Ivanchuk and Morozevich draw in 12
It was a clash between the co-leaders of a super-tournament, and it was also one of the shortest games played this entire year: Morozevich-Ivanchuk, 1/2 after 12 moves. They're still the co-leaders as the games Gelfand-Vachier Lagrave and Alekseev-Caruana also ended in a draw.The Biel Chess Festival takes place July 18 to 31 in Biel, Switzerland. The Grandmaster Tournament is a six-player round-robin with Gelfand (2755), Morozevich (2751), Alekseev (2714), Vachier-Lagrave (2703), Ivanchuk (2703) and Caruana (2670).Round 5
Yesterday it became clear that super-tournaments that don't use the Sofia Rule are still running the risk of some very disappointing moments: already after a few minutes, at move 12, Alexander Morozevich and Vassily Ivanchuk agreed to a draw. White's 7.e3 (allowing the smooth development of Black's queen's bishop) was already not very ambitious - even theoretically speaking, as this of course has been known for decades. The resulting position is just equal and just a few moves later the players shook hands.The other games were more interesting draws. Against Gelfand's English Opening Vachier Lagrave chose a Grünfeld setup and after some manoeuvering the Frenchman's 23...e5!? changed the character of the game. White held a slight plus by using the stop square e4 and the pin along the diagonal a1-h8, which eventually resulted in an extra pawn, but the rook ending was a clear draw anyway.The best game of the day was Alekseev-Caruana and how could it have been different, with a Dragon Sicilian on that board? The players followed a game Aginian-Carlsson completely, and then continued where it had ended in a draw (at move 22). In a position with QR-QR only White could hope for some chances due to his better structure, but at the same time his king looked slightly less safe.Alekseev seems to have missed a good chance with 37.Qe5! but still came very close to a winning position anyway. Then, like in the previous round, Caruana stayed concentrated and defended strongly. The youngest player of the tournament has been showing all-round qualities so far.In this post we start using the new game viewer for the first time. We think we've solved the most important issues. More info on this viewer can be found here. Please leave comments about the viewer below that article.Games round 5
Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. Game viewer by ChessTempo
Biel Chess Festival 2009 | Schedule & results
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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