At one point during his match against Dutch GM Jorden Van Foreest, Vincent Keymer sat with his face buried in his hands. A moment later, his cheeks had turned scarlet and he was visibly shaking in his chair. After 44 moves with the clock ticking towards three-hours, Van Foreest got off his chair and took a stroll inside the playing hall. In those nervy couple of minutes, the German thought all the good work he had done through the course of the Chennai Grand Masters was falling apart.
According to the engine, the situation was so pivotal that the second best available move would have seen him lose then and there. But Keymer had the nerves to find the right resources to salvage a draw that took his tally points to 6 which gave him the Chennai Grand Masters title with one more round to go on Friday.
As Keymer left the playing hall, his title wasn’t sealed. Karthikeyan Murali, who could match Keymer with a win, was still battling it with Nihal Sarin when Keymer was busy signing autographs with his ears glued to the commentators. After 10-odd minutes post his game ending, as Karthikeyan and Nihal shook hands, and with the commentators going berserk, Keymer would finally nod his head in affirmation of the title to his father. For the 20-year-old, who came here with the sole goal of going all the way, it was a vindication of his beliefs.
“It’s very important,” the 20-year-old said of the title. “I think it’s the strongest classical tournament I ever won, and also winning it with one round to go, and quite some distance is really, really nice. I’m just going to try to not ruin my performance tomorrow, and then I can really call it a very nice tournament. That will really leave a good feeling for the upcoming events. In terms of classical chess, this is certainly one of my biggest assets,” he said.
Having broken into the top-10 on Wednesday, this victory is a major shot in the arm for the German who is dreaming of bigger things at the World Cup later this year.
Keymer’s strong start
After arriving early in the city to get acclimatised – something he is planning to do later in Goa for the World Cup – Keymer got off to a strong start and from there on he has been able to consolidate his position at the top with minimal fuss. Looking back, Keymer believed having a strong start helped him in many ways. “I felt good here. 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 in the end matters,” he said.
Chennai isn’t new to him. He had been here for the Chess Olympiad and a year back around the same time, he was in the city again, this time as part of D Gukesh’s seconds for the World Chess Championship preparation.
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For a player who has huge aspirations, that he chose to be part of Gukesh’s seconds itself was quite telling. Provided with a rare opportunity, he wanted to learn what goes into preparation for the biggest event in chess. “Gukesh wrote me a message whether we could talk ahead of the Grand Chess Tour in Warsaw. And since we were both playing there, we could have a talk and he asked me to join his team for the world championship match. And, I was, of course, a bit hesitant because I have a full schedule myself and I had to make sure that I also keep my own chess career going. But I felt that we had quite good chemistry and it could be a very interesting experience, which it also was. And I don’t regret having taken that offer. It was 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,” he said.
Having not featured in much of Classical events recently, with World Cup around the corner, Keymer is beginning to find his feet again. While the World Cup is definitely part of the bigger plan, what is also in his sights is to make the Candidates cut and move on from being Gukesh’s second to his challenger.
“Will have to see. I will look at the standings and see, because you know, Pragg (R Praggnanandhaa), he kind of won so many top events that depending on which events are there, it might not be enough for me even to win Opens which are difficult to win. So yeah, I will have to see the standings,” he said.
Keymer upon finding out this was the same venue which saw Magnus Carlsen being crowned world champion for the first time, wanted to have a look at the swimming pool where the Norwegian jumped after beating Viswanathan Anand. If he finishes the Chennai Grand Masters event on a high note on Friday, he may well repeat the scene.
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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.
