NICK BARNETT CHESS

IMAGINE THIS: ‘you are 13 years old, looking for ways to increase your rating and gain some experience; you register to play in an Open with over seven-hundred players and find yourself as the 99th seed; you win the event against all odds and qualify to play in next year’s super-tournament; when the big event is about to begin, the drawing of lots pairs you up against the world champion right after he had one of the best performances of his career...’ (Chessbase.com)

This was the story of Vincent Keymer from Germany who won his place at that board ahead of 49 grandmasters, including four 2700+ GMs, scoring 8/9 and achieving his first GM norm. Leonard Barden noted that Keymer’s performance rating (2798) was the highest-rated performance in history by an under-14 player, and The Week in Chess said Keymer’s performance at the Grenke Chess Open is ‘one of the most sensational results of all time.’

The game against Carlsen ended in a win for the champion but young Keymer made him work for six hours and forty two minutes! That, and the fact that Keymer had a promising middlegame position and later was close to a draw, showed the talent of the 14-yearold International Master.

The top ten participants at Grenke include a satisfyingly cosmopolitan bunch: Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 2845; Fabiano Caruana (United States) 2819; Viswanathan Anand (India) 2774; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 2773; Levon Aronian (Armenia) 2763; Peter Svidler (Russia) 2735; Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan) 2695; Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain) 2693; Georg Meier (Germany) 2628; Vincent Keymer (Germany) 2516.

SOME interesting audio-visual explorations:

• www.grenkechessclassic.de Click on pairings and standings to follow the progress of the tournament.

• An interesting interview with Keymer and his coach Peter Leko just after he had won entry into the Grenke, is on Youtube: Chess Dream Team Interview.

• An analysis of the Carlsen-Keymer game on www. chess.com Search for 2019 grenke-chess-classic-round-1 IN MARCH the world chess family got a new member: St. Vincent & The Grenadines launched the country’s Chess Federation (“SVGCF”).

THANKS. I am grateful to my readers for sharing their appreciation for the column, as Daan le Roux did about the one in the Star last Saturday (20th). I am even grateful when they point out mistakes, which he did, noting that the solution to the puzzle I posted was incorrect. Explanation: The book I use had a mistake and I had an internet problem on deadline which made due diligence difficult, so apologies to all who spent time puzzling!

Daan tells me he has taught all his grandchildren, passing on the invaluable lessons that chess teaches everyone.

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PUZZLE BY EN Frankenstein