Korobov Upsets Abdusattorov As TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament Gets Underway

GM Anton Korobov won a topsy-turvy game to score an upset victory against world number-four GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the opening round of the 2024 TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament. The 29th edition started today in Malmo, Sweden. 

In the same round, GM Arjun Erigaisi started with a win against Women's World Champion GM Ju Wenjun. GM Vincent Keymer profited from over-aggressive play by GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi and won with precise defense. The only draw of the day was between GM Peter Svidler and GM Nils Grandelius.

The second round starts Sunday, April 28, starting at 9 a.m. ET / 15:00 CEST / 18:30 IST.

Results

Standings

The 29th edition of the TePe Sigeman tournament is a strong one, with two top-10 players and in general a mouthwatering field that includes some players that many would have liked to see in the Candidates. World number-four Abdusattorov (19) is in Malmo for the first time while Arjun (20) is playing his third tournament. He came second behind GM Hans Niemann in 2022, followed by a disappointing sixth place last year. 

For Keymer (19) it's also the third time, after 2021 (shared second) and 2023 (shared seventh). The youngest participant is Maurizzi, still only 16, the same age at which he won the 2023 World Junior Championship for players under 20. With a few more shots, he could try to emulate or even improve upon GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, the only player to win it twice.

More than a decade ago we had the Experience vs. Rising Stars tournaments in Amsterdam, a title that is somewhat appropriate for this event too. We find huge experience with last year's winner, eight-time Russian champion and 2011 World Cup winner Svidler (47), while the other three are in their thirties. Korobov (38) is also making his debut in Malmo, just like Ju (33). Grandelius, however, the local hero, is playing for the 13th time in a row. He first participated in 2009 and was always there since, with shared first places in 2017 and 2018.

Arjun of India was the first to open the score on Saturday, but it didn't look like that after the opening phase. Ju was more than ready for a line in the Fianchetto Grunfeld and even sacrificed an exchange for ample compensation.

Because she spent quite some time on the clock, it wasn't clear how much of that was preparation. A look in the database, however, reveals that the Chinese grandmaster had played the same line with the white pieces once as well.

Her loss can actually be attributed to one clear mistake on move 19, where she gave herself a doubled f-pawn, likely in order not to lose her e-pawn. The more natural recapture with the bishop would have been better both tactically and positionally.

The second winner took a bit longer but needed one move less. Keymer (Germany) showed fantastic defense against a hyper-aggressive Maurizzi (France), who chose a sharp line in the opening and soon burned his bridges with a rush of the g-pawn.

As Keymer demonstrated in the live broadcast, White's opening was actually very interesting and dangerous. Even "automatically" putting a knight on the c5-square and then taking it back a move later wasn't so terrible, but going g2-g4 without preparing it with Rg1 was a crucial mistake.

"15.Rg1 is the kind of move that if you know it's good you can play it, but it could also be a very stupid losing move," said Keymer.

Korobov-Abdusattorov was equal for quite a while, but at some point all kinds of tactical stuff started to happen. With an advantage of more than a hundred Elo points, the Uzbek GM clearly wanted to press with Black and indeed seemed to get some chances when he got a passed c-pawn. 

Korobov found a queen maneuver that should have led to a move repetition, but right at that point Abdusattorov blundered away his b-pawn. Inaccurate play from Korobov spoiled his advantage almost right away, but his opponent then erred again and was soon lost. Not a good start for the top seed in this tournament who made a rusty impression.

Check out notes by GM Dejan Bojkov below:

A player who should be even more rusty is Svidler, but last year that didn't stop him from winning the tournament, 18 months after his previous classical tournament. This time, he did play an event (but just one) in between the two Malmos: the World Cup last year.

It took the opening and early middlegame for the Russian GM to warm up, but from that point, and from a slightly worse position, he managed to hold things together, avoid all the pitfalls, and draw with Grandelius. The Swedish player had won the opening battle, but no more than that.

Note that Grandelius played 4...h6 in the Italian, a move GM Hikaru Nakamura had also played in the Candidates. The thing is, Grandelius was helping Nakamura during that event (and Svidler was GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu's second), as was also suggested in the tweet below.

Pragg-Nakamura round 15. pic.twitter.com/IlkkkGmJaN

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) April 27, 2024

The Tepe Sigeman Chess Tournament takes place April 27-May 3, 2024, at the Elite Plaza Hotel in Malmo, Sweden. The players compete in an eight-player single round-robin. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves, with 30 more minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move.