after GM Saleh Salem overcame GM Ihor Samunenkov. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu had to fight on the chessboard and the clock to escape against GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi.
Round five starts Saturday, July 20, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Half the games were decisive in round four, and it could have been more.
Classical Chess Round 4 Results: Masters And Challengers
The results translated into new leaders in both sections, with Le taking over from Mishra, while Vaishali was edged out by Salem.
Standings After Classical Chess Round 4: Masters And Challengers
Biel Masters Round 4: Le Heading For A Hat Trick?
After a quiet round three, the Masters roared back to life in round four.
Keymer 4-0 Praggnanandhaa
Both players came into this matchup winless in classical chess in Biel, and Keymer had decided it was time to take drastic measures. He explained:
"First of all, I think it’s probably the first 1.e4 game I’ve played in like nine years. Even online I don’t really play e4, it was just that the tournament so far hasn’t really gone the way I’d like, and I wanted to change something."
Praggnanandhaa was also in the mood to take risks, but his aggressive opening backfired until an exchange sacrifice on move 21 smacked of desperation.
It almost worked, however, since Keymer miscalculated in response, and the position became objectively equal. It was still wild, however, and much easier for White to play with both players dangerously short on time. In a difficult position, Praggnanandhaa cracked with 37...Re7? and didn't try to hide his disappointment when the killer 38.Bd8! appeared on the board.
Praggnanandhaa had fought back brilliantly, but he blunders with 4 moves to go until the time control and is set to lose to Keymer! https://t.co/HCjg3OOwWa #BielChess pic.twitter.com/qhWBCH3GTm
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 19, 2024
Praggnanandhaa raced through the stages of grief before continuing the game, but his task was hopeless as Keymer grabbed four crucial points.
That much-needed win for Keymer pushed him four points ahead of Praggnanandhaa, whose tournament could be over on Sunday when the players in fifth and sixth will be eliminated before the final three rounds. It also saw Praggnanandhaa drop to 12th place on the live rating list.
Going into the round, GM Abhimanyu Mishra was the sole leader, but he was held to a draw by GM Haik Martirosyan. In fact, Martirosyan was pushing from the opening right until the latter stages but was unable to land a decisive blow. In the end it was Mishra who got to land the blow 36...Bxh3! to clinch the draw.
After 37.gxh3 Qf2+ the white king couldn't escape from checks.
That gave Le, the winner in 2022 and 2023, the chance to take the lead in 2024 as well.
Shankland 0-4 Le
Shankland only found out he could play a couple of days before the tournament after GM Javokhir Sindarov had trouble getting a visa. The U.S. star was glad to catch a flight direct from San Francisco to Zurich, but understandably he hasn't been at his best after a lack of preparation and jet lag to deal with.
Still, the game against Le reached what should have been a drawn endgame, until the Vietnamese number-one pounced on some inaccuracies and ruthlessly took home maximum points.
We also got a new leader in the Challengers.
Biel Challengers Round 4: Salem Leads Before Vaishali Showdown
The one quiet game in round four was the 52-move draw between GMs Jonas Bjerre and Alexander Donchenko, while elsewhere there was drama.
Maurizzi 1.5-1.5 Vaishali
Vaishali, who had won her last three games in a row, was outprepared by Maurizzi, and found herself down to 10 minutes compared to one hour and 27 minutes when she went for the risky 20...f6?!.
It turns out the move was losing almost by force to 21.Qb3!, with the point that h3 will distract the black queen so that the pinned knight on e6 can be taken with check.
That was the one knockout blow, however, and when it was missed Vaishali suddenly had a much healthier position. Despite the perilous clock situation, she played almost perfectly and was even threatening to gain an advantage before, with the time control reached, a draw was agreed.
The draw still saw Vaishali increase her rating yet again, and she's now up to women's world number-nine. In terms of the tournament, however, it gave a chance for a new leader.
Salem 4-0 Samunenkov
"The way he played, I know, it’s not supposed to be correct, so I’m looking for punishments non-stop," said Salem after beating his 15-year-old Ukrainian opponent, though the curiosity is that it seems Samunenkov had done little wrong—which was why the UAE number-one struggled so much to find any wins. In the end, only a bad choice of endgame doomed Black.
That gave Salem a one-point lead over Vaishali, but now they meet in the final round of classical chess before Sunday's blitz.
Round 5 Pairings: Masters And Challengers
How to watch?
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 10 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.
Previous coverage:
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.
