Biel's Breisacher Memorial: Three Draws In Round 1

The 46th edition of the Biel Chess Festival has started on Monday. This year, the main event is a memorial for Olivier Breisacher, the festival's tournament director who sadly passed away last summer during a holiday. The first round saw three draws in the games Nepomniachtchi-Bacrot, Vachier-Lagrave-Rapport and Moiseenko-Ding Liren.

As always the festival in Biel (this year running from July 20th-August 2nd) has many side events, for instance a big open, rapid, blitz and Chess960 tournaments, a youth tournament and even a chess-tennis tournament! The main event is again a six-player double round robin tournament, this time slighly weaker than in previous years. The players are Etienne Bacrot (France), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Ding Liren (China), and Richard Rapport (Hungary).

The first round started peacefully, with all three games ending in draws. The shortest game was still very interesting, and right from the start! Rapport played 3...Nd4 in the Ruy Lopez, known as the Bird Defence, and his opponent Maxime Vachier-Lagrave reacted aggressively with 6.b4 and 7.c4. Just when White seemed to be getting the upper hand, Black suddenly chopped off a pawn on h3 and the game ended in perpetual check! 

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

Etienne Bacrot repeated a line in the Semi-Tarrasch in which he had lost to Peter Svidler at the recent Grand Prix in Thessaloniki. Back then the opening wasn't the problem, and also in this game the opening went well for the Frenchman. Black's Ra8-a7-a8 was remarkable but it worked thanks to his 22nd and 23rd move. Great tactics, based on 24.Rxe7?! Bxf3 25.Qxf3 Rb1+ 26.Rd1 Qe4!. Black won a pawn, but Nepomniachtchi found a tricky way to reach a queen ending which was just enough to hold the game.

Here's the post-mortem:

Alexander Moiseenko and Ding Liren played a King's Indian. 5.Bd3 is a solid sideline which has quite some theory these days. Black's temporary pawn sac on d4 was known and after that the Chinese used some nice tactics to "keep White busy".

Here's the post-mortem:

The organizers also offered the following video in which GM Danny King gives a round report. It includes comments by Vachier-Lagrave and Rapport:

 Tomorrow's second round has Bacrot - Ding Liren, Rapport - Moiseenko and Nepomniachtchi - Vachier-Lagrave starting at 14:00 local time.

Biel 2013 | Breisacher Memorial | Pairings & results

Biel, Breisacher Memorial 2013 | Round 1 standings

Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC