Bacrot Maintains Lead After Exciting Seventh Round in Biel
Etienne Bacrot still tops the leaderboard at the Biel Chess Festival after what was a very exciting seventh round on Monday. The Frenchman miraculously held the draw against Ding Liren, who is still a point behind the Frenchman. However, the Chinese GM was caught in second place by both Alexander Moiseenko and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won their games against Richard Rapport and Ian Nepomniachtchi respectively.
Bacrot could hardly believe it himself. "I was very lucky," he said after his game with Ding Liren. Both players were not sure if there was a forced win for White, and even after their analysis at the press conference they didn't know! In a Nimzo-Indian, Ding Liren played quite aggressively and he seemed to get the advantage when the queens were traded. Bacrot, however, used all the tactics available to stay alive, spending a lot of time on the clock. In time trouble he had to give a pawn, but luckily for him the rook ending was not winning for White.
Here's the post-mortem of the game, hosted by GM Danny King:
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had spoilt two White games already, but this time he finally managed to win a won position! The Frenchman nicely outplayed Ian Nepomniachtchi in a Fianchetto Grünfeld. It was quite an achievement for the Russian to survive the attack and reach a position with QR vs QR and two pawns each, but even there White was still winning.
Alexander Moiseenko played an excellent game and defeated Richard Rapport, who had spent his rest day playing the blitz tournament (and winning it!). The Hungarian's 27...g5!? was described by Moiseenko as "a move suitable for blitz". With enough time on the clock, the Ukrainian could easily refute it. It took a while before he won the ending with an extra knight, but the result was never in doubt.
Here's GM Danny King's round report video:
Biel 2013 | Breisacher Memorial | Pairings & results
| Round 1 | 22.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 6 | 27.07.12 | 14:00 CET | |
| Nepomniachtchi | 1-1 | Bacrot | Bacrot | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | |
| Vachier-Lagrave | 1-1 | Rapport | Rapport | 1-1 | Vachier-Lagrave | |
| Moiseenko | 1-1 | Ding Liren | Ding Liren | 3-0 | Moiseenko | |
| Round 2 | 23.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 7 | 29.07.12 | 14:00 CET | |
| Bacrot | 3-0 | Ding Liren | Ding Liren | 1-1 | Bacrot | |
| Rapport | 0-3 | Moiseenko | Moiseenko | 3-0 | Rapport | |
| Nepomniachtchi | 0-3 | Vachier-Lagrave | Vachier-Lagrave | 3-0 | Nepomniachtchi | |
| Round 3 | 24.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 8 | 30.07.12 | 14:00 CET | |
| Vachier-Lagrave | 1-1 | Bacrot | Bacrot | - | Vachier-Lagrave | |
| Moiseenko | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | Nepomniachtchi | - | Moiseenko | |
| Ding Liren | 1-1 | Rapport | Rapport | - | Ding Liren | |
| Round 4 | 25.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 9 | 31.07.12 | 14:00 CET | |
| Moiseenko | 1-1 | Bacrot | Rapport | - | Bacrot | |
| Ding Liren | 3-0 | Vachier-Lagrave | Ding Liren | - | Nepomniachtchi | |
| Rapport | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | Moiseenko | - | Vachier-Lagrave | |
| Round 5 | 26.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 10 | 01.08.12 | 11:00 CET | |
| Bacrot | 3-0 | Rapport | Bacrot | - | Moiseenko | |
| Nepomniachtchi | 1-1 | Ding Liren | Vachier-Lagrave | - | Ding Liren | |
| Vachier-Lagrave | 1-1 | Moiseenko | Nepomniachtchi | - | Rapport |
Biel, Breisacher Memorial 2013 | Round 7 standings
| # | Name | Fed | Rtg | + | = | - | Pts |
| 1 | Bacrot, Etienne | FRA | 2714 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 11 |
| 2 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2714 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | Moiseenko, Alexander | UKR | 2699 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 4 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2719 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 5 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | RUS | 2717 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| 6 | Rapport, Richard | HUN | 2693 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC
