Fabiano Caruana wins Biel 2010

by ChessBase
7/30/2010 – The Young Grandmasters section finished with a three-way tie for first place, making tiebreak games necessary. In the semifinals Fabiano Caruana, who turns 18 on Friday, defeated France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Armageddon stage. He then went on to beat the Vietnamese prodigy Nguyen Ngoc Truong 1.5:0.5 to take the title. Final report.

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The Biel Chess Festival took place from July 17th-30th 2010 at the Congress Center (Zentralstr. 60 CH - 2502 Biel-Bienne). The main group this year concentrated exclusively on young talents. The youngest, Anish Giri, is 16, the oldest, Evgeny Tomashevsky, is 23.

The tournament ended in a three-way tie for first:

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (the best player according to Sonneborn-Berger points) was qualified for the final. Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a semi-final of two blitz games (5 mins. + 2 sec. increment per move). Caruana won the first, Vachier-Lagrave, both taking advantage of the white pieces. In the Armageddon game the French GM had to win with the white pieces.

Vachier-Lagrave,M (2723) - Caruana,F (2697) [A46]
YGM Playoff Biel SUI (1.3), 29.07.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 b6 4.e3 Bb7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.h3 Be7 8.Nbd2 d5 9.Ne5 0-0 10.0-0 Nd7 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.a4 a5 13.Qe2 Nf6 14.Nf3 Bb7 15.Bb5 Qc8 16.Rac1 c4 17.Nd2 Bc6 18.e4 Bxb5 19.axb5 Nxe4 20.Nxe4 dxe4 21.Rfe1 Rd8 22.Ra1 Rd5 23.Ra4 Rxb5 24.Rxc4 Qd8 25.Rc7 Rf5 26.Qxe4 Rc8 27.Rxe7 Rxf4 28.Qb7 Rb8 29.Rd7 Qe8 30.Qc7 Rc8 31.Qd6 Rf5 32.Rb7 b5 33.g4 Rf6 34.Re5 b4 35.Rxa5 bxc3 36.bxc3 h6 37.Rc5 Ra8 38.Rb2 Qa4 39.Qc6 Qd1+ 40.Kh2 Ra1 41.Qg2 Qc1 42.Re2 Qf4+ 43.Qg3 Qc1 44.Rc8+ Kh7 45.Qd3+? g6 46.Kg3

White is already completely lost, and 46...Qh1 (or ...Qg1) would have finished him off completely. 46...Kg7? This allows White to defend, though he can hardly hope for the win he needs. 47.Qe3? (47.Qe4 was necessary) 47...Qg1+ 48.Kh4 (the only legal move) 48...g5+ 49.Kh5 Qb1 50.Qe4 Qxe4 51.Rxe4 Rf3 and the position is dead lost for White. 0-1.

In the first game of the rapid chess final (10 mins. + 10 sec. increment per move) the Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son gained a considerable advantage with the black pieces against Fabiano Caruana and must have been winning around move 60. But he blew it at move 62 (...b2) and the game was soon drawn. In the second game Caruana picked up a pawn and was able to win the ensuing knight + pawns ending quite convincingly. That gave him the title in this Young GMs event.


The winner of Biel 2010: former child prodigy Fabiano Caruana


43 years of Biel

It all began in July 1968, with an international open that drew 34 participants and had a budget of 3,200 Swiss Franks. But the event was staged summer for summer, and in 2007 Biel celebrated its 40th anniversary, producing a brochure you can read in PDF here (it is in German and French). We have put together some of the historical pictures it contains for your enjoyment.


Early participants: 16-year-old Jan Timman, Hans Böhm, Tony Miles, Viktor Korchnoi,
Bent Larsen, Tigran Petrosian, Lajos Portisch, Mikhail Tal, Vassily Smyslov


That's Alica, Uri, Judit and Almira on the left, Garry Kimovich on the right

Past winners

1977 Anthony Miles (ENG)
1979 Viktor Kortchnoi (SUI)
1980 Yehuda Grünfeld (ISR)
1981 Eric Lobron (GER); Vlastimil Hort (TCH)
1982 John Nunn (ENG); Florin Gheorghiu (ROM)
1983 Anthony Miles (ENG); John Nunn (ENG)
1984 Vlastimil Hort (TCH); Robert Hübner (GER)
1986 Lev Polugajevski (URS); Eric Lobron (GER)
1987 Boris Gulko (USA)
1988 Ivan Sokolov (YUG); Boris Gulko (USA)
1989 Vassily Ivantschuk (URS)
1990 Anatoly Karpov (URS)
1991 Alexej Shirov (LAT)
1992 Anatoly Karpov (RUS)
1994 Viktor Gavrikov (SUI)
  1995 Alexej Dreev (RUS)
1996 Anatoly Karpov (RUS)
1997 Viswanathan Anand (IND)
1998 Mladen Palac (CRO)
1999 Jeroen Piket (NED)
2000 Peter Svidler (RUS)
2001 Viktor Kortchnoi (SUI)
2002 Ilya Smirin (ISR)
2003 Alexander Morozevich (RUS)
2004 Alexander Morozevich (RUS)
2005 Boris Gelfand (ISR); Andrei Volokitin (UKR)
2006 Alexander Morozevich (RUS)
2007 Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
2008 Evgeny Alekseev (RUS)
2009 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)

Links

The games were 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 PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!


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