How Sutovsky won the Biel Masters 2015

by Dorsa Derakhshani

Strong Indian grandmaster and defending champion B. Adhiban welcomes you to Biel

Biel-Bienne city lies on the boundary of French and German speaking Switzerland. It is as expensive
and as magically green and blue as all other Swiss cities.

Captured in a train from Geneva to Biel… I just couldn’t stop myself!

A very beautiful river cutting through the middle of the town all over to the amazing lake is what makes this city so fascinating.

Russian GM Alexander Raetsky has participated in Biel MTO more than 20 times!

The amazing Biel lake

Russian born GM Alexander Donchenko with his father IM Anatoly Donchenko,
both of them participating in Biel MTO for the sixth time. Alexander’s mother is
also a chess player! They moved to Germany when Alexander was four years
old. He learned chess from his grandmother though.

The fantastic four! (left to right): GM Adhiban, WFM Cecile Haussernot who
achieved a WIM norm here, new GMs Alexander Donchenko (fifth on rating
list on Under 18) , and Denis Wagner (fourth on the rating list under 18)

In front of a beautiful church. Look closely to see Donchenko punching Bok!

The Turkish players at the lake front. From left to right : GM Emre Can , GM Mustafa Yilmaz ,
GM Dragan Solak (winner of this year’s Dubai open) and GM Baris Esen.

Talented Polish Grandmaster Kamil Dragun in the center of town near the tournament poster

The Biel Masters Open was held simultaneously with the GM tournament from the 18th to 31st of July 2015. It was an eleven-round Swiss event.

The Palais des Congrès (convention center) was the playing venue

A nice setting - the grandmasters tournament on the dais and other events below with seats for the viewers

Alexander Moiseenko was the top seed and the only player above 2700
in the tournament but finished thirteenth with a score of 7.0/11

The top three finishers of the tournament: Emil Sutovsky (first), B. Adhiban (second)
and Tigran Gharamian (third)

Emil Sutovsky started as the ninth seed in the event. He played a very
solid tournament with five wins and six draws. His scalps included strong
players like Baris Esen, Mateusz Bartel and the eventual runner-up B.Adhiban.

Sutovsky’s favourite game from the tournament was his eighth round win against Bartel. After the tournament I was able to ask Emil a few questions about this game. His insightful answers give us an idea of what’s going on in the mind of one of the best attacking players of our generation.

Here are the first few moves of the game:

DD: In the above position you went in for the typical Sutovsky unclear sacrifice. Did you calculate the lines until the end or you played more on your feel for the position?

ES: Well, I couldn't calculate it all when I first saw the position, and played it partly relying on my intuition and experience with these kind of sacrifices. However, the first time I saw this position was several years ago, when I got it in the game against GM Alexander Onischuk (Poikovsky 2010). And I was very surprised when Mateusz opted for the same line. Of course, I didn't remember the exact lines here, and it was possible that he prepared an improvement on that game, but I still dared to sacrifice the knight!

It has to be said, that I didn't expect this particular line to occur in the game against Bartel, and it was sort of a tough psychological decision.

DD: And here you moved your bishop all the way back to c1. Wasn’t Bf4 or Qc1 more natural?

ES: Well, it was all the part of a long plan, starting several moves earlier: Nf3-d4-e2 (and later e2-f4) - so it is not about the move Bc1 alone. If there is a reason to be proud of this game, then it'd be rather about this plan, rather than some tactical shots, that were not exceptionally complex.

DD: It truly is a wonderful game!

ES: I liked it too, but in the "game of the month" contest it would hardly be able to compete with Navara's king's voyage to h8 or Wei Yi's combination against Bruzon!

It’s not a pleasant feeling to lose a beautiful tactical game against Sutovsky

(Ed: We have an in-depth interview with Emil Sutovsky waiting for you which will be published in a day where Emil answers a lot of questions such as whether he is a modern day Tal, did music influence his style of chess, his deep preparation in the Grunfeld Defence and of course his role as the ACP President.)

The runner-up of the event B.Adhiban

Fresh from his success at the Benasque open, Adhiban came here as the defending champion. He started off well and was on 5.0/6. But a seventh round loss to Daniel Fridman followed by a loss to Sutovsky in the ninth dealt a flow to his successful championship defense. In spite of the two losses he scored 8.0/11 and finished with the same score as the winner. The most impressive thing about Adhiban was his performance with the black pieces – 5.0/5! With wins against Nezad (2405), Cherniaev (2483), Wagner (2569), Yilmaz (2582) and Fier (2628).

After winning the Benasque Open, Adhiban sent us a beautifully commented game. The readers are in for a treat as Adhiban has once again sent us an annotated game with the words, “Sending my favourite game from Biel with my trademark attacking style!”

On the receiving end of a brilliant attack – Alexander Fier

Final standings after eleven rounds

Complete standings of 78 players

Official website