Alekseev catches Dominguez and wins tiebreak

Nobody could have guessed the scenario of the climax in Biel: the leader, Dominguez, lost to Bacrot, allowing Alekseev, who beat Pelletier, to catch him. The Russian then defeated the Cuban in the tiebreak (blitz) final.

Photo ?Ǭ© http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/

It ain't over till it's over. Poor Dominguez, who was so sure of tournament victory, probably became victim of some fine piece of opening preparation by Bacrot. The Frenchman's 14.Qd3!? was new and the beautuful pointe 15.d5! led to a better ending which he nicely converted to a win.

Carlsen had to be satisfied with a draw against Onischuk, but Alekseev did manage to catch the leader by beating the luckless Pelletier. This meant a tiebreak was necessary to decide on the winner of Biel 2008, and in the second blitz game Alekseev proved to be the strongest. Here are the games of round 10 plus tiebreak; we'll leave it here to catch up with the other chess news. First round of Sochi, and of course Mainz, will be next on the menu!



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Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN: tournament and playoff