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The 41st Biel International Chess Festival is taking place from July 20th - 31st, 2008. The Grandmaster Tournament is a category 18 event with an average rating of 2686. Biel is located in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, on the north eastern shore of Lake Biel. It is a thoroughly bilingual town – called Biel in German, Bienne in French. Since 2005 the official name is "Biel/Bienne". About two thirds of the population of 52,000 speak German, one third French.
| Round 4: Thursday, July 24, 2008 | ||
| Yannick Pelletier |
0-1 |
Evgeny Alekseev |
Alexander Onischuk |
½-½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Leinier Dominguez |
1-0 |
Etienne Bacrot |
Leinier Dominguez – Etienne Bacrot
This is not his tournament, definitely not. Etienne Bacrot faced and Anti-Marshall
in the closed Ruy Lopez, set up by his Cuban opponent, and seemed to be doing
fine. Then, around move 32, with the French GM once again under time pressure,
things started to go horribly wrong.
Etienne Bacrot at the start of round four
Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez
Dominguez Perez,L (2708) - Bacrot,E (2691) [C88]
41st Festival GM Biel SUI (4), 24.07.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3
Bb7 9.d3 d6 10.a3 Na5 11.Ba2 c5 12.Nbd2 Nc6 13.Nf1 Bc8 14.c3 Be6 15.Bxe6 fxe6
16.b4 Qd7 17.Ng3 a5 18.bxc5 dxc5 19.Qb3 Rfb8 20.a4 b4 21.Be3 c4 22.Qxc4 bxc3
23.Red1 Bb4 24.Rac1 Rc8 25.Qa2 Qd6 26.Ne2 Nd8 27.d4 Nxe4 28.dxe5 Qa6 29.Nf4
Rc4 30.Nd4 Rac8 31.Nb5 Nf7 32.Qc2
32...Bc5?! (after 32...Nxe5 Black was okay) 33.Nd4 Bxd4 34.Rxd4 Qc6 35.Nxe6 Nxe5 36.Rcd1 Nd2?! Now was certainly the time to play 36...Qxe6. 37.Ng5 Qg6 38.Rxc4 Ndxc4 39.Qxc3. Black is a pawn down without any tangible compensation. 39...h6 40.Bf4 Qf5 41.Bxe5 Nxe5 42.Qb3+ Kh8 43.Ne6 Qe4 44.Qd5
44...Qxa4? Out of the frying pan... 45.Rd4 Qa1+ 46.Kh2. The knight is lost, whichever way you look at it. 46...Ng6 47.Qf5 Kh7 48.h4 Qe1 49.Re4 1-0. [Click to replay]
Yannik Pelletier-Evgeny Alekseev
Another jinxed player in this event is Yannick Pelletier, top native-Swiss grandmaster
(Vadim Milov and Viktor Korchnoi are above him on the rating list). He went
down to his Russian opponent after unambitious play in the Ragozin and a blunder
on move 23.
Down in the dumps: Yannick Pelletier, strongest native-born Swiss grandmaster
Evgeny Alekseev playing against Yannick Pelletier in round four
Pelletier,Y (2569) - Alekseev,Evgeny (2708) [D38]
41st Festival GM Biel SUI (4), 24.07.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.Qb3 c5 8.cxd5
exd5 9.a3 Bxc3+ 10.Qxc3 b6 11.e3 0-0 12.Be2 Nd7 13.0-0 Bb7 14.Rfc1 c4 15.a4
a6 16.Qb4 Bc6 17.Nd2 b5 18.axb5 axb5 19.b3 Qg6 20.Bf3 Rfb8 21.h3 Rxa1 22.Rxa1
Qc2
23.Nb1? This simply cannot be a good move, as Alekseev immediately goes on to prove. 23...Qc1+ 24.Kh2 Qb2 25.Qc3?! Not the best way to defend the rook – why not counter-attack with 25.Ra6? After the text move Alekseev easily ground out a win. 25...Qxf2 26.bxc4 bxc4 27.Nd2 Rc8 28.Ra5 Nf6 29.Rc5 Bd7 30.Rxc8+ Bxc8 31.Nb3 Bf5 32.Nc5 g5 33.Qa3 Kg7 34.Nb7 g4 35.hxg4 Bxg4 0-1. [Click to replay]
Alexander Onischuk-Magnus Carlsen
Before this game calculations showed Carlsen overtaking Vassily Ivanchuk and
once again taking up second place on the live
rating list, just two points behind Vishy Anand. A victory would have taken
him over the top, but a victory was not in the books for the Norwegian GM in
this round.
US grandmaster Alexander Onischuk
Magnus Carlsen adjusts his pieces at the start of round four
Onischuk,Al (2670) - Carlsen,M (2775) [D19]
41st Festival GM Biel SUI (4), 24.07.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0-0
Nbd7 9.Qe2 Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 0-0 12.Rd1 e5
13.d5!? Bxc3 14.dxc6 e4 15.Qe2 Be5 16.cxd7 Qe7 17.Ra2 Rfd8 18.b3 Rxd7 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 20.Rd2 Qe7 21.Rd1 h6. These nerve-racking tactics had spectators agog, but it turns out that it was all played before, e.g. in L'Ami-Hector, Malmö 2007 (L'Ami won in 40 moves). Both players seemed to know the line well enough and did not let any unnecessary problems arise. 22.Qa2 Rd8 23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 24.Qd2 Qe7 25.Qa5 b6 26.Qd2 a5 27.Bb2 Bxb2 28.Qxb2 Kf8 29.Qd4 Qc7 30.Kf1 Ke7 31.Ke2 g5 32.g3 Qc5 33.Qxc5+ bxc5 34.f4 Ne8 35.g4 Nd6 36.Bd5 Kf6 37.Kf2 Kg6 38.Kg3 f6 39.Be6 ½-½. [Click to replay]
Two players are heading the table, both with two wins and two draws. Evgeny Alekseev's performance is 2876, higher than Carlsen's 2850, since Alekseev has faced the higher ranked players (including Magnus Carlsen, who cannot play himself). Here are some notes on the Russian GM from the tournament web site.
Photos by Pascal Simon in Biel
These reports are provided by Echecs.com, which is doing extensive coverage of the Biel Tournament
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Links
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. |
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