International Chess Festival in Biel

Round Nine

Video Recap

After three draws we have three exciting decisive results!

First of all Radodslaw Wojtaszek had a successful opening against Pentala Harikrishna. With a super center and eventually a strong passed pawn on d6 it was clear that the advantage was White's, and although at some point the Polish player did not play the most exact moves the position was so strong that White retained the winning advantage anyway.

Radoslaw Wojtaszek now shares second with 5.0/9

Pentala Harikrishna (above) is second to last, but he is at least a full point ahead of Alexander Motylev

Anish Giri also had great preparation against the Grunfeld! Catching MVL completely off-guard the Dutch player obtained a huge advantage... only to squander it! However MVL, between his time pressure and his tiredness, was unable to keep the balance in a very slightly worse rook and knight endgame and he ended up losing. He retains his lead, but only by half a point now.

Anish Giri enjoying the view while his opponent thinks

MVL was unable to come up with a good solution to Giri's novelty

Last but not least Hou Yifan's opening was not successful at all. Black equalized with ease and after a mistake by the Chinese player it was Alexander Motylev that was in the driver's seat. Yet, also in time pressure, the Russian made a huge blunder and his kingside collapsed, along with his game.

Hou Yifan only trails Judit Polgar by 11 rating points now

Updated after Biel's ninth round these are the top women in the world:

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Schedule

Links Official tournament site Download 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.