Wins for Vachier-Lagrave and Morozevich in Biel

Morozevich recovered well from his two losses by adding another victory to his score. The Russian beat Gelfand in round 7 of the Biel Chess Festival and is back on top again, sharing the lead with Ivanchuk, who drew with Alekseev, and Vachier-Lagrave, who beat Caruana.

Playing Morozevich, Gelfand blundered again

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 7

In round 2 Gelfand blundered horribly against Morozevich while defending a difficult ending, and yesterday Israel's number one suffered an even worse fate against the same opponent. He had gradually built up a clear advantage with the white pieces, only to spoil it in heavy timetrouble - one move gave away the advantage and the next was even losing. At least Morozevich, who lost unnecessarily against Caruana, was treated fair by Caissa this time!

The other winner of the day was Vachier-Lagrave, who had drawn all of his games before the 7th round and is now suddenly in shared first place. He played strongly against the Berlin Wall of Caruana, who had a bit of an off-day, or so it seemed.

Ivanchuk held on to a slight plus throughout his game against Alekseev but thanks to a clever pawn sacrifice, switching from passive defence to active counterplay against the white king, the Russian just held his own.

Two of the three leaders meet each other in the 8th round: Morozevich and Vachier-Lagrave.

Games round 7

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Biel Chess Festival 2009 | GM Tournament | Round 7 Standings


Biel Chess Festival 2009 | Schedule & results


Photos courtesy of the Biel Chess Festival

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