Biel R01: All games fighting draws

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:

Round one report

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

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All 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.