43rd Biel Chess Festival: Rounds two and three

From Monday, July 19 to Wednesday, July 28, 2010 the 43rd edition of the annual Biel Chess Festival will take place in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. It is a ten player round-robin, in which each player has to play one game against each other. The winner of this tournament will be determined after nine rounds. Games start at 14:00h = 2 p.m. local time (CEST, = 16:00 Moscow, 13:00 p.m. London, 8:00 a.m. New York). All games will be broadcast by the official web site's "Live Games" page and on the Playchess.com server.

The ten players in Biel (from left to right): Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana,
Maxim Rodshtein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky,
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.

Round 2

If one were to summarize the second round in a word, that word would be persistence. One would love to say that it was a sparkling display of mating attacks, strike and parry, or the like, but the game quality most consistently displayed by the young warriors, was Fischer-like persistence, with an indomitable desire to win, even if this was a battle of stamina and nerves, more than from any genuine positional advantage. Naturally, this wasn't purely the case, but it was symptomatic nonetheless.

In Caruana-Rodshtein, an exchange Gruenfeld was played in which White's strong central space and passed pawn were compensated for by the broken kingside. They played their sides consistently, until White's passed d7 pawn was offset by a perpetual check on move 25. Son's game against British hope Howell continued Howell's tendency to play offbeat openings, though nothing particularly zany this time, and the game remained mostly level throughout. So had a very different situation against Elo favorite Vachier-Lagrave when on move 40, his opponent slipped and found himself down an exchange with two pawns as compensation in a worse endgame but the reduced number of pawns made it impossible for him to convert, and he gave his efforts up on move 64.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave avoids the worst against Phillipine prodigy, Wesley So.

Anish Giri's game against Dmitry Andreikin was a real battle of nerves though.

Giri,A (2672) - Andreikin,D (2650) [A41]
YGM Biel SUI (2), 20.07.2010

1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 Bxf3 8.Bxf3 Nd4 9.Bxd4 exd4 10.Nd2 Nf6 11.0-0 0-0 12.Be2 Nd7 13.f4 Nc5 14.Qc2 Re8 15.Rae1 a5 16.Bd3 a4 17.Nf3 c6 18.Re2 cxd5 19.cxd5 Qa5 20.Qb1 Rac8 21.Rd1 Nd7 22.h3 b5 23.Bc2 Nb6 24.Rde1 Nc4 25.e5 Ne3 26.e6 f5 27.g4 b4 28.gxf5.

The young Russian has played very well and is close to winning now. Unfortunately, with 28...Rxc2? Black misses his chance to increase his advantage. Had he instead played 28...Nxd5! 29.f6 (29.fxg6?! Nxf4! 30.Rh2 Kh8 31.gxh7 a3 32.bxa3 d3! 33.Bd1 (If 33.Bxd3? Rc3 34.Be4 Qxa3 35.Rf1 d5-+ and either the bishop or knight is falling. or 33.Bb3 Qf5 34.Rf1 bxa3 35.Qe1 d5 and Rxe6 combined with the threats around the king are insurmountable.) ) 29...Nxf6 30.f5 Qd5! 31.Rf1 Rxc2 32.Rxc2 (32.Qxc2 d3) 32...Qxf5 33.Rg2 Qxe6-+ 29.Rxe3 Qc5 30.Rd3 gxf5 31.Nh4 b3 32.axb3 axb3 33.Qd1 Qxd5 34.Qf3 Qxf3? A serious mistake. Black had to play 34...Qa5 35.Kf1 Qb5 36.Kg1 Qb4 37.Kf1 Qc4 38.Nxf5 Rxe6 39.Rxe6 Qxe6 40.Qa8+ Kf7 41.Qa7+ Kg6 42.Qxg7+ (42.Nxg7 Qe2+ 43.Kg1 Qg2#) 42...Kxf5-/+ 35.Rxf3 And with 35...d3? Black is now worse. 36.Rxd3 Bxb2 37.Nxf5 Rc1 38.Rxc1 Bxc1 39.Rg3+ Kf8 40.e7+ Rxe7 41.Nxe7 b2 42.Rb3 Kxe7 43.Kf2 Bxf4 44.Rxb2 Kf6 45.Kf3 Be5 46.Rg2 Kf5 47.Rg8 h5 48.Rf8+ Kg6 49.Ke4 h4.

