CHENNAI: IN 2024, Vincent Keymer travelled to Chennai with one short-term vision. Help D Gukesh win the World Championship. When he boarded the flight to Chennai less than two weeks ago, his vision had changed. Face Gukesh in the World Championship.
Winning the Chennai Grand Masters wouldn't guarantee a spot in the Candidates but it would set him on the right path towards qualifying for it. Firstly, it would put him on the right road ahead of two massive competitions — Grand Swiss and World Cup. Finish in the top two there and that's a spot in the Candidates locked up (the World Cup also offers one for finishing third). A title in Chennai would also give him invaluable circuit points.
He ticked a big box on Thursday when he took an unassailable lead with one round to go. He needed a win to assure top spot but considering he had a 1.5 points advantage he knew a draw would be good enough. But the 21-year-old, a newly minted top-10 player in the Classical format, focused on concentrating on his own game. Up against Jorden van Foreest, a one-time second of Magnus Carlsen, both players produced elite chess before shaking their hands after 60 moves.
But make no mistake, this was a draw the German earned after a gruelling endgame filled with obstacles to tackle and hurdles to jump. In fact, at one point (before 44. g6), he thought he was completely lost. Usually, most super GMs are capable of landing on engine-recommended moves by process of elimination but Keymer was low on time. Keymer's cheeks had turned red, he was visibly shaking and he resorted to burying his face in his hands. His opponent added to the tension as he preferred to go on a short walk.
He had played over 300 largely perfect moves in over 20 hours across seven-and-a-half games to grab the lead by 1.5 points but it seemed like his whole tournament was suddenly on shaky ground. The irony was he had forced this 'danger upon myself', as he would say after winning the tournament, because 'I had missed the Bd1 idea'. That trick, set by Van Foreest on the 43rd move with Black, meant Keymer now had to play precise chess till the endgame to lock the draw.
And g6 was the first part of the jigsaw. Per the engine, the second best move would have seen him lose on the spot. "No, it’s just that I missed this Bishop d1 idea, which is really something you shouldn’t miss," he said after the match. "Out of the opening, I was better but then it was a clear draw, and I had many ways to kind of force a draw, and I opted exactly for this way, which is, it’s a miracle it even survives. Just missing this Bishop d1 idea, it’s crazy, especially in such a moment, but yeah, I’m glad I at least managed to focus myself back onto the game and find the only drawing way."
After he found g6, he found a series of only moves to maintain parity. Van Foreest, who had won two of his last three games here, kept setting more landmines in the hope of winning but the German was upto it. "All the trouble that was caused were purely caused by myself, but yeah, it was certainly the most dangerous moment," he added.
But those few minutes — he had to make five only moves in seven in the endgame to keep the game level — was, in a microcosm, his tournament. Outside of the first game against Nihal Sarin where he had an accuracy of 84.8% (Sarin's was below 82%), his accuracy has been hovering 94% or over. At a super tournament where there's no second time control, that's very impressive. "I felt good here," he said. "I managed to get good sleep. The preparation was nice, and also worked out nicely. And of course, it’s important to have a good start, because once you have a good start, you get a good feeling. Things are just happening more naturally, which is especially important in a shorter time control, because then you can rely more on intuition and save some time there, which usually matters in the end."
What kind of player is he? He relies more on intuition — from that standpoint, more Magnus Carlsen than Gukesh — a point Anish Giri made. It's something Keymer himself had said before the tournament began. "I think we are quite different chess players," the 20-year-old had said. "So, what works for him doesn't necessarily work for me. But, of course, it's interesting to see a different perspective on chess and I do believe that I saw some things which I could use for my own purposes as well, yeah."
Over the next few months, the German, who called this win as the most important Classical title of his fledgling career, can rubber-stamp his entry to the Candidates. If and when he gets there, he will be gunning for the crown he helped place on Gukesh's head.
Results (Rd 8)
Masters
Karthikeyan Murali drew with Nihal Sarin, V Pranav drew with Ray Robson, Vincent Keymer drew with Jorden van Foreest, Anish Giri drew with Awonder Liang, Arjun Erigaisi drew with Vidit Gujrathi
Challengers
Adhiban Baskaran bt Harshavardhan GB, Leon Luke Mendonca drew with P Iniyan, Abhimanyu Puranik bt Diptayan Ghosh, Aryan Chopra bt R Vaishali, M Pranesh bt D Harika