Carlsen Leads Into Biel Final Round

SonofPearl
on 8/1/12 11:48 AM.

Biel 2012 red logo.jpg Magnus Carlsen was unable to beat Anish Giri with the black pieces in the penultimate round at the Biel GM Tournament, but his co-leader Wang Hao lost to last-placed Victor Bologan to fall a point behind the world's #1 ranked player.

Hikaru Nakamura scored a win with the black pieces against Etienne Bacrot thanks to a shocking blunder from the Frenchman, but is too far behind to be in contention for first place in the tournament.

The standings after nine rounds (3-1-0 scoring system):

Name	Nat	Elo	Pts
Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2837	17
Wang Hao	CHN	2739	16
Anish Giri	NED	2696	16
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2778	13
Etienne Bacrot	FRA	2713	6
Victor Bologan*	MDA	2732	4

After his game Giri tweeted, "Had to give up any ambitions already after move 10"

Biel 2012 Anish Giri v Magnus Carlsen.jpg

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The pairings for the final round are:

Round 10 (2nd Aug)
Hikaru Nakamura	v	Victor Bologan
Wang Hao	v	Anish Giri
Magnus Carlsen	v	Etienne Bacrot

The festival also includes many other events including a Master Tournament, Main Tournament, Rapid Tournament and a Blitz Tournament.

The Biel Chess Festival runs from 21 July - 3 August. The main GM tournament is a 6-player double round-robin which started on Monday 23 July and will finish on 2 August. Magnus Carlsen is defending the title he won in 2011.

Grandmaster Tournament games start at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) and a live broadcast is available at this link.

Picture from the official website. Games via TWIC.

* Bologan's score includes 2 losses by Alexander Morozevich who withdrew due to illness.

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Comments

10 months ago
Stanya

Go Giri!
10 months ago
EternalChess

If Carlsen wins, he will win Biel, BUT NOT BEAT KASPAROVS RECORD.

If Hao wins, and Carlsen does not win, then Hao wins Biel.. its a tough match atm and Bacrot will be tough to crack.
10 months ago
pawngenius

Could not watch the last game of Carlsen. Hope someone can comment on the current position. Carlsen needs to win. Otherwise Wang Hao is champion.
10 months ago
mottsauce

wow. that blunder...yikes!
10 months ago
piphilologist

Aaronsky72 wrote:

Why is Giri still under 2700? He seems to beat or draw with super GMs quite often

He's not, his August 2012 rating is 2711 and his "live" rating is 2734.5. But this tournament uses the July ratings.
10 months ago
Aaronsky72

Why is Giri still under 2700? He seems to beat or draw with super GMs quite often
10 months ago
kingcrash

Hao's winning chances after 3 losses out of 9 shows how f***ed up the 3-1-0 score system is. I understand why most of the top-20 players hate it (but only occationally dears to speak out)
10 months ago
MikyZ

I really like the 3 - points for a win rule.Thanks to this rule and his all or nothing playing stile Wang has still winning chances despite of his three losses (Carlsen is undefeated).

The master tournament is played in the traditional system and it is full of draws. Indeed after nine rounds the top 7 players are undefeated, most of them with more draws than wins (and most wins resultet from wins in the first three rounds against weaker players).
10 months ago
_valentin_

Too bad that a blunder like this (from Etienne Bacrot) interrupted an otherwise interesting and good game.
10 months ago
kidpoolside

this will be interesting. Carlsen seems to have trouble with Bacrot. So far in this tournament he lost to him in the blitz, and drew with him in the first game they played. He definitely does not seem to be able to dominate him. The Hao /Giri game may decide this.
10 months ago
KnowYourRole1

Bacrot, Etienne had a serious hangover. He said that after the match in an interview...
10 months ago
drumdaddy

Good tournament, good games. Bologan has played good chess under difficult circumstances. Magnus is the beast that swallowed the galaxy.

Thanks once again to Son of Pearl for giving the straight scoop and the games. And, Son, maybe you could convince the right person at Chess.com to add the very lovely and useful autoplay button (P/#) to our game archives and analysis games. It would save a billion mouse clicks and lots of carpal tunnel pain. I'd review many more games if not for the endless clicks. End of rant, thanks again, SOP.
10 months ago
gray-orange-gray

Good job by Mr. Bologan -- a bit of needed redeption there. That game was pretty crazy at the end, too. Fun.
10 months ago
mattoscarson

bacrot was in big time trouble
10 months ago
shengyi

Bad blunder.
10 months ago
caesarsecundus

Bologan finally won!
10 months ago
Razzfazz

Very nice games- liked Bologan vs.Hao alot--beautiful manoeuvering by Bologan.Must feel very good to win against one of the tournament-leaders. Terrific blunder by Bacrot - guess Carlsen should win tomorrow
10 months ago
Lawdoginator

Wonder if it was time pressure that caused Bacrot to blunder the rook?
10 months ago
forrie

# Name Rating +/− Games FIDE Age
1 Carlsen 2844.5 +7.5 9
21 (30.11.1990)
10 months ago
Chess_Lover11

o.O Good to see such blunder by A Super GM! Makes me feel better.