Keymer Wins Rubinstein Memorial With Round To Spare

GM Vincent Keymer won the 2024 Rubinstein Memorial's ALREH GM tournament on Sunday despite finishing with two losses. After starting with the superb score of six points out of seven games, the 19-year-old German grandmaster had already secured the title with a round to spare on Saturday.

On the occasion of the 60th edition of the memorial of GM Akiba Rubinstein—one of the strongest players in history never to gain the world title—a strong 10-player round-robin was part of the annual festival. The event, which had an average rating of 2687, took place August 17-25, 2024, at the Spa Theatre in Polanica-Zdroj in the south of Poland, just north of the Czech border.

Final Standings

You could say that Keymer's tournament lasted two rounds too long. After round seven, with five wins and two draws, the German player, whom we can call a teenager for a few more months, was truly on a roll—and the live ratings were showing it. He had entered the top 20 with bang, occupying number 15 with a 22-point rating gain. Rather unexpectedly, he suffered his first loss and then another one to end on (still a very decent) number 19 with 11 Elo points gained.

Keymer's win against GM Andrei Volokitin in round six was quite entertaining. Then on a 4.5/5 score, the young German must have been brimming with confidence and went for his Ukrainian opponent's king like a caveman – and it worked! Volokitin, who had sacrificed his b-pawn earlier, was a bit too eager to win it back and his monarch was just too weak after that:

Again playing the white pieces, Keymer started running with his h-pawn again in round eight, but GM Sam Shankland reacted better and eventually ground down his opponent deep in a rook endgame.

In the final round, top seed GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who was on a disappointing 50-percent score, decided to push for a win. He moved up both his h- and g-pawns toward Keymer's kingside but decided the game on the queenside:

Apart from GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, who drew all his games (while keeping an eye on his wife winning the Tbilisi Grand Prix), the only other player who remained undefeated was GM David Navara. The Czech grandmaster drew eight times and won one, against Duda in the penultimate round, which helped Keymer secure tournament victory:

Especially as it was played in this tournament, this game could be seen as a nice hommage to the great Rubinstein, who won a somewhat similar endgame in this variation against Carl Schlechter, in San Sebastian in 1912:

The 2024 ALREH Akiba Rubinstein Grandmaster Tournament took place August 17 to August 25, 2024, in Polanica-Zdroj, Poland. It was a 10-player single round-robin tournament. The time control was 90 minutes for each player, with a bonus of 15 minutes after move 40 and an increment of 30 seconds starting from move one.