The tournament favourite, GM Gerald Hertneck, (right) beat IM Cliff Wichmann in the 3rd round of the Äskulap-Turnier here in Görlitz to make it 3 points. He has white against IM Paul Hoffmann tomorrow morning.
Till Heistermann (left) from Leipzig plays a strong tournament. In the 3rd round he beat the Ukraine GM Vladimir Sergeev with the white pieces.Till has black against the Polish IM Kamil Stachowiak in the 4th round Friday morning.
Pål Røyset (right) won also in the 3rd round and has 2,5 points. Tomorrow Pål has black against Julian Nöldner. I have 2 points after drawing Kerstin Arnhold. I have white against Hugo Post in the 4th round. A win would be nice…The round starts 8.30.
Pål Røyset (right) opened his winning account in the 2nd round of the Äskulap-Turnier here in Görlitz. Pål pushed against Clemens Beyer and got rewarded.Pål was just to the barber getting a haircut and so we will see two shortcutted Norwegian players in the next rounds.Pål has white against Axel Schroedter in the 3rd round.
The experienced GM Ilmars Starostits (right) won in fine style against Marcus Ramlow in the 2nd round. He has white against FM Karsten Schulz from Schwerin in the 3rd round 15.00.
I made a draw against Elisa Silz and have 1,5 points as Pål. I play black against Kerstin Arnhold in the 3rd round.
Pål Røyset (right) started the Äskulap-Turnier with a draw as white against Mathias Würsig. Pål sacrificed a bishop on f7 as white in a pirc. His opponent moved his king to f8. If he had accepted the offer, Pål would have soon won in big style. Later Pål overlooked some of Würzig`s moves. Würzig won two pawns but was satisfied to draw with one pawn extra and a much better position. Pål could be happy not to lose this game against this 1800-player who offered me draw 4(!) times last year before I told him enough is enough. Pål has black against Clemens Beyer tomorrow. He is not so good as Würzig. Normally Pål should win this game.
I had to fight hard to win against Dave Mövisch. He played very good for quite a long time, but made a mistake before the time control and I could counter attack with check on f2. Soon after I mated him on f6 with my knight. I have white against Elisa Silz tomorrow. I expect a sicilian duell.
The winner from 2017, GM Gerald Hertneck (right) won in the opening round.He has white against Florian Schmekel tomorrow morning. A good winning chance for Gerry.
Thursday has two rounds, 8.30 and 15.00. Follow the tournament on the homepage. Photos:Joachim Solberg and Pål Røyset
I morgen starter Äskulap-turneringen i Görlitz ved den polske grensen i Sachsen. Pål Røyset (t.v.) er meldt ankommet i Tyskland og i morgen reiser vi det siste stykket fra Leipzig og til grensebyen Görlitz. Vi er begge tente på oppgaven og målsettingen er ratingfremgang og pengepremie. Det skal spilles 7 runder i Jugendhaus Wartburg før en vinner er klar. Tittelforsvareren GM Gerald Hertneck er ratingfavoritt, men flere polske IMer og GM Mikhail Ivanov er påmeldt. 1.runde starter onsdag kl.17. 7.runde går lørdag kl.14. Jeg kommer med daglige rapporter fra våre kamper i den tyske påskesjakkmetropolen.
The candidates tournament in Berlin finished today after hard fighting. GM Fabiano Caruana (left) will challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship match in London in November. Caruana beat Grischuk today and secured the victory. He made impressive 9 points in 14 rounds, +4. GM Sergej Karjakin and GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov shared 2nd place with 8 points after drawing Ding and Kramnik in the last round.Ding took 4th place with 7,5 points. Grischuk and Kramnik followed on 5th and 6th places with 6,5 points. So followed on 7th place with 6 points and Aronian was last after a very disappointing tournament only managing 4,5 points. Play through the games in ChessBomb.
Today I travelled from Leipzig to Berlin with my good friend, Dr.Sören Bär, to watch the exciting 13th round of the candidates tournament in chess in the Kühlhaus in the German capital.We bought some hot chocolate and coffee in Cafe Bonjour before we were let in at 14.00.
Here is Sören outside the playing hall. Two hours before start in the Kühlhaus which lie a bit away from civilization in Berlin.
I was caring a photo apparat, ready to make shots of the top players in the candidates.
Here we can see Caruana vs Aronian from the 2nd floor. Caruana won this game as white in an anti -Marshall and is now the favourite to challenge Magnus in London in November. Caruana leads Mamedyarov and Karjakin with half a point before the final on Tuesday. Mame beat Grischuk today while Karjakin played a quick draw against So with the black pieces,
After the games finished it was time for the pressconference. Here we see Aronian, press chief Anatasia Karlovich and GM Fabiano Caruana discussing their game and answering questions from the audience.
The last game to finish was the game between GM Diren Ling and GM Vladimir Kramnik. Here we see them discuss their game in the press conference with press chief Anastasia Karlovich. Kramnik had winning chences, but he had too long smoking breaks. Very stupid. Smoking destroys your health, and that of other people. It also destroys your chess. The moral is: Don`t smoke. It is just stupid! Tuesday the tournament finishes with the games Karjakin-Liren, Grischuk-Carauana,Kramnik-Mamedyarov and Aronian-So. Follow the games live from 15.00 on ChessBomb or Chess24.
Driton Jashari (t.h.) vant fredagens klubbmesterskapsfinalen i lynsjakk hos Sarpsborg SK. Gratulerer med nok et mesterskap, Driton! Shemsi Rukovci vant 2.runde av ÅLM, men i finalen om tittelen måtte han se seg slått av Driton. Bilder hos Sarpsborg Sjakklubb på FB.
