Photo: Lars OA Hedlund.
Maurizzi-Keymer
Semi-Slav, Moscow variation. Maurizzi sacrificed a pawn and the game became very sharp, and Keymer used a lot of time. White then played 15.g4, which was a little over-optimistic. This allowed Keymer to open the long diagonal with 15.- c5. After this, black was clearly better. White continued his attack, but Keymer defended with impressive accuracy. Maurizzi resigned at move 30.
Korobov-Abdusattorov
English opening. The position was long balanced. It looked like Abdusattorov had created some chances with his strong c-pawn, but at move 34, he lost the pawn on b6 when he tried to avoid a draw by repetition. Another mistake in time trouble made him lose the c-pawn as well. This allowed Korobov to safely secure the entire point.
Erigaisi-Ju
Grunfeld fianchetto version. The game rapidly became very sharp, when Ju sacrificed the exchange with 12.- cxd4. This move has only been played once before, and then with Ju behind the white pieces! The first novelty move was 15.Qb3. (Ju herself played 15.Nc7.) Erigaisi looked to have a promising position for a long time, but it was not until 19.- exf6 that his advantage became big. Black would have had good chances of holding things together with 19.- Bxf6, for example 20.Nd5 Nc5 followed by Ne6. Erigaisi could now force a number of simplifications with Qb5, and after that, he had no problems winning the endgame.
Svidler-Grandelius
With the black pieces in the Italian Opening, Grandelius soon had a good position. Through the maneuver Nf6-h7-g5, he got promising chances along the f-file. Svidler managed to exchange the dark-squared bishops, but instead, his queen ended up in awkward position on the queenside. Nils did not find any good way of exploiting this, and Svidler wiggled his way out of the grip, and after 40 moves, the players agreed to a draw.
