Biel R01: All games fighting draws

by ChessBase
7/22/2013 – One of today's games, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Richard Rapport, ended after a repetition on move 22. A quick draw, right? Wrong, it was in fact a very interesting game that deserves to be looked at quite carefully. The other two draws are similarly not uninteresting by any standard. We bring you games, pictures, video analysis and interviews in big round one report.

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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:

No.
Player Country Birth date
Rating
w-rank
1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France 21.10.1990
2719
26
2
Ian Nepomniachtchi Russia 14.07.1990
2717
27
3
Etienne Bacrot France 22.01.1983
2714
29
4
Ding Liren China 24.10.1992
2714
30
5
Alexander Moiseenko Ukraine 17.05.1980
2699
47
6
Richard Rapport Hungary 25.03.1996
2693
54

Round one report

22.07.2013 14:00: Round 1
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Etienne Bacrot ½ - ½ (46)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Richard Rapport ½ - ½ (22)
Alexander Moiseenko - Ding Liren ½ - ½ (41)

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

22.07.2013 14:00: Round 1
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Etienne Bacrot ½ - ½ (46)
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Richard Rapport ½ - ½ (22)
Alexander Moiseenko - Ding Liren ½ - ½ (41)

23.07.2013 14:00: Round 2
Etienne Bacrot - Ding Liren
Richard Rapport - Alexander Moiseenko
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

24.07.2013 14:00: Round 3
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Etienne Bacrot
Alexander Moiseenko - Ian Nepomniachtchi
Ding Liren - Richard Rapport

25.07.2013 14:00: Round 4
Alexander Moiseenko - Etienne Bacrot
Ding Liren - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Richard Rapport - Ian Nepomniachtchi

26.07.2013 14:00: Round 5
Etienne Bacrot - Richard Rapport
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Ding Liren
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Alexander Moiseenko

27.07.2013 14:00: Round 6
Etienne Bacrot - Ian Nepomniachtchi
Richard Rapport - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Ding Liren - Alexander Moiseenko

28.07.2013: Rest Day!

29.07.2013 14:00: Round 7
Ding Liren - Etienne Bacrot
Alexander Moiseenko - Richard Rapport
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Ian Nepomniachtchi

30.07.2013 14:00: Round 8
Etienne Bacrot - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alexander Moiseenko
Richard Rapport - Ding Liren

31.07.2013 14:00: Round 9
Richard Rapport - Etienne Bacrot
Ding Liren - Ian Nepomniachtchi
Alexander Moiseenko - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

01.08.2013 14:00: Round 10
Etienne Bacrot - Alexander Moiseenko
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Ding Liren
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Richard Rapport

Links

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.


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