Sasikiran Wins Bavarian Open as Svane Takes Second on Tiebreak

Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran won the 29th Open International Bavarian Chess Championship in Gmund am Tegernsee, finishing on 7½/9 and taking first place on tiebreaks. The nine-round Swiss ran from 31 October to 8 November at Gut Kaltenbrunn and drew 548 players.

Three others matched his score: German GMs Frederik Svane and Roven Vogel, and Indian FM Arun Daakshin. The first tiebreak, the average rating of opponents, favoured Sasikiran.

Svane took second, Vogel third and Daakshin fourth. For how those criteria work, see our explainer on Swiss tiebreaks.

A leaderboard reshuffled

Saturday’s round eight left nine players tied on 6½/8. Top seed Svane beat G.N. Gopal with White, and Alexander Donchenko, Leonardo Costa and Vogel also won.

Sasikiran stayed in the group by drawing second seed Jaime Santos.

Gopal had led outright after round six.

Black sweeps the top boards

In the last round Black won on boards one to four. Sasikiran, on board four against German IM Adrian Gschnitzer, found kingside attacking chances. Gschnitzer closed the centre on move 20, which let the Indian GM build pressure without real counterplay.

A blunder on move 25 was punished by a rook sacrifice on f3, and Gschnitzer resigned soon after. Because Sasikiran had the best tiebreak among the leaders, a win guaranteed first place whatever happened elsewhere. The 45-year-old from Chennai finished with a performance rating of 2675.

Svane denies a norm

On board one, Svane played the Exchange French as Black against Turkish IM Eray Kilic. The position was symmetrical and offered little at first. Kilic needed only a draw for his final GM norm and defended accurately for long stretches.

A rook endgame with passed pawns on both sides followed. Kilic erred in the pawn race, and Svane converted after 92 moves.

Vogel and Daakshin

Vogel, 26 and a former world under-16 champion, beat Donchenko in a King’s Indian structure. Donchenko declined a repetition shortly before the time control despite being short of time. The complications that followed favoured Vogel.

Daakshin, 17 and rated 2341 at the start, beat reigning German champion Leonardo Costa on board three. Costa’s ambitious kingside play let Daakshin plant a strong knight in the centre, and Daakshin then opened lines against the white king on the queenside.

Below the top four

Gopal bounced back from the Svane loss by beating American IM Evan Park and finished fifth on 7. Rithvik Raja, Elham Amar and English IM Sohum Lohia also scored 7. Donchenko and Costa ended on 6½ after their final-round defeats.

Polish IM Klaudia Kulon was the top woman on 6½, ahead of WGM Kateryna Dolzhykova on tiebreaks. Svenja Butenandt was third on 6 and secured a WIM norm by drawing GM Mathias Womacka.

S Midilesh M earned an IM norm by beating Georg Seul in the last round, finishing on 6½. In the senior category, 62-year-old IM Dieter Morawietz won on tiebreaks with 6, ahead of Womacka and Martin Forchert.