Biel Rd3: Shirov beats Caruana, Carlsen leads

by ChessBase
7/20/2011 – Another fighting day in Biel. Yannick Pelletier, with a rook for a bunch of pawns, came very close to his first win, against Vachier-Lagrave. But the game was a draw, as was the exciting battle between Alexander Morozevich and Magnus Carlsen. Alexei Shirov had a roller-coaster game against Fabiano Caruana, with the Spanish GM (Shirov) winning in the end. Express report.

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The 2011 Biel Chess Festival is taking place from July 16 to 29, in a number of groups: the Master Tournament (eleven rounds Swiss); the Main Tournament (nine rounds Swiss); a Rapid and a Blitz tournament; Chess960; Youth, Simultaneous, Chess Tennis, ChessBase training seminars. Of greatest interest is of course the Accentus Grandmaster Tournament with six very strong grandmasters playing a double round robin: Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexei Shirov, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Morozevich and Yannick Pelletier.


The participants: Caruana, Pelletier, Shirov, Carlsen, Morozevich, Vachier-Lagrave

The rate of play: 2 hours for 40 moves, then one hour for 20 and 15 min for the rest of the game, with 30 sec increment per move. The scoring system is three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. No draw offers are permitted before move 30.

Round 3: Wednesday, July 20, 14:00h
Yannick Pelletier 
½-½
 Maxime Vachier
Alexei Shirov 
1-0
 Fabiano Caruana
Alex. Morozevich 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen 

Yannick Pelletier and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had a fun King’s Indian (fun for the spectators in any case) with the action taking place in the center. The Frenchman opted for an exchange sacrifice which culminated into a full rook down as he sought to get out of trouble with a perpetual check. While Pelletier was only too happy to oblige, the real question was whether he couldn’t avoid the repetition and instead play for a full-blown win. With an extra rook, and no threats to his king other than a ton of checks, he may regret letting his opponent off the hook so easily.

[Event "Biel ACCENTUS GM"] [Site "Biel SUI"] [Date "2011.07.20"] [Round "3"] [White "Pelletier, Y."] [Black "Vachier Lagrave, M."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "E92"] [WhiteElo "2590"] [BlackElo "2722"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2011.07.18"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. Be3 Nbd7 8. O-O Qe7 9. Qc2 exd4 10. Nxd4 Re8 11. f3 Ne5 12. Rad1 Be6 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. cxd5 Rac8 15. Rfe1 Nxd5 16. exd5 Ng4 17. Bb5 Nxe3 18. Bxe8 Rxe8 19. Qd2 Bh6 20. Nc2 f5 21. Qd3 f4 22. Nxe3 fxe3 23. Re2 Rf8 24. Qb3 Qe5 25. Rc1 Bf4 26. g3 Bxg3 27. hxg3 Rxf3 28. Rg2 Rxg3 29. Qc3 Qf4 30. Rxg3 Qxg3+ 31. Kh1 Qh3+ 32. Kg1 Qg3+ 33. Kh1 Qh4+ 34. Kg1 Qg3+ 1/2-1/2

Morozevich and Carlsen started with an offbeat variation of the Gruenfeld in which the center became blocked, and both sides castled on opposite sides of the board. This led to an exciting game with both GMs developing their initiative, and though the engines gave the edge to Morozevich for quite some time, the truth is that the only player who was able to build up any kind of attack was Carlsen, so it is hard to know what they saw. Eventually it was clear the Norwegian was clearly ahead, and no doubt opportunities were missed, to be unveiled in future analysis. As the pieces came off, the endgame proved to be unwinnable for either side, and despite some attempts to inch forward, the world's number one was unable to muddle the issue.

[Event "Biel ACCENTUS GM"] [Site "Biel SUI"] [Date "2011.07.20"] [Round "3"] [White "Morozevich,A"] [Black "Carlsen,M"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2694"] [BlackElo "2821"] [EventDate "2011.07.18"] [ECO "D80"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Ne4 5. Nxe4 dxe4 6. Qd2 Bg7 7. e3 c5 8. d5 Nd7 9. Ne2 Ne5 10. Nc3 f5 11. Be2 Nf7 12. Bh4 O-O 13. f3 exf3 14. gxf3 Qd6 15. Bg3 e5 16. O-O-O Bd7 17. Kb1 a6 18. e4 f4 19. Bf2 Rab8 20. h4 b5 21. Rc1 Rfc8 22. Ka1 Bf8 23. Nd1 a5 24. cxb5 Bxb5 25. Bxb5 Rxb5 26. Nc3 Rb4 27. Rc2 c4 28. Rhc1 a4 29. a3 Rb3 30. Qe2 Qa6 31. Nb1 Nd6 32. Nd2 Nb5 33. d6 Nxd6 34. Qf1 Rb7 35. Qh3 Re8 36. h5 g5 37. Bc5 Rc7 38. Bxd6 Qxd6 39. Rxc4 Rxc4 40. Nxc4 Qe6 41. Qg2 Be7 42. Nd2 Kg7 43. Nb1 Kh6 44. Rc7 Rc8 45. Rxc8 Qxc8 46. Qg4 Qc4 47. Qf5 Bc5 48. Qxe5 Bd4 49. Qd6+ Kxh5 50. Qd7 Kg6 51. Qf5+ Kh6 52. Qh3+ Kg7 1/2-1/2

The only decisive game of the day was between Alexei Shirov and Fabiano Caruana in a strange game where the Italian player seemed to underestimate Shirov’s chances. It started as a Bishop’s Opening, with Caruana achieving a nice advantage after Shirov’s pawn structure was broken and then shattered. This possibly left him feeling overly confident in the safety of his position, and with one imprecision after another the Spaniard clawed his way back into the game until a bad mistake by the Italian put him in control. After this, Shirov played a very fine game, bringing his king all the way across the board before beginning his own winning operations, ending in a decisive attack.

