Korobov Bounces Back; 3 Leaders In Malmo Before Final Round

With one round to go, GM Anton Korobov is back in the shared lead of the 2024 TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament thanks to a win against GM Nils Grandelius, while leaders GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM Peter Svidler drew their game. GM Vincent Keymer would have joined the group at the top with a win but lost to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Ju Wenjun drew relatively quickly.

The final round starts Friday, May 3, at 6 a.m. ET / 12:00 CEST / 3:30 p.m. IST.

TePe Sigeman Standings After Round 6

One of the possible scenarios that I described yesterday happened: while leaders Arjun and Svidler played each other and battled it out to a draw, Korobov grabbed his chance, won his game, and rejoined the top group. Keymer could have done the same, but lost.

Of the three leaders, Svidler is the only player with the white pieces tomorrow—he plays Keymer. Arjun has Black against Grandelius, while Korobov plays Ju, also with Black. We'll also have Abdusattorov-Maurizzi in a final round that starts three hours earlier than the other rounds. That way, there will be time for a tiebreak in case of a tie for first.

Korobov won a good game, but at the same time, it looked like Grandelius played his worst game so far this week. Perhaps it was because he got into a position that didn't really suit his style, as his opponent suggested. Korobov made a first appearance in the live broadcast, and it made you wish he had shown up more often: his explanations were both instructive and entertaining (I mean, comparing his king chasing a knight to Paolo Maldini is just marvelous.)

Korobov: "I have excellent technique once my opponent resigns at the proper moment. Once he doesn't, that is going to be a tragedy for me!" 😀 #TePeSigeman pic.twitter.com/WQlHVhIvgM

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 2, 2024

The opening was offbeat but interesting: 4.h3 in the Four Knights. Korobov mentioned that just about any legal move is possible here and that the "Dutch School," consisting of the brothers Lucas and Jorden van Foreest, plays "with their left hand," opting for 4.a3 and 4.a4.

As one of the local spectators suggested, Grandelius should probably have pushed f5-f4 at some point and tried to attack in King's Indian style. As it went, White got a better position with relatively simple moves.

Korobov said about his position on move 19: "I have a better structure, better pieces, so I am playing a kind of risk-free position with some kind of advantage, maybe not a serious one, but ok. And that is not the type of Nils position, to find defensive moves, he had to suffer… He is an active player."

To make matters worse, Grandelius also got into time trouble, which made it even harder to defend. At some point, it was impossible to prevent material loss, and there was zero counterplay.

Arjun got to play the white pieces for the second day in a row and played the same Anti-Marshall as he had against Keymer the other day. However, it was Svidler who deviated first with 11...Qd7, even though Keymer's approach was quite successful.

Only after 20.Nf3 Svidler was on his own, but found the engine's preferred move anyway. Then, on move 21, Arjun spent almost 40 minutes on his rook move, while Svidler was intrigued by a knight move instead and spent the whole time calculating it without, as he said, coming to any conclusion.

Their joint analysis in the broadcast revealed both the depth of their calculations and the sometimes different opinions they had in some positions. Still, the evaluation was always roughly equal. A good "grandmaster draw."

The wildest game of the round, between two 19-year-olds who are likely participants of a future Candidates Tournament, was the obvious choice for Game of the Day.

From a fairly comfortable middlegame position (coming from a Chebanenko Slav), Keymer probably underestimated the annoying 22...Bh4! pin, after which he slowly got outplayed. Abdusattorov eventually won a pawn, but with only heavy pieces left on the board, White could still hold it.

In time trouble, Keymer erred, but Abdusattorov did not profit, and then, after the time control, Keymer missed a key idea to go for a queen endgame, which also looked totally lost—but might just be holdable, even if by a miracle. GM Rafael Leitao takes a look:

Maurizzi vs. Ju was a game with little content (or spice, as Arjun would put it). The Women's World Champion played what commentator GM Laurent Fressinet called the "Chinese Petroff," a specific way of playing this opening often used by Chinese grandmasters. It's incredibly solid, and Maurizzi couldn't really create anything—because there wasn't a thing to create.

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.

Previous coverage:

• Round 5: Svidler Beats Korobov, Joins Arjun In The Lead
• Round 4: Abdusattorov, Ju Score First Wins in Malmo
• Round 3: Arjun Catches Leaders, Eyes World No. 4 Spot
• Round 2: Keymer, Korobov On 2/2, To Meet In Round 3 In Malmo
• Round 1: Korobov Upsets Abdusattorov As TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament Gets Underway