Sensation at the World Cup in Goa: German chess grandmaster Frederik Svane knocked out the reigning world champion Dommaraju Gukesh from the tournament. Grandmaster Vincent Keymer afterwards highlighted the extremely positive development of sport in Germany.
Chess grandmaster Frederik Svane pulled off a big surprise at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, India. The 21-year-old defeated reigning world champion Dommaraju Gukesh, currently number nine in the world, in two games 1.5:0.5. Svane himself is ranked 75th and is now in the round of the last 32 chess players.
After a draw in the first game, the German achieved a decisive victory in the second with the black pieces. In a knight final, he forced the 19-year-old Gukesh to give up despite being short on time.
“I’m really excited, I didn’t expect to win the game at all,” said an overjoyed Svane in an interview afterwards. “I was in a time crunch the whole game. But then he allowed the knight endgame, which was a very strange decision on his part. That was difficult to defend and easy for me to play.”
The Lübeck player admitted that he didn’t really know in advance what to expect against the world champion. “He can play anything. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be set for defeat after the opening, so I just played my game,” he explained.
Keymer: “That shows how much potential there is in German chess”
Meanwhile, Frederik Svane is not the only German player who made it into the top 32 at the FIDE World Cup. Germany’s best grandmaster Vincent Keymer (Elo 2755, No. 9 in the world rankings) won 1.5:0.5 against Munirethinam Pranesh, also Indian. Matthias Blübaum (Elo 2687), who recently sensationally qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Championship, defeated grandmaster Ivan Zemlyanskii with 1.5:0.5.
He now meets Alexander Donchenko (Elo 2641), who surprisingly defeated the Dutchman Anish Giri, who is more than 100 rating points stronger. “I’m very happy, I really didn’t expect that,” said the German afterwards. Giri is also taking part in the Candidates Tournament.
Vincent Keymer, who plays against either Andrey Esipenko or Pouya Idani, was generally pleased with the good performance of the German grandmasters. “This shows how much potential there is in German chess. We have a lot of young players and will have a good chance at the next Olympics.”