50th Biel: Hou and Leko score in Round 1

by André Schulz
7/24/2017 – Hou Yifan and Peter Leko won their games — both with Black — against Alexander Morozevich and Noel Studer to start the Biel GM tournament. Hou rebuffed Morozevich's sacrificial stab in a King's Indian Attack, while Peter Leko fought for victory in the endgame after a sharp Modern Benoni.

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A triumph for the defense

Today the Grandmaster tournament and the Master tournament began. As with yesterday's rapid, special guest Rafael Vaganjan is also playing in the showcase GM tournament. The former Armenian top-flight player joins David Navara, Pentala Harikrishna and Etienne Bacrot, who are the tournament's Elo-favorites rated over 2700. Alexander Morozvich, once as high as number two in the world, 2004 World Championship challenger Peter Leko, and the FIDE World Champion of 2002, Ruslan Ponomariov, have all been top ten players in years gone by. The world's best woman, Hou Yifan, is always dangerous, while relatively unknown Swiss participants Noel Studer and Nico Georgiades round out the field.

Vaganian started today against Harikrishna and took the Indian number two down a line from a recent game Harikrishna himself played against Anish Giri in March up to move 16.a3, but a few moves later the pair began repeating moves for an early draw.

Rafael Vaganian has played just four tournament games in 2017, drawing all of them | Photo: Pascal Simon

The game between Etienne Bacrot and Ruslan Ponomariov, also ended in a move repetition, but one of the stranger ones you will see with Black's bishop and knight caught in a little dance with White's king.

The young Swiss Nico Georgiadis can be pleased with his defensive effort in drawing David Navara. In a Sicilian Scheveningen, which the Czech ace also deployed in the Accentus Rapid final, Black equalised comfortably and then pressed a slightly better endgame playing against White's isolated d-pawn. In the end, Navara was still fighting with two pawns for a bishop, and playing to win, but Georgiadis held his own.

Alexander Morozevich, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, has been largely absent from competition in recent years. He has been a regular in Biel however, and a past winner, although the last time he participated in 2012, he had to withdraw due to illness after losing his first two games.

Two black wins

On Monday "Moro" met Hou Yifan, and came out swinging. In a variation of the King's Indian Attack, with both sides charging on opponsite flanks, Morozevich sacrificed a knight on d5 and gained a strong initiative. However, Hou defended patiently, gradually consolidating her kingside and then counter-punching at the right moment to force the queens off.

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0 Be7 5.d3 0-0 6.Nbd2 c5 7.e4 Nc6 8.Re1 Qc7 8...b5 9.e5 Nd7 10.Nf1 a5 11.h4 b4 12.Bf4 Ba6 13.Ng5 Qe8 14.Qg4 a4 15.Nxe6 1-0 (15) Bronstein,D (2590)-Uhlmann,W (2570) Moscow 1971 9.c3 b6 10.e5 Nd7 11.Qe2 a5 12.Nf1 a4 More popular is 12...Ba6 e.g. 13.h4 b5 14.N1h2 b4 15.h5 a4 16.Ng4 a3 17.h6 g6 18.Bf4 c4 19.dxc4 Bxc4 20.Qd2 axb2 21.Qxb2 bxc3 22.Qc2 Ra3 23.Qd1 Nb4 24.Ne3 Bxa2 25.Nd4 Qa5 26.Nec2 Nxc2 27.Nc6 Qc5 28.Nxe7+ Qxe7 29.Qxc2 Bc4 30.Bg5 Qc5 31.Be3 Qa5 32.Rxa3 Qxa3 33.Bd4 Rc8 34.Qxc3 Qxc3 35.Bxc3 Bd3 36.Bd4 Rc4 37.Bb2 Rb4 38.Ba3 Ra4 39.Bd6 Nb6 40.Rd1 Bc2 41.Rc1 Ra2 42.Bf1 f6 43.exf6 Kf7 44.Be5 Nd7 45.f4 Nxf6 46.Bd3 Bxd3 47.Rc7+ Ke8 48.Bxf6 g5 1/2-1/2 (48) Klein,G (1957) -Schettler,J (2049) Germany 2010 13.Bf4 Bb7 14.h4 Rfc8 The first new move. 14...d4 15.c4 b5 16.cxb5 Nb4 17.a3 Nd5 18.Bg5 Ra5 19.Rac1 Qd8 20.N1d2 Rxb5 21.Nc4 Bc6 22.Rc2 h6 23.Bxe7 Nxe7 24.Nfd2 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Qa8+ 26.Kh2 Qd5 27.Nd6 Rbb8 28.N2c4 Nc8 29.Ne4 Ncb6 30.f4 Nxc4 31.Rxc4 Rb5 32.Rec1 Rfb8 33.R1c2 Ra5 34.Qd2 Rba8 35.Qc1 Rb8 36.Qd2 Rba8 37.Qe2 1/2-1/2 (37) Bruzon Batista,L (2679)-Yilmaz,M (2594) Dubai 2016 15.Ne3 Qd8 16.h5 b5 A well-known motif in this type of position. White attacks on the kingside, Black on the queenside. 17.Nxd5!? A move which the computer might have played as well. exd5 18.e6 Nf8 Not 18...fxe6 19.Qxe6+ Kh8 20.h6 with advantage for White. 19.exf7+ Kxf7= 20.h6 Better was 20.d4 20...Bf6 21.Nh2 Ne7 22.Bh3 Rc6 23.Ng4 Neg6 24.Bd2 d4 Black consolidated on the kingside. The last move opens the long diagonal a8-h1 and initiates a counterattack against White's king. 25.hxg7 Kxg7 26.Qf3 Rb6 26...Bg5!? 27.Bxg5 Qxg5-+ and Black is clearly better and threatens to improve further with a3 or h5. 27.Qf5 Qd5 28.Bh6+ Kf7 29.Qxd5+ Bxd5 30.Nxf6 Rxf6 After the exchange of queens White's attack was definitely over. 31.cxd4 Nh4 32.gxh4 32.Bg5 Nf3+-+ 32...Rxh6 33.Re5 Rd8 34.Rf5+ Rf6 35.dxc5 Ng6 36.c6 Bxc6 37.Rc1 Rdd6 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Morozevich,A2675Hou,Y26660–12017C0050th Biel Festival 20171

