German Keymer, who helped Gukesh become World Champion, eliminates Magnus Carlsen
Vincent Keymer defeated the World No. 1 in the semifinals of Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus.
Vincent Keymer defeated the World No. 1 in the semifinals of Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus.
Vincent Keymer defeated the World No. 1 in the semifinals of Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus.
Local star Vincent Keymer knocked out World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour semifinals at Weissenhaus in Germany.
The 20-year-old, who stunned the Norwegian superstar in their first game of the semifinals on Tuesday, secured a hard-fought draw in the decisive second game to advance to the final.
Keymer will take on World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in the title match. American Caruana had edged the dark horse, Javokhir Sindarov, in an armageddon tie-breaker. After four straight draws, Uzbek teenager Sindarov took the lead in the fifth game, but Caruana bounced back to level the tie in game six, forcing the decisive tie-breaker.
Meanwhile, Keymer's victory over Carlsen had many layers to it. One was that he avenged a loss to the Super Grandmaster in a thrilling Round 5 clash in the FIDE World Cup in 2023. Like here, Keymer had stunned Carlsen in their first game in Baku and needed just a draw to advance. But he lost the second game, and Carlsen scored the decisive victory at the end of a four-game tie-breaker before marching on to win the event.
The other interesting fact about the match was that Keymer was one of D Gukesh's seconds in his preparation to become the World Chess Champion in Singapore last December. Gukesh defeated Ding Liren of China in a thrilling 14-game battle.
After Gukesh became the youngest World Champion at 18, Keymer said in a social media post that he "enjoyed being stuck in Spain for three weeks" working with Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Pentala Harikrishna on openings to help the Indian in his match. Seconds are experts who help a player prepare specific ideas for mega events like World Championships.
Carlsen had schooled Gukesh in their first meeting since the World Championship when they played in round nine of the Freestyle Chess event last week.
Ahead of the decisive second game at Weissenhaus, Keymer was calm and told commentator David Howell that he wasn't considering the World Cup setback. Take Take Take quoted him as saying that he wants "to play better and not make stupid mistakes". "I just want to give him a very hard time creating winning chances," Keymer said.