Looking back: Biel

International Chess Festival in Biel

Recap

The Biel super tournament had a very exciting mix of players. The field had players that were all in their 20s, with the exception of Alexander Motylev who is 35. This made the rounds very exciting and lively, and almost in every one of them there was an unusual or unexpected result. This might have been aided by the fact that there was one player that was considerably lower rated than the rest: Hou Yifan, despite being World Women's Champion and a talented player was after all about 100 points lower than the average. With this need to win from her opponents it was clear that opportunities could arise.

The first taste of that was definitely in round one, when Giri thought he could simply crush the World Champion:

Women's World Champion Hou Yifan with an excellent +12 rating

Hou Yifan definitely had a memorable tournament. A combination of exploiting her opponent's mistakes and having some actual decent preparation in some games allowed her to have a magnificent tournament, despite a disappointing last round game against Harikrishna.

That being said, it was Vachier-Lagrave that stood as the tough guy throughout the entire event. He started strong and finished strong, his positional masterpiece against Giri definitely showed everyone in the tournament what he was capable of.

Vachier's positional style and solid preparation made him nearly invincible

Giri himself had a horrible start to the tournament. With losses against Hou Yifan in round one and to Harikrishna in round two it seemed as if he had no chance in the tournament at all. Yet his willpower did not let hiim down, and though he fell to MVL in round five after consecutive victories against Wojtaszek and Motylev he was able to safe quite a big of dignity in the vengeance round.

Giri was always dangerous, but never had chances to lead the event

Wojtaszek had an unusual tournament. Many of his games were quiet and not very exciting; actually out of all the players he had the largest amount of boring draws in the tournament, but somehow this was not so important as his results were consistent; what was important was that he struck when his opponent showed any sign of weakness.

With his quiet results Wojtaszek finished a deserved clear second

Speaking of Harikrishna it seemed that he always had good chances in his games, but was unable to capitalize. Whether it was time trouble or his inability to correctly guess his opponent's opening, it did seem that things didn't fully go the Indian's way. His final 50% score was decent, but he might have done better with just a little luck. That being said, he did put an end to Hou Yifan's dream of winning the tournament with a clean last round win:

Harikrishna will be a big player missing from the Olympiad, along with Anand

Last was Alexander Motylev. This is definitely another player that suffered from having good positions turn bad very quickly. He was better against Hou Yifan in both of their games but somehow he managed to lose both. His only win of the tournament was against Harikrishna in a Berlin that the Russian player understood much better, but it is possible Motylev might have scored at least 50% with just a little luck here and there.

3.5/10 is not a fair result for Motylev's play; but is chess fair?

Free Day

On the free day the players and some seconds went on a boat trip from Briel to Ligerz and took a cable car to Preles where they had dinner.

Motylev, Wojtaszek and the Polish player's girlfriend, Kashlinskaya, enjoying the off day

The winner of the open tournament enjoying the view; more on his win tomorrow!

And it was a spectacular view!

Small towns are perfect for relaxing free days

Hou Yifan never travels without her mother, unless its a team competition

Wang Qian, Yanick Pelletier, Hou Yifan and Baskaran Adhiban

Quiet relaxation in the country side

Overall Biel was an exciting and fun event. The tournament was close to the very end, and it is definitely fair to say that Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took home an important and deserved victory.

Look out tomorrow for a report on the Open section, which was also incredibly strong.

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Standings

Schedule

Links Official tournament site Download Games in PGN 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.