Biel: Veni, Vidit, vici

Vidit secures 1st with a round to spare!

The tournament in Biel is nearly over, and we have a winner before the last round! Vidit Gujarathi played consistent and aggressive chess, and because both he and Shankland drew their games in the sixth round he has an insurmountable four point cushion going into the final day. Shankland, who was in a must win situation, was struggling to create winning chances, but landed in hot water and still managed to somehow escape. Peter Leko struck back immediately, after losing yesterday, by beating Jorge Cori in a classical French to jump back to third with a round to go. Georgiadis and Maghsoodloo drew a crazy Gruenfeld where both sides could have improved their play multiple times.

Leko's played a commendable tournament till now. Can he wrap it up well tomorrow? | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Let's get into the thick of things:

Leko 1-0 Cori

Leko's enormous tournament experience came to the fore today. One felt that the former World Championship runner-up was running out of steam when he had an average Blitz tournament and lost to Maghsoodloo yesterday, but Peter managed to rejuvenate his game by returning to his favourite 1.e4 for his last White game. He then managed to systematically outplay the young Peruvian GM and win. Here are the critical moments:

Cori chooses the Classical variation of the French against Leko's 1.e4.

This is the main line of the variation. Cori chose 7...♝e7, a worthy alternative to the main line 7...a6 and 7...cxd4.

This is a variation from 12.♕f2. Can you find why 13...f6? is a mistake?

Somehow Black's early middlegame play wasn't entirely convincing. After 16.f5! Leko won a pawn by force, and it looked as if Black's attack wasn't that serious.

We can now see Leko's idea.

The only mistake Leko made in the game — can you find why 26.♖c3? loses White his advantage?

Cori missed his chance and White is now winning, as Black has no compensation for the two missing pawns.

37.♗b4! was amazing judgement from Leko in time trouble. He realised that the endgame that arises by force in a few moves is easily winning for White. What more — the all-powerful engines take a lot of time to appreciate his idea!

White's pawns are too fast, and Leko won in a few more moves.

Peter has played very confident chess the entire event | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Bogner ½-½ Shankland

When top players want to play for the win, they choose the Gruenfeld against 1.d4. While the opening is universally accepted as one of the soundest ways to get unbalanced positions, recent trends seem to favour White, and Bogner managed to outplay Shankland before peacefully exchanging queens, missing out on a wonderful pseudo queen sacrifice:

Bogner took on g7 and the players traded down to a dead drawn rook endgame. Instead, 34.Qe7!! was much better, keeping Black all tied up. Taking the queen loses due to the weak back rank, and after the relatively best 34...Na5 35.h4! h5 36.Qg5 Black is close to lost - it is very hard for him to move.

Winning against the Grünfeld

The Grünfeld is a highly dynamic opening in which Black's position often seems to hang together by a single thread; and yet, this apparently precarious equilibrium appears to be enough to make it entirely viable — up to the highest level.

Shankland couldn't win today, but he will be happy he didn't get punished for over-pressing | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Vidit ½-½ Abdusattorov

Vidit chose the Catalan today, and while he got a slight advantage, it was never enough to play for a win. With Shankland struggling in his game, Vidit simplified into a drawn endgame, and split the point on move 41: 

The Catalan: A complete repertoire for White!

The Catalan is one of the most solid openings for White. It forms part of the large and strong fianchetto family in which White builds his strategy mainly around the bishop on g2. Grandmaster Victor Bologan covers all of Black’s replies to the Catalan, some of which can even transpose to other openings such as the Tarrasch System and the Queen’s Indian. Suffice it to say that the Catalan rules!

Both players didn't shy away from a battle | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Vidit took the game into a risk free endgame where only White can continue to press. He didn't get far enough, and pragmatically decided to split the point and ensure tournament victory.

Calm, composed and focused — the new Biel Champion! | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Georgiadis ½-½ Maghsoodloo

This was a fighting game between two players, where Nico missed a big opportunity to get excellent winning chances:

It doesn't take much effort to spot that 21.d6! grants White a long term bind. The idea is to meet 21...f6 with 22.♖c7! ♜xc7 23.dxc7 ♜c8 24.♕xa7 with a dominating position. Instead, 21.dxe6?! was too timid, and Nico had to fight in the end to draw.

My best games in the Grünfeld by Alexei Shirov

The Gruenfeld Defense is an active and dynamic reply to 1.d4 which can lead to complex and extremely sharp positions. So it’s no wonder that also Alexei Shirov included this opening into his repertoire. At the candidates’ final against Vladimir Kramnik in Cazorla in 1998, he exclusively – and successfully – trusted the Gruenfeld Indian with Black; the victory over Kramnik gave him the right to play a WCh match versus Kasparov.

Despite the fact that both players were not fighting for 1st place, they gave it their all! | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Here are the overall standings after round 5:

With first place decided, the battle for second is fierce. Who will take 2nd and 3rd in the end?

Classical tournament standings

Rk.		Name	Rtg.	Nt.	Pts.	n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB	Perf.
1	GM	Vidit,S	2703		3.5	5		½	1		½		1	½	9.75	2768
2	GM	Abdusattorov,N	2598		3.5	6	½		½	½	1	0		1	9.75	2715
3	GM	Cori,J	2686		3.0	6	0	½		0	1	1	½		8.50	2655
4	GM	Leko,P	2674		3.0	5		½	1			0	1	½	8.25	2680
5	GM	Shankland,S	2713		3.0	6	½	0	0			1	½	1	7.50	2624
6	GM	Maghsoodloo,P	2656		2.5	6		1	0	1	0		0	½	7.50	2571
7	GM	Bogner,S	2584		2.5	6	0		½	0	½	1		½	6.50	2601
8	GM	Georgiadis,N	2514		2.0	6	½	0		½	0	½	½		5.75	2530
TBs: Sonneborn-Berger

All games

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