The 42nd Biel International Chess Festival took place from July 18th to 31st
2009. There were ten different tournaments (open, rapid, blitz, youth, Chess
960). The main event was a Category 19 double round robin tournament with six
players averaging 2716 Elo points and 28.3 years of age.
Round ten (final)
Entering into the final round, Ivanchuk and Morozevich were in hot pursuit
of Vachier Lagrave, the surprise leader in this year's edition of Biel. Unfortunately,
the action wrapped up rather quickly in a tame outing by both Morozevich and
Vachier Lagrave, playing 18 and 14 moves respectively, in drawing efforts.
In the day's third game, however, Ivanchuk demonstrated some desire to enter
into the winner's circle, playing 32 moves in the Bogo-Indian with Gelfand.
To the chagrin of both players, they were unable to procure solid winning chances,
and a draw was the ultimate outcome.
Final standings
The surprise winner of Biel 2009: Maxime Vachier Lagrave, France
The tiebreaks according to the Sonneborn-Berger
score, give Morozevich 26.25 vs 25.75 for Ivanchuk; and at the bottom of
the table Gelfand had 20.50 to Caruana's 20.25. The draw percentage in the event
was 67%, with 20% white and 13% black wins.
The winners and runners-up: Evgeny Alekseev, Boris Gelfand, Fabiano Caruana,
and on the steps: Alexander Morozevich, Maxime Vachier Lagrave, Vassily Ivanchuk
Maxime Vachier Lagrave, born October 21, 1990, became the ninth youngest
GM
in history in 2005, at the age of 14 years and four months.
The technical director of the event Peter Burri
Pictures by Pascal Simon, ChessBase
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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