Even without the d-pawn, this position is a theoretical draw, and no fancy maneuvers required to hold it. So is the young Nepalese-Russian-Dutchman justified in pressing on? Unquestionably. The reason is psychological rather than a hope that his opponent is lacking in technique. After building up a huge position, to then miss more than one opportunity to put his opponent away, and now be forced to play an endgame down an exchange. More than one player has collapsed as a result, playing otherwise incomprehensible blunders they would never normally commit. Andreikin shows his ability to recover even after such an unpleasant turnaround, and holds his nerve while being forced to play on for the next 60 moves. 50.Kd5 Bg3 51.Ke6 Kg5 52.Rf5+ Kg6 53.Ra5 Be5 54.Ra4 Bg3 55.Rg4+ Kh6 56.Kf6 Be5+ 57.Kf7 Bg3 58.Rg6+ Kh7 59.Kf6 Be5+ 60.Kg5 Bf4+ 61.Kh5 Bg3 62.Rg4 Be1 63.Rf4 Kg7 64.Rf5 Bg3 65.Rf1 d5 66.Rd1 Kf6 67.Rxd5 Ke6 68.Rd1 Ke5 69.Rf1 Ke4 70.Rf8 Ke5 71.Kg6 Ke6 72.Re8+ Kd7 73.Re2 Kd6 74.Kf5 Kd5 75.Rd2+ Kc5 76.Ke6 Kc4 77.Rd5 Bh2 78.Rd8 Bg3 79.Rd5 Bh2 80.Rf5 Bg3 81.Kf6 Kd4 82.Rg5 Ke4 83.Ke6 Kd4 84.Ra5 Kc4 85.Ra8 Kd4 86.Rc8 Bh2 87.Rc1 Bg3 88.Rc2 Kd3 89.Rc1 Kd4 90.Rf1 Kc4 91.Rf5 Kd4 92.Ra5 Kc4 93.Ra4+ Kc5 94.Re4 Bf2 95.Re2 Bg3 96.Rd2 Kc4 97.Kf5 Kc5 98.Ke4 Kc6 99.Rd5 Bh2 100.Rh5 Bg3 101.Rh6+ Kc5 102.Rh5+ Kd6 103.Kd4 Bf2+ 104.Kd3 Bg3 105.Kc4 Ke6 106.Rh6+ Ke5 107.Kd3 Kd5 108.Rh5+ Kd6 109.Ke4 1/2-1/2 [Click to replay]

If Andreikin managed to keep his act together in spite of the setback, Parimarjan Negi was less fortunate. In a long game where the 2009 European Champion, Evgeny Tomashevsky held an unpleasant, but not decisive edge, the Indian prodigy eventually lost his footing and was forced to capitulate after 94 grueling moves.

Round 3

In round three, niether Howell-Giri, nor Andreikin-Tomashevsky got past the first turn of the track. Howell played a slightly unusual line against Giri's Petroff, but niether obtained anything tangible and they shook hands on move 25. The two Russian teammates (both play for Economist Saratov) played a Catalan, but weren't clearly intent on ruining either one's chances throughout. Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave played the Tarrasch against Son's French Defense, but ended up with a slightly inferior position throughout the game. Both played it very well, and the deadlock was never broken.

Whether the result of winner's luck or not, So benefited greatly from an eleventh-hour blunder by his opponent.

Wesley So against Maxim Rodshtein.

Rodshtein,M (2609) - So,W (2674) [D86]
YGM Biel SUI (3), 21.07.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bh6 cxd4 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.cxd4 exd4 16.f4 f6 17.f5 Nc6 18.Bb5 Ne5 19.Nxd4 gxf5 20.exf5 Kh8 21.Rad1 Bb7 22.Rf4 Qd5 23.Bf1 Rg8 24.Kh1 Rad8 25.Qf2 Rg4 26.Rd2 Rdg8 27.Ne6 Qc6 28.h3 Rxf4 29.Nxf4 Qe4 30.Nh5 Qc6 31.Kh2 Qc7 32.Kh1 Qc1 33.Kh2 Qc7 34.Kh1 Qf7 35.Nf4 Be4 36.Rd6 Qg7 37.Nh5 Qh6 38.Qh4??

38...Bxg2+! 39.Bxg2 Qc1+ White is mated after 40.Kh2 Nf3+ 41.Bxf3 Qg1# 0-1 [Click to replay]

Luckless Negi, obviously shook up by the setbacks from the first two rounds, played an uncharacteristic game in which a couple of blunders at the end sealed the game very quickly in Caruana's favor.

Crosstable and standings

Schedule and results

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