After five rounds in the GRENKE Chess Open, none of the players have a perfect score. That is why we have no less than 23 players with 4,5/5 points. Some of the favorites like Richard Rapport (Hungary) and Dmitry Andreikin (Russia) are among the leaders, but also seven German grandmasters. Best female player in the A-Group is Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (India) with four points.
After 4 rounds there are only six players left on a perfect score at the GRENKE Chess Open. On top board Richard Rapport (Hungary) beat Eric Lobron and is therefore the highest rated player in the leading group. Zdenko Kozul (Croatia), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine), Maxime Lagarde (France), Daniel Sadzikowski (Poland) and Andreas Heimann (Germany) are the other five players on 4/4. The local rising stars Luis Engel and Vincent Keymer continue impressing as they are on 3.5, as is leading woman player Anna Zatonskih.
Richard Rapport against Eric Lobron
'Checkmate Cancer' is a project of the 13-year old Lukas Muth to support the German leukemia research aid for children with cancer. Lukas' initiative is getting more attention from the public, both within the chess world but also outside of it. He also wants to inspire as many people as possible by portraying chess as a cool and exciting mind sport. As part of the GRENKE Chess Classic & Open the participants were able to attend the chess-themed movie "Pawn Sacrifice" at the Filmpalast in Karlsruhe. The entree fee of only €5 included popcorn and a drink. The total income of about €600 goes to the project. You can find all the information about Lukas Muth's initiative on the Facebook page "Setz' Krebs schachmatt". We also interviewed Lukas and his mother. You can watch the videos below.
It has become a tradition that many young players take part in the GRENKE Chess Open in a bid to get a sought-after GM scalp. One of them went one step better in round 3. 15-year old Luis Engel from Hamburg beat Hungarian Grandmaster Gabor Papp, who thus became Luis’ first +2600 victim. Vincent Keymer is another young talent who is off to a promising start as the 13-year old drew against Ukrainian super GM Anton Korobov. The top seed, Etienne Bacrot from France, also dropped half a point, as did Alexei Shirov from Latvia. The clash between two favourites for the women’s prize, Anna Zatonskih (USA) and Melanie Lubbe, ended in a long and fighting draw.
Gabor Papp resigns against Luis Engel | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni
