Third Round in Biel: Three Fighting Draws

Wednesday's third round at the Biel Chess Festival saw three draws, but again the players went for a real fight. The quickest result was seen in Alexander Moiseenko vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi, a Gruenfeld  where Black equalized quickly after the rare moves 6.b4 Nc6!?. Etienne Bacrot was lucky today as his opening setup failed and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a winning exchange sacrifice, only to spoil his position later on. Ding Liren vs. Richard Rapport was an interesting Benoni, Four Pawns Attack where both players missed a winning move for White.

At the press conference Nepomniachtchi said that his 6...Nc6 had been inspired by a similar idea in the Dutch Defence. 8.c5 might have been critical but Black is always in time with the move ...a6. In the game he didn't have any problems either, and so the Russian's concept is just another way of dealing with the innocuous 6.b4 in the Gruenfeld.

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

Ding Liren likes sharp positions and so his choice of the Four Pawns Attack against Richard Rapport was logical, and his early aggression with g2-g4 as well! This was all theory, by the way, but Rapport didn't know this. He found the correct reply anyway: the excellent ...h6 and ...h5 which involved a temporary pawn sac. White's 22.f5 was also strong and everything remained a bit unclear until both players suddenly missed the possibility of 28.Re1! ("and I can resign" - Rapport). In the game the exchange of the light pieces led to an immediate draw.

Here's the post-mortem:

The all-French battle between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot was arguably the most interesting game of the day. Bacrot's 11th move could have been the start of some enormous complications on the kingside, as the players showed at the press conference. 12...fxg3!? 13.bxc6 gxf2+ 14.Rxf2 Be3 15.Nd5 Bxf2+ 16.Kxf2 bxc6 was mentioned by Vachier-Lagrave and there was also 14... Nxg3!? 15. fxg3 Be3+. In the game, Bacrot decided to take the material, but White had more than enough compensation. In fact both 19.Nc6 Qf8 20. Rd8 Ne8 21.Ne5 and 22. Ba3 followed by taking on c7 were winning lines for White, but Vachier-Lagrave spoilt it.

Here's the post-mortem:

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

Biel 2013 | Breisacher Memorial | Pairings & results

Biel, Breisacher Memorial 2013 | Round 3 standings

Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC