Not much was missing and with Vincent Keymer a German chess player would have qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Cup. Keymer still has to wait – but he has reached the top 20 in the world rankings.
Fifth at the Grand Swiss Tournament, missed qualification for the Candidates Tournament: What chess player Vincent Keymer achieved at the weekend sounds unspectacular at first. Accordingly, little is reported about the performance of Germany’s greatest chess talent.
Keymer has long been more than a promise for the future
But the impression is deceptive. In fact, Keymer showed in a top-class tournament that he is now part of the world’s best in chess and that it is probably only a matter of time before he actually qualifies for a World Chess Championship.
The top 100 in the world were at the tournament Isle of Manan island in the Irish Sea, – Keymer ended up fifth, ahead of players who were considered potential world champions in the past (Firouzja, Aronian) or who have already played for the World Cup several times (Giri, Caruana).
Elo performance over 2800
His rating, i.e. his playing strength, was over eleven gamesperformance, at 2,801. So just under Magnus Carlsen-level – and he has dominated the chess world at will over the past decade. Thanks to his strong performance, Keymer moved up eight places in the world rankings and is ranked 18th, higher than ever before.
Since his sensational second place at the World Rapid Chess Championship a year ago, Keymer has developed further. If he has gained a lead in a game, he now usually really uses it to win, whereas in the past he was often unable to capitalize on winning positions. What is striking is how quickly he can put his opponents under pressure when he is allowed to open a game with the white pieces.
With the white pieces, Keymer seems almost unbeatable
Keymer won four of his six games at the Grand Swiss tournament with white – particularly impressively against the Indian Nihal Sarin, who gave up after just 30 moves. Keymer still plays rather slowly and is often under time pressure – but he is now using his time even better to recognize the decisive moves in the game. Against Sarin, Keymer took a good ten minutes to then use the knight to capture a pawn in the center – Sarin then tried to throw the German off his game with a queen sacrifice, but after the decisive move, the Saulheim player brought the game quickly and home safely.
“He’s almost the best player in the world with white, he wins an incredible amount with it.”analyzed chessstreamer Georgios Souleidis aka “The Big Greek” on Youtube. Big words that no one shakes their head about anymore after Keymer’s rapid development. The 18-year-old’s style has become more aggressive, and he now often puts his opponents under early pressure, especially with white. All that’s missing is that he wins more victories on the defensive with the black stones – then there seems to be no limit for Keymer.
Keymer still doesn’t see himself as one of the world’s best
“Very satisfied” he was with his performance, Keymer told the sports show. Keymer only lost one game against the Russian Andrey Esipenko – Esipenko, in third place, narrowly missed out on one of the first two places, which would have been enough for a starting place in the Candidates Tournament. He got a good draw, said Keymer. In addition, he would have had many opponents, “who were also interested in a big fight. So the chance arose for me to win all of these games against strong opponents like Korobov, Sarin and Fedoseev.”
Arrived at the top of the world? Keymer hasn’t seen himself going that far in the past and he continues to be cautious: “For me, the absolute best in the world is actually the top 10, but it’s very important to me to see that I continue to improve, that my work is paying off and that the top 10 isn’t that far away anymore.”
Keymer is successful – but is still looking for sponsors
It is all the more astonishing that his search for a main sponsor has not always been successful, as Keymer recently confessed to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Since his special funding from the German Chess Federation could also be shaky because the association is in major financial difficulties, Keymer is dependent on good tournaments. The $30,000 prize money from the Grand Swiss is worth its weight in gold.
His Elo rating is now 2,733, just four points behind Arkadij Naiditisch’s German record. Keymer should catch up with this very soon. He has proven that his reputation as the greatest German chess talent since Emanuel Lasker is justified – and he was world chess champion for 27 years.
Candidates Tournament 2024? Not impossible, but unlikely
Keymer probably won’t even be able to fight for the world title in 2024. There are still two places available for the candidates tournament in spring 2024, where the challenger to world champion Ding Liren is being sought. But they go to the best in the world rankings, in which some are still ahead of the German. And also in the overall ranking of this year’s chess tournaments, the so-called “FIDE circuit“, Keymer is rather behind in 14th place.
Which is also due to the fact that, unlike many of his competitors, he German Masters couldn’t collect any points – as this is not listed as a national championship. The German Chess Federation would now like to change that. Possibly already until the next edition in December in Rosenheim. If that works, Keymer manages to triumph there and can do just as well at the World Rapid Chess Championship shortly afterwards as he did in 2022, then the Candidates Tournament could become concrete after all. A lot of subjunctive, but dreaming has long been allowed with Vincent Keymer.