Grandelius-Navara
Navara used the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez and Grandelius managed to mount some pressure as white. Careful handling of the endgame on Navara’s part secured the draw.
Salem-Shirov
Salem got a promising position early on in a fianchetto Grünfeld and Shirov’s queen seemed to be in trouble on the queenside. While white launched an ambitious kingside attack with h2-h4-h5, black found counterplay with this own flank pawn advance. Exchanges en masse followed and the endgame was drawn.
Van Foreest-Adams
Van Foreest played the very unusual 11.a4 in the exchange variation of the QGD. At almost exactly the same time in Rumania world no 4 Caruana executed the exact same plan against Firouzia! Only a coincidence? White gained the upper hand in both games but couldn’t find a breakthrough.
photo: Lars O Hedlund
Niemann-Erigaisi
Erigaisi was on the verge of equalizing as black in the Slav, when he allowed his pawn structure to be weakened through an exchange of queens on c6. Niemann’s manoeuvring to exploit the weakness was impressive and Erigiasi’s defence crumbled in the end. A very well played game!