Exciting Second Round in Biel

Tuesday's second round at the Biel Chess Festival saw three decisive games. Etienne Bacrot, Alexander Moiseenko and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their games and took an early lead in the Breisacher Memorial. The tournament follows the football score system and so these three grandmasters have four points after two rounds.

The game between the 17-year-old Hungarian Richard Rapport and the 33-year-old Ukrainian Alexander Moiseenko was a Rossolimo Sicilian. In what is one of the main lines (3...g6), Moiseenko played somewhat provocatively on the kingside even though he had lost the right to castle. His pieces looked a bit clumsy, but somehow it worked and he just kept on pushing pawns there! Rapport's reaction, to break on the queenside and in the center, was logical but he didn't get enough compensation for the sacrificed pawn. Black's last move was a very nice, silent refutation of White's aggressive play.

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

The 30-year-old Frenchman Etienne Bacrot played with White against 20-year-old Ding Liren of China. Bacrot's handling of the King's Indian looked quite impressive; with the modest but subtle 5.h3 variation he managed to get an advantage on both wings. When Ding realized that things were going downhill on the queenside, he went for a remarkable plan on the other half of the board (which involved his own king!) but it led to nowhere.

Here's the post-mortem:

The 23-year-old Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi faced the 22-year-old French player Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, whose favourite defence to 1.d4 is the Gruenfeld. Therefore he was likely to be prepared for 5.h4!?, the move introduced last December by Nepomniachtchi's compatriot Alexander Morozevich. 7.cxd5 was a novelty but White's next moves were not the best, and soon Black was clearly better. Eventually the Frenchman won a pawn, and converted it after 63 moves in a double bishop ending.

Here's the post-mortem:

Here's GM Danny King's round report video:

Biel 2013 | Breisacher Memorial | Pairings & results

Biel, Breisacher Memorial 2013 | Round 2 standings

Photos courtesy of the official website, games via TWIC