Moiseenko Beats Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren Still First in Biel
Drawing his game with Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren kept his one-point lead in the penultimate round of the Biel Chess Festival. Etienne Bacrot also drew his game, with Richard Rapport, which allowed Alexander Moiseenko to join the Frenchman in second place. Moiseenko beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in his favourite Grünfeld thanks to excellent preparation.
Reigning European Champion (and trained lawyer!) Alexander Moiseenko came to Biel together with his assistant and coach GM Alexander Zubarev. At the press conference, Moiseenko gave all credits for his win to Zubarev, who apparently was the one who had found the novelty 14.Bb5!. With this pin, White provoked ...a6 and ...b5 and then used this as a target for attack. The tactical justification was 16... Na5 17. Qb4 Bxa1 18. Rxa1 Nc4 19. Bxc4 bxc4 20. Rb1 Rfb8 21. Bf4. Moiseenko played extremely accurately, and he had seen many tricky tactics. For example, what would you play after 37...d3?
Here's the full game:
Here's the post-mortem of the game, hosted by GM Danny King:
Ding Liren could have secured at least shared first with a round to spare if he had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi on Wednesday. The Chinese GM got some chances; after an interesting tactical phase between move 29 and 38 he remained a pawn up. With little material left and all pawns on one wing, the remaining ending proved too difficult to win.
Richard Rapport didn't get anything with White against Etienne Bacrot, who responded with a sharp variation to the Hungarian's Spanish Four Knights. After the opening Black was a bit better and where he had taken lots of risk in earlier games, this time Rapport decided to play for a draw. And it worked.
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 | 1-1 | Vachier-Lagrave | |
| Moiseenko | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | Nepomniachtchi | 3-0 | Moiseenko | |
| Ding Liren | 1-1 | Rapport | Rapport | 0-3 | Ding Liren | |
| Round 4 | 25.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 9 | 31.07.12 | 14:00 CET | |
| Moiseenko | 1-1 | Bacrot | Rapport | 1-1 | Bacrot | |
| Ding Liren | 3-0 | Vachier-Lagrave | Ding Liren | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | |
| Rapport | 1-1 | Nepomniachtchi | Moiseenko | 3-0 | Vachier-Lagrave | |
| Round 5 | 26.07.12 | 14:00 CET | Round 10 | 01.08.12 | 14:00 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 9 standings
| # | Name | Fed | Rtg | + | = | - | Pts |
| 1 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2714 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 14 |
| 2 | Bacrot, Etienne | FRA | 2714 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 13 |
| 3 | Moiseenko, Alexander | UKR | 2699 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
| 4 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2719 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
| 5 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | RUS | 2717 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 6 | Rapport, Richard | HUN | 2693 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
This is from the official website:
- If two players finish with the same amount of points after the 10th and last round (Thursday 1st August 2013), there will be a tie-break on Friday 2nd August.
- The tie-break: two rapid games with 15 minutes, with increase of 10’’/move. If 1-1, two games with 5’+2”. If again 1-1, one Armageddon game with 5’ for white (has to win) and 4’ for black
- If three players finish with the same amount of points after the last round, the best player according to Sonnenborn-Berger points will be qualified for the tie-break. The two others will make a semi-final in blitz (two games with 5’+2’’; if 1-1, one Armageddon game).
- If four players finish with the same amount of points after the last round, there will be semi-finals in blitz (two games with 5’+2’’; if 1-1, one Armageddon game). The semi-finals will be Player 1- Player 4 and Player 2- Player 3 (according to Sonnenborn-Berger), with 1 and 2 having the priority to choose the colour. Then, the winners make the final, according to Point 2 (rapid and if necessary blitz games)
Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC
