Latest news with #VincentKeymer
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First Post
16-06-2025
- Sport
- First Post
Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess wins World Blitz Team Championship in controversial fashion: 'This whole appeal thing was a mess'
Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess won the World Blitz Team Championship for second time in the row but their victory came after an appeal drama which saw one of the ties in the quarter-finals being replayed. read more World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess won the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship on Sunday for a second time in a row. However, their victory didn't come without a controversy as Vincent Keymer's Germany and Friends defeated WR Chess 4-2 in the quarter-finals, with Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja and Nakamura all losing, but the result was later annulled after an appeal. WR Chess's appeal was regarding some of their players coming late to the matches, as the organisers forgot to announce the start time. In fact, some of the players from the WR Chess team were almost two minutes late for the three-minute blitz games. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'They always put the start time in this captains' admin group that we have, and this time the last communication was that 15:17 is when the line-ups are due, which was written at 15:15, and after that nothing, so we were waiting for the start time to be in the group. Nothing happened, we went, but you can't put the last communication 15:17, line-ups are due, and then start 15:22 without informing us. It's a fairly obvious case, in my opinion,' said WR Chess team captain Jan Gustafsson, while explaining the whole situation. WR Chess' victory leads to controversy Russian Grandmaster Nepomniachtchi, who represented WR Chess, was relieved that the match was replayed, but he wasn't impressed with how the decision was made. 'This whole appeal thing was a mess, to be honest, and I wasn't sure if the appeal would be successful or not. Eventually they allowed us to replay the match, but I don't think there was a good decision.' Germany and Friends' player Bohdan Lobkin believed the decision would have been different if his team had been the one making the appeal. After Germany and Friends accepted the annulment, WR Chess won 4.5-1.5 and 4-2. They then defeated Hexamind Chess Team in the semi-finals and KazChess in the final to win the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship 2025. Arjun Erigaisi's Team MGD1, who won the World Rapid Team Championship, lost to Hexamind in the quarter-finals. After a 3-3 draw, Hexamind clinched a 4-2 victory in the next round.
Hindustan Times
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Magnus Carlsen: The undisputed king of Freestyle
Bengaluru: Vincent Keymer twirled a captured white pawn between his fingers. The 20-year-old German knew it was over. Sitting across from him, Magnus Carlsen surveyed the board, content with his spoils. Keymer resigned, the spectators' arena erupted in applause, and Carlsen was soon swallowed by the crowd of waiting fans. The world No.1 Norwegian had made history – winning the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open with a perfect 9/9 score. A performance that will perhaps be spoken of in the same breath as Bobby Fischer's brilliant 11/11 at the 1963-64 US Championships, and might even be seen as one that surpasses it. It's only fitting that Carlsen's flawless win came in the Fischer Random or Chess 960 format – one that was conceived by Fischer as a pushback against the thrust on theory, memorisation and preparation in chess. 'I haven't done this before and I'm not going to be able to do it again, that's for sure,' a pleased Carlsen said moments after, 'so it's just incredible. Of course, I knew coming in today (Sunday) that there was a chance, but I didn't really believe it until the very end when it was certain. It's just relief and joy…it's the kind of performance that you don't get to experience very often or basically ever.' Carlsen's Grenke win with a €60,000 prize check comes less than a week after he won the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, without needing a tiebreak through the knockout stage. What makes Carlsen's feat astounding is his dominance irrespective of format – classical, rapid, blitz, and now, Fischer Random, which was supposed to be difficult and make for a level playing field in the absence of opening theory to fall back on. He stepped away from classical chess and chose not to defend his world title (after winning it five times), since presumably winning no longer seemed fun and preparation, cumbersome. He turned to Fischer Random for unpredictability, chaos, and a fresh frontier to conquer. 'Carlsen is making the same mistake in his new game as he made in chess,' Grandmaster Anish Giri wrote on X in his typical wry style, 'He is completing it too quickly.' 'I played just one 2700 plus player, it should be mentioned,' said Carlsen, 'It's such a tough tournament, playing two games a day against so many hungry players. 'I didn't really think about it (scoring 9/9), until after I won my game against Parham (Maghsoodloo). Then I thought well, I'm not going to get a better chance than this. This (achievement) is way up there. It's the kind of thing I aim for these days.' He had scored 9/9 in the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia 2023, in blitz. But a flawless score in the chess960 classical time control, should hit differently. Carlsen's aura was hard to miss in the tournament. Ahead of his game against eight-time French champion Etienne Bacrot, Carlsen was met with an unusual request. Bacrot pulled out his phone and clicked a selfie with Carlsen as the arbiter waited patiently. Both before and after games in the German city of Karlsruhe, Carlsen was surrounded and followed by crowds, hunting for autographs and selfies. 'There's nowhere to hide,' Carlsen smiled, 'That's why I don't play too many of these (open) tournaments.' Before the ninth and final round began, German entrepreneur and founder of the Freestyle series Jan Henrik Buettner was in attendance in the playing hall. Keymer, who won the year's first Freestyle event in Weissenhaus, appeared to be putting up a brave fight and the position seemed equal before he ran into time trouble and the game slipped away from his hands. 'The last game (against Keymer) was a bit of a slugfest,' said Carlsen, 'I was mainly trying to hang in for most of the game. He got down on time, I took my chances and that's how history was made.' Carlsen had already won the Grenke event with a round to spare before his result against Keymer saw him speedrunning it to perfection. 'It's very nice to sit at the board and know that I'm really going to enjoy the process of playing a game because that doesn't always happen when I play tournaments... I'm playing for the joy of the game and these little achievements are a bonus even if it's a huge one.'
