7/22/2013 – One of today's games, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Richard Rapport, ended after a repetition on move 22. A quick draw, right? Wrong, it was in fact a very interesting game that deserves to be looked at quite carefully. The other two draws are similarly not uninteresting by any standard. We bring you games, pictures, video analysis and interviews in big round one report.
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GM
Tournament in memoriam Olivier Breisacher
The GM tournament this year is in memory of Olivier
Breisacher, who for more than 15 years looked after the organisation,
reporting and external communications around the grandmasters tournament
in Biel. The tournament is a ten-round double round robin, played from July
22nd to August 1st, with games starting at 2 p.m. local time. Here are the
participants:
No.
Player
Country
Birth date
Rating
w-rank
1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
France
21.10.1990
2719
26
2
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Russia
14.07.1990
2717
27
3
Etienne Bacrot
France
22.01.1983
2714
29
4
Ding Liren
China
24.10.1992
2714
30
5
Alexander Moiseenko
Ukraine
17.05.1980
2699
47
6
Richard Rapport
Hungary
25.03.1996
2693
54
Round one report
22.07.2013 14:00: Round 1
Ian Nepomniachtchi
-
Etienne Bacrot
½ - ½
(46)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
-
Richard Rapport
½ - ½
(22)
Alexander Moiseenko
-
Ding Liren
½ - ½
(41)
In the first three rounds of the Grandmaster Group of the Biel Chess tournament
there were three draws on day one. Etienne Bacrot (above) repeated a line
of the Queen's Gambit Exchange Variations he had played, unsuccessfully,
against Peter Svidler in Thessaloniki earlier this year. He won a pawn and
had a nice advantage but an exposed king, and the game finished after 45
moves in a draw.
Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in his game against
Bacrot
Richard Rapport (above) played the Birds Variation of the Ruy Lopez against
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The result was a short, sharp game which is definitely
worth replaying and studying.
Vachier-Lagrave (above) had an advantage until move 15, when Rapport found
the lovely sacrifice 15...Bxh3, after which the draw by repetition was forced.
Alexander Moiseenko played a rather seldom variation of the King's Indian
against Ding Liren, with the novelty (after a 1995 game) coming at move
17. After a complicated middlegame struggle the draw came immediately after
the time control.
Replay all games of the round
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
Video reports and analysis
GM Daniel King provides video analysis of Vachier-Lagrave-Rapport
GM Daniel King analyses with Vachier-Lagrave
and Rapport
GM Daniel Kingan analyses with Moiseenko and
Ding Liren
GM Daniel King analyses with Nepomniachtchi
and Bacrot
GM Daniel King Daily Report & Vachier-Lagrave
and Rapport Interview
Pictures from the press conference
Richard Rapport, 17, Hungary, 2693
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 23, France, 2719
Alexander Moiseenko, 33, Ukraine, 2699
Ding Liren, 20, China, 2714
Etienne Bacrot, 30, France, 2714
Ian Nepomniachtchi, 23, Russia, 2717
Photos by Pascal Simon for ChessBase
Opening ceremony
Drawing of lots on a lawn: Etienne Bacrot picks
a box with a start number
For those of you interested in the statue:
the offical web site calls this "Art in Twilight"
A simultaneous exhibition by Ian Nepomniachtchi
on Sunday...
... in the streets of the Swiss city of Biel
(French: Bienne)
Open air celebration of the start of the Biel
Chess Festival
Posing with giant pieces: Moiseenko, Nepomniachtchi,
Ding, Rapport
Swiss GM Jannick Pelletier interviewing Hungarian
GM Richard Rapport – in English
The official French language commentator Yannick
Pelletier
GMs Daniel King and Artur Jussupow commenting
live on Playchess in English
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on
the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client
there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase
12 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
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