The King’s Indian Attack is a unique opening system in that it offers White a dynamic and interesting game but without the need to know reams of theory. In addition to being easy to learn it has an excellent pedigree, leading exponents including great players such as Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian, David Bronstein, Viktor Korchnoi, Leonid Stein and Lev Psakhis. GM Nigel Davies presents a complete repertoire for White.

Peter Leko, too, used to be in the top ten, and a regular in the best invitational tournaments. As opportunities have grown scarcer, he has been training hard and is hungry to get back into competition. Still just 37-years-old, and with undying class, we can surely expect him to be back over 2700 soon. His first round opponent, Noel Studer, was beset by a Benoni defense, as Leko signaled early that he was out for blood. He sacrificed an exchange for a pawn to obtain the bishop pair and continuously posed problems for Studer until the Swiss IM cracked at move 40.

Peter Leko was strong out of the gate | Photo: Pascal Simon

 
After 40.Rh7 Bg2 and White was in trouble

Interestingly the position as late as 37...f5 has been reached in the ChessBase LiveBook no less than 635 times! So someone has been analysing this deep. The engine indicates White can still hold, but precision is required and it's easy to go wrong quickly, as this game shows.

LiveBook

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Results of Round 1

Brd. Title Name Fed. Elo Res. Title Name Fed. Elo
1 GM Etienne Bacrot
 
2715 ½ - ½ GM Ruslan Ponomariov
 
2699
2 GM Alexander Morozevich
 
2675 0 - 1 GM Yifan Hou
 
2666
3 GM Rafael A Vaganian
 
2562 ½ - ½ GM Penteala Harikrishna
 
2737
4 IM Nico Georgiadis
 
2496 ½ - ½ GM David Navara
 
2737
5 IM Noel Studer
 
2493 0 - 1 GM Peter Leko
 
2678

All games from Round 1

 
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1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.d4 Nf6 5.h3 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 dxe4 7.Qe3 Nbd7 8.Nxe4 Nxe4 9.Qxe4 g6 B11: Caro-Kann: Two Knights Variation 9...Nf6!? 10.Qe3 e6= 10.Be2 Bg7 11.0-0 0-0 White has an edge. 12.Rd1 Re8 13.c3
13...Qc7N Predecessor: 13...e5 14.dxe5 Rxe5 15.Qc2 Qe7 1/2-1/2 (64) Moskalenko,A (2488)-Berkes,F (2648) Moscow 2017 14.d5 c5 15.Bf4 Be5 16.Be3 Rac8 17.a4 Red8 18.a5 Nf6 19.Qf3 Kg7 20.a6 aiming for axb7. Rb8 21.axb7 Rxb7 22.Ra2 Rdb8 23.Bc1 Ne8 24.Qe3 Bf6 25.Ra6 Qe5 26.Qxe5 Bxe5 27.Ra5 Rxb2 28.Bxb2 Rxb2 29.Bd3 Bxc3 30.Rxc5 Bb4 31.Rc2 Rxc2 32.Bxc2 Endgame KRB-KBN a5 33.f4 h5 34.Kf2 Kf6 35.Kf3 Nd6 36.Ba4 Nf5 37.Bd7 Nh4+ 38.Kf2 Bc5+ 39.Kf1 Nf5 40.Ke2! Bd6 41.Kf3 41.g4± Nh4 42.g5+ Kg7 43.Rd4 41...Nh4+= 42.Kf2 42.Kg3= g5 43.Ra1 42...Bc5+ 43.Kf1 43.Kg3! Nf5+ 44.Bxf5 Kxf5 45.Kf3 43...Nf5= White should prevent ...Ne3+. 44.Ke2 44.Ra1= 44...Bd6! Precision: White = 52%, Black = 56%.
½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Bacrot,E2715Ponomariov,R2699½–½201750th Biel Festival 20171
Morozevich,A2675Hou,Y26660–1201750th Biel Festival 20171
Vaganian,R2562Harikrishna,P2737½–½201750th Biel Festival 20171
Georgiadis,N2496Navara,D2737½–½201750th Biel Festival 20171
Studer,N2493Leko,P26780–1201750th Biel Festival 20171

Standings after the first round

Rank. Title Name Fed. Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts. Perf. Wtg.
1 GM Peter Leko
 
2678                   1 1.0 / 1 3293 0.00
2 GM Yifan Hou
 
2666                 1   1.0 / 1 3475 0.00
3 GM David Navara
 
2737               ½     0.5 / 1 2496 0.25
4 GM Penteala Harikrishna
 
2737             ½       0.5 / 1 2562 0.25
5 GM Etienne Bacrot
 
2715           ½         0.5 / 1 2699 0.25
6 GM Ruslan Ponomariov
 
2699         ½           0.5 / 1 2715 0.25
7 GM Rafael A Vaganian
 
2562       ½             0.5 / 1 2737 0.25
8 IM Nico Georgiadis
 
2496     ½               0.5 / 1 2737 0.25
9 GM Alexander Morozevich
 
2675   0                 0.0 / 1 1866 0.00
10 IM Noel Studer
 
2493 0                   0.0 / 1 1878 0.00

Translation from German and additional reporting from Macauley Peterson.

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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