Caruana Wins Biel 2010
Fabiano Caruana (pictured) won the Biel Young Grandmasters Tournament after a three way play-off with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
All three finished on a score of 5.5/9, and since the best mathematical tie-break belonged to Son, he waited to play the winner of a rapid match between Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana.
Caruana won the first rapid game, lost the second, but took the deciding sudden death game with the black pieces to progress.
In the final tie-break match against Son, Caruana nearly lost the first rapid game, but held for a draw before emerging a convincing winner in the second game to take the title.
The tournament overall was rather disappointing, with a high percentage of draws and some egregious examples of "Grandmaster Draws". A big surprise from these young talents!
Caruana picture from the official website
The final cross-table:
| Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE | 2617 | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5½ |
| Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2723 | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5½ |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2697 | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5½ |
| Andreikin, Dmitry | RUS | 2650 | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5 |
| So, Wesley | PHI | 2674 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4½ |
| Tomashevsky, Evgeny | RUS | 2708 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4½ |
| Rodshtein, Maxim | ISR | 2609 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | * | 1 | ½ | 1 | 4½ |
| Giri, Anish | NED | 2672 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | * | ½ | ½ | 4 |
| Howell, David W L | ENG | 2616 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | * | 1 | 3½ |
| Negi, Parimarjan | IND | 2615 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | * | 2½ |
