Impressive Keymer extends his advantage to 1.5 points

Vincent Keymer just keeps getting better. The German GM was in his element, beating American Awonder Liang to notch up his fourth victory on Wednesday and extend his lead in the Masters section of the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters chess tournament to 1.5 points with just two rounds to play.

With top seed Arjun Erigaisi, suffering from the effects of a cold, settling for a quick draw against the Netherlands’ Anish Giri, the impressive Keymer took a huge step towards the top prize, picking up a full point with black pieces.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s a secret because he coughs a little bit. So, he has some throat issue. Hopefully, it’s not a big deal. But I can imagine that you can’t perform at your best when you have such an issue,” said the Dutchman after the match.

The star of the day was Chennai’s own Karthikeyan Murali, who wore down the higher-rated Vidit Gujrathi in a 72-move match.

V. Pranav, the current World junior champion, defended superbly from a seemingly lost position to hold Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest in 98 moves.

Laudable display

The 18-year-old Chennai lad, at 2597 ELO, the lowest-rated player in the Masters event, continued his impressive run after having previously held Anish and Arjun to draws.

Nihal Sarin bounced back after Tuesday’s loss to get the better of American Ray Robson to take his tally to three points.

In the Challengers section, M. Pranesh outclassed a struggling R. Vaishali to share the lead with Leon Luke Mendonca, a winner over Diptayan Ghosh, on 5.5 points.

Abhimanyu Puranik, who split the point with Aryan Chopra, trails the leaders by half-a-point.

The results (seventh round): Masters: Vidit Gujrathi (3) lost to Karthikeyan Murali (4), Arjun Erigaisi (4) drew with Anish Giri (3.5), Awonder Liang (USA, 3.5) lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger, 5.5), Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 3.5) drew with V. Pranav (2.5), Nihal Sarin (2) bt Ray Robson (USA, 2.5).

Challengers: D. Harika (1.5) lost to G. B. Harshavardhan (3), M Pranesh (5.5) bt R. Vaishali (1), Aryan Chopra (2) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (5), Diptayan Ghosh (3.5) lost to Leon Luke Mendonca (5.5), Pa. Iniyan (4) drew with B. Adhiban (4).

Eighth round pairings: Masters: Karthikeyan vs. Nihal, Pranav vs. Robson, Keymer vs. van Foreest, Anish vs. Awonder, Vidit vs. Arjun.

Challengers: Harshavardhan vs. Adhiban, Mendonca vs. Iniyan, Abhimanyu vs. Diptayan, Vaishali vs. Aryan, Harika vs. Pranesh.