[Event "Biel ACCENTUS GM"] [Site "Biel SUI"] [Date "2011.07.20"] [Round "3"] [White "Shirov,A"] [Black "Caruana,F"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2714"] [BlackElo "2711"] [EventDate "2011.07.18"] [ECO "C24"] 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 c6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. O-O d6 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. Re1 Nbd7 8. a3 h6 9. Nf1 Nh7 10. Ng3 Nb6 11. Bb3 Ng5 12. c3 Bg4 13. d4 Qc8 14. Qd3 Nxf3+ 15. gxf3 Be6 16. d5 Bh3 17. f4 exf4 18. Bxf4 Qg4 19. Bd2 Bg5 20. f3 Qh4 21. Bxg5 hxg5 22. dxc6 bxc6 23. Nf5 Bxf5 24. exf5 d5 25. Qd4 Qh6 26. Re2 Rfe8 27. Rae1 Rxe2 28. Rxe2 Qd6 29. c4 c5 30. Qd2 d4 31. Qxg5 d3 32. Re4 Nd7 33. Qe7 Qc6 34. Re3 d2 35. Rd3 Nf6 36. Qe3 Qc7 37. Qxd2 Qe5 38. Rd8+ Rxd8 39. Qxd8+ Kh7 40. Qd2 a5 41. Kf1 Kg8 42. Bd1 Qc7 43. Ke1 Qe5+ 44. Be2 Qc7 45. Kd1 Nd7 46. h4 Nf6 47. Kc2 Kh7 48. Kb3 Nd7 49. Ka2 Nf6 50. Bd1 Nh5 51. Ba4 f6 52. Be8 Nf4 53. Qd7 Qb8 54. Bf7 Ne2 55. Bg6+ Kh8 56. h5 Nd4 57. Kb1 Qg8 58. h6 gxh6 59. Qe7 Nxf3 60. Bf7 Qg1+ 61. Ka2 Ne5 62. Qf8+ Kh7 63. Bg6+ 1-0

Standings

Scoring system: a win counts as three points, a draw as one and a loss zero


Live GM commentary on Playchess

There is live audio and video commentary on the chess server Playchess. The English commentary starts at 3:30 p.m., and German commentary directly from the playing site begins at 4:00 p.m. In addition Daniel King is doing round-up shows at 8:00 p.m. on the days he is commenting.


GM Daniel King commenting on the games in round one

Commentary schedule

Monday 18/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Daniel King
Tuesday 19/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Daniel King
Wednesday 20/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Jan Smeets
Friday 22/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Daniel King
Saturday 23/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Jan Gustafsson
Monday 25/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Jan Gustafsson
Tuesday 26/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Jan Gustafsson
Wednesday 27/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Daniel King
Thursday 28/07/2011 Miso Cebalo Daniel King
Friday 29/07/2011 Miso Cebalo to be announced

As a special treat the multimedia commentary live from Biel is also available on our live browser coverage. This also includes the players analysing after their games.


Overview: schedule and results

Round 1: Monday, July 18, 14:00h
Fabiano Caruana 
½-½
 Maxime Vachier
Yannick Pelletier 
0-1
 Magnus Carlsen
Alexei Shirov 
½-½
 Alex. Morozevich 
Round 2: Tuesday, July 19, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier 
0-1
 Alex. Morozevich
Magnus Carlsen 
1-0
 Alexei Shirov
Yannick Pelletier 
½-½
 Fabiano Caruana
Round 3: Wednesday, July 20, 14:00h
Yannick Pelletier 
½-½
 Maxime Vachier
Alexei Shirov 
1-0
 Fabiano Caruana
Alex. Morozevich 
½-½
 Magnus Carlsen 
Round 4: Friday, July 22, 14:00h
Alexei Shirov 
   Maxime Vachier
Alex. Morozevich 
   Yannick Pelletier
Magnus Carlsen 
   Fabiano Caruana
Round 5: Saturday, July 23, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier 
   Magnus Carlsen 
Fabiano Caruana 
   Alex. Morozevich
Yannick Pelletier 
   Alexei Shirov
Round 6: Monday, July 25, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier 
   Fabiano Caruana
Magnus Carlsen 
   Yannick Pelletier
Alex. Morozevich 
   Alexei Shirov
Round 7: Tuesday, July 26, 14:00h
Alex. Morozevich 
   Maxime Vachier
Alexei Shirov 
   Magnus Carlsen 
Yannick Pelletier 
   Fabiano Caruana
Round 8: Wednesday, July 27, 14:00h
Maxime Vachier  
   Yannick Pelletier
Fabiano Caruana 
   Alexei Shirov
Magnus Carlsen 
   Alex. Morozevich
Round 9: Thursday, July 28, 14:00h
Magnus Carlsen 
   Maxime Vachier
Alex. Morozevich 
   Fabiano Caruana
Alexei Shirov 
   Yannick Pelletier
Round 10: Friday, July 29, 11:00h
Maxime Vachier 
   Alexei Shirov
Yannick Pelletier 
   Alex. Morozevich
Fabiano Caruana 
   Magnus Carlsen 

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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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