Tepe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament

Another exciting round! This time every game ended with hard fought draws.

 

Short-Grandelius

A sharp Sicilian were both players had chances. Short looked like pulling the longest straw, but after the complications only a drawn endgame was left. 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite an early queen exchange the play was sharp. Keymer’s bishop pair could eventually even out Bjerre’s extra doubled pawn and no winner could be found. 

 

Sarin’s early pressure became an extra pawn, but at the cost of a bad overall pawn structure. Van Foreest defended admirably and managed to enter a drawn knight endgame, despite being two pants down. 

 

An early h4 showed white’s ambitions, but Jones defended with ease. Black then sacrificed the exchange to try and get the initiative. But Bacrot gave back the material and a drawn opposite coloured bishop endgame shared the point. 

 

Bacrot equalized comfortably as black in the Sicilian opening, but Short gained an edge as the time control approached. A very interesting and unusual endgame materialised  – two bishops and passed pawns against a queen. Bacrot tried to make the bishop pair count, but in the end Short’s queen proved too strong.

 

Grandelius was well prepared for Sarin’s Spanish with 3…g6. An early advantage became an ending where the Swede could force the win through an attack on the king. 

 

A rollercoaster of a game – Jones both gained the advantage and lost it in an exciting king’s indian game. After 40 moves Bjerre made a mistake and Jones could regain the advantage in a decisive way.

 

Van Foreest surprised both us and Keymer with an incredible opening preparation in the Panov variation of the Caro-Kann. Keymer defended himself with vigour, but having used a lot of time early in the game, could not hold the complicated endgame.