“It would have been better if Vincent Keymer had reached the Candidates Tournament instead of Matthias Blübaum.” This sentence was regularly circulated among German fans. Even the German Chess Federation (DSB) took off on his website with a look at his two best grandmasters. The “dress rehearsal” could ensure that this perspective changes on the 64 fields: Blübaum had proclaimed this as the illustrious field in Wijk aan Zee. The traditional top tournament on the Dutch coast can also be described as the “Wimbledon of chess”, as almost all of the greats have made their way onto the winners’ list there.
So far, Blübaum has only been allowed once to play in the “Challenger” in Wijk aan Zee. The fact that the 28-year-old from Lemgo has now moved up from the B to the A tournament is thanks to the world number 43. his sensational success at the Grand Swiss tournament in Samarkand. The two-time individual European champion ensured “the finest hour of German chess,” as the DSB celebrated on its website after the “historic success”: Blübaum qualified for the World Cup Candidates Tournament in Uzbekistan in second place. In Cyprus, eight grandmasters will determine the challenger to Indian world champion Dommaraju Gukesh from March 28th. The last German to play was a year ago late legend Robert Hübner 1991 in a candidates tournament.
Keymer also performed well in Samarkand, but missed out on victory in a direct duel with Blübaum. The 21-year-old narrowly failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The fact that German chess fans are more likely to trust the Baden-Baden Bundesliga player to grab the World Cup crown than Blübaum is due to his meteoric rise: Keymer has climbed further and further in the world rankings since September. His enormous successes took him to fourth place. Even world champion Gukesh is five places behind him.
For the first time there are two German participants in the top field of 14
The chess-crazy Dutch couldn’t ignore Keymer as a participant. The fact that they also invited Blübaum to the 14-member Tata Steel Masters was a novelty at the 88th edition of the festival: for the first time, two Germans were allowed to take part. Because three participants in the World Cup Candidates Tournament as well as the world champions are competing on the North Sea coast, Blübaum sees the traditional competition as a good “dress rehearsal”: The thinking time of two hours for 40 moves is like in Cyprus. Additional time additions only occur from move 41 onwards.
Even in Wijk aan Zee, no one in Wijk aan Zee believed that the mathematician, who only ventured into the professional chess business after completing his studies, could achieve great things. On Twitch he also goes by the reserved and humorous name of “Not a Very Strong Player,” as another German grandmaster once classified him.
The humorous Bundesliga player has no problem with being in Keymer’s shadow. But the 28-year-old was secretly pleased that he turned his nose at all the skeptics on Monday: after two opening draws, Blübaum beat his top-seeded national teammate in the third round. With the disadvantage of the black stones, the modest grandmaster “honestly didn’t necessarily expect that,” he admitted and was pleased, “that makes it all the more beautiful.”
Keymer recovers
With two points, the outsider was suddenly at the top. The highly traded Keymer, on the other hand, lost his second game in a row. The Palatinate resident, who now lives in Vienna, was at the back of the field with just one point. At the start, the world number four defeated Anish Giri. The Dutchman, who also qualified for the Candidates Tournament, got off to an even weaker start than Keymer. However, the top German player recovered and celebrated his second win against the Indian Aravindh Chithambaram, which puts him back in the middle of the field with 2.5 points. Keymer can still equalize the one point deficit in the remaining eight rounds to Hans Moke Niemann (USA) and the Uzbeks Javohir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (all 3.5) in direct duels.
Blübaum also realized in the fourth game that the trees don’t grow into the sky. With White he missed a brilliant knight sacrifice from Sindarov. The 20-year-old gave the competitor a foretaste of the Candidates Tournament, in which the Uzbek also takes part as World Cup winner. With 2.5 points, Blübaum is still lying in wait. And a fundraising campaign proves that the fans really like him: 23,000 euros were raised in crowdfunding to pay his coach and seconds for the World Cup candidate tournament.