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Vidit storms to 1st Biel Title with a round to spare!

by Tanmay Srinath - 30/07/2019

He's done it! Vidit Santosh Gujarathi dominates the Biel Chess Festival 2019 and wins it with a round to spare! Today he pressed for 41 moves against Abdusattorov, but decided to take a draw after his tournament victory was assured with Shankland's draw against Bogner. Sam was considerably worse out of a Grunfeld, but his opponent Bogner seemed to be in a peaceful mood, and they ended up splitting the point. Leko took no time in recovering from yesterday's loss, crushing Cori with an elegant exchange sacrifice in the late middlegame. Georgiadis missed a huge chance to put Maghsoodloo under pressure, and had to fight to split the point. An extensive report from Biel by Tanmay Srinath.

The tournament in Biel is nearly over, and we have a winner before the last round! Vidit Gujarathi played consistent and aggressive chess, and because both him and Shankland drew their games this round he has a insurmountable four point cushion going into the last round. Sam, who was in a must win situation, was struggling to create winning chances, but landed in hot soup and managed to somehow escape. Peter Leko struck back immediately after losing yesterday, by beating Jorge Cori in a classical French to jump back to 3rd with a round to go. Georgiadis and Maghsoodloo drew a crazy Grunfeld where both sides could have improved their play multiple times. Let's get into the thick of things:

Leko 1-0 Cori

Leko's enormous tournament experience came to the fore today. One felt that the former World Championship runner up was running out of steam when he had an average Blitz tournament and lost to Maghsoodloo yesterday, but Peter managed to rejuvenate his game by returning to his favourite 1.e4 for his last White game. He then managed to systematically outplay the young Peruvian GM and win. Here are the critical moments:

Leko's played a commendable tournament till now. Can he wrap it up well tomorrow? | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Leko-Cori

Cori chooses the Classical variation of the French against Leko's 1.e4.

This is the main line of the variation. Cori chose 7...Be7, a worthy alternative to the main line 7...a6 and 7...cxd4.

This is a variation from 12.Qf2. Can you find why 13...f6? is a mistake?

Somehow Black's early middlegame play wasn't entirely convincing. After 16.f5! Leko won a pawn by force, and it looked as if Black's attack wasn't that serious.

We can now see Leko's idea - the highlighted pieces are wonderful multi-taskers!

The only mistake Leko made in the game - can you find why 26.Rc3? loses White his advantage?

Cori missed his chance and White is now winning, as Black has no compensation for the two missing pawns.

37.Bb4! was amazing judgement from Leko in time trouble. He realised that the endgame that arises by force in a few moves is easily winning for White. What more - the all powerful engines take a lot of time to appreciate his idea!

White's pawns are too fast, and Leko won in a few more moves.

Peter has played very confident chess the entire event. Can he finish on a high tomorrow? | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Bogner 0.5-0.5 Shankland

When top players want to play for the win, they choose the Grunfeld against 1.d4. While the opening is universally accepted as one of the soundest ways to get unbalanced positions, recent trends seem to favour White, and Bogner managed to outplay Shankland before peacefully exchanging queens, missing out on a wonderful pseudo queen sacrifice:

Shankland couldn't win today, but he will be happy he didn't get punished for over-pressing | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Bogner-Shankland

Bogner took on g7 and the players traded down to a dead drawn rook endgame. Instead, 34.Qe7!! was much better, keeping Black all tied up. Taking the queen loses due to the weak back rank, and after the relatively best 34...Na5 35.h4! h5 36.Qg5 Black is close to lost - it is very hard for him to move. 

Vidit 0.5-0.5 Abdusattorov

Vidit chose the Catalan today, and while he got a slight advantage, it was never enough to play for a win. With Shankland struggling in his game, Vidit simplified into a drawn endgame, and split the point on move 41:

Both players didn't shy away from a battle, but the tournament situation meant they were fine with a draw. | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Vidit-Abdusattorov

Vidit took the endgame into a risk free endgame where only White can can continue to press. He didn't get far enough, and pragmatically decided to split the point and ensure tournament victory.

Calm, composed and focused - Vidit Gujarathi, the new Biel Champion! | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Georgiadis 0.5-0.5 Maghsoodloo

This was a fighting game between two players, where Nico missed a big opportunity to get excellent winning chances:

Despite the fact that both players were not fighting for 1st place, they gave it their all! | Photo : Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

Georgiadis-Maghsoodloo

It doesn't take much effort to spot that 21.d6! grants White a long term bind. The idea is to meet 21...f6 with 22.Rc7! Rxc7 23.dxc7 Rc8 24.Qxa7 with a dominating position. Instead, 21.dxe6?! was too timid, and Nico had to fight in the end to draw.

With 1st place decided, the battle for 2nd is fierce. Who will take 2nd and 3rd in the end?

About the Author

Tanmay Srinath is an 18-year-old chess player from Bangalore, Karnataka, currently pursuing both chess and engineering at BMSCE Bangalore. Tanmay is also a Taekwondo Black Belt, who has represented the country in an International Tournament in Thailand. He is a big fan of Mikhail Tal and Vishy Anand, and sincerely believes in doing his bit to Power Chess in India!


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