Grandelius-Van Foreest
Van Foreest played the surprising and very unusual 4…d6 in the Jaenisch gambit. Grandelius chose a solid continuation and the game was soon equal. It ended in a draw by repetition.
Keymer-Erigaisi
Just as in his game against Svidler, Erigaisi chose a setup with d6, e5 and f5, and his dark squared bishop on e7. After interesting complications, they landed in a drawn rook endgame.
Gukesh-Svidler
Gukesh chose to avoid the normal variations in the Grünfeld Indian by playing 3.f3. This led to a very complicated and sharp game, but when Svidler found the elegant 40…Re7, the game was heading for a draw.
Mishra-Gelfand
Mishra opted for the Rossolimo Defence (3.Bb5) in the Sicilian. After the pawn sacrifice 12…f5 13.exf5 Nh4, black had good prospects.
Mishra – Gelfand. Position after 13…Nh4
Mishra defended well and managed to reach an endgame with good drawing prospects. It turned into a Q+pawn against Q endgame. This is a theoretical draw, but in practice, it is very hard being on the defending side. Mishra played exact moves for quite a while, but finally, he made a mistake and had to resign after 125 moves.
This meant that no tiebreak games were needed. Peter Svidler is this year’s winner!
