Biel: Ding Liren Beats Moiseenko, Now Second Behind Bacrot

Etienne Bacrot maintained his lead at the Biel Chess Festival on Saturday with a quick draw against Ian Nepomniachtchi in a Grünfeld. After round 6, Ding Liren is in second place; the Chinese GM beat Alexander Moiseenko in a 5.Bf4 Queen's Gambit Declined. Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew quite an original 3.Bb5+ Sicilian.

The Grünfeld has become the main weapon against 1.d4 for many top grandmasters these days, and it's getting harder and harder for white players to face it! On Saturday Etienne Bacrot was preparing and preparing, but he didn't manage to get it right. He wanted to play something against Ian Nepomniachtchi, and worked on it until ten minutes after the game had already started (!) but time was running out, he had to go to the board and play something else instead. The players followed Bacrot's game against Kasimdzhanov from the Thessaloniki Grand Prix (there 21.Qe3 was played), and because the Frenchman didn't have an improvement, the game was drawn in a very similar way.

Here's the post-mortem of the game, hosted by GM Danny King:

The interesting thing about Ding Liren is that he plays quite sharp, aggressive King's Indians with Black, but with White he can also play quiet, strategical games. This was the case against Alexander Moiseenko; the Chinese grandmaster controlled the center with pawns on the right colour and a centralized queen, and with his other pieces and pawns he started a kingside attack. With little counterplay, Moiseenko's task was far from easy.

Here's the post-mortem:

With an early rook switch, Richard Rapport got some chances against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; the position after move 25 looked quite dangerous for Black. The Frenchman found a nice way to solve his problems with a tempory pawn sacrifice.

Here's the post-mortem:

Here's GM Danny King's round report video:

Sunday is a rest day in Biel. The seventh round will be played on Monday, with the top encounter Ding Liren vs Etienne Bacrot!

Biel 2013 | Breisacher Memorial | Pairings & results

Biel, Breisacher Memorial 2013 | Round 6 standings

Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC