Allan Stig Rasmussen wins 2021 Danish Championship
GM Allan Stig Rasmussen came out on top of the 2021 Danish Championship, earning his fifth national title. The 2021 Danish Chess Championship, a 10-player round-robin with classical time control, was held in Svendborg from October 16-24. As the tournament fate would have it, the winner of the event was determined in the final round in the game between the leader Rasmussen and GM Sune Berg Hansen, who was a half-point behind. Trying to complicate matters, Hansen opted for a risky line of Alekhine Defence with Black only to find himself in a precarious position by move 18. Apparently, Rasmussen was not in the mood to take any chances as he forced a draw by threefold repetition to secure the title. Hansen and Rasmussen engaged in a post mortem GM Jesper Sondergaard Thybo, the only participant to beat the champion, was in the run for the top position in the standings for most of the event, but the penultimate round defeat at the hands of IM Nikolaj Borge left him out in the cold. To his credit, Jesper pulled himself together and clinched silver after crushing IM Jens Ove Fries-Nielsen in the final round. Jesper Sondergaard Thybo won silver Sune Berg Hansen scored an equal amount of points with Thybo but had to settle for bronze due to inferior tiebreaks. Final standings: 1 GM Rasmussen, Allan Stig 2566 7 2 GM Thybo, Jesper Sondergaard 2602 6½ 3 GM Hansen, Sune Berg 2528 6½ 4 GM Schandorff, Lars 2458 6 5 IM Borge, Nikolaj 2381 4 6 GM Chatalbashev, Boris 2536 4 7 IM Fries-Nielsen, Jens Ove 2378 4 8 IM Haubro, Martin 2426 3 9 IM Antonsen, Mikkel 2409 2½ 10 FM Rewitz, Poul 2264 1½ Official website: skak-dm.dk/Photo: Mads Boe