Biel, Round 5

Salutations, my dear friends! Round 5 of Biel kicked off, and with a rest day to follow this round we were hoping to be treated to maximum effort from all of the participants. And so we were - even the non decisive results featured lots of fight!

The first game to finish was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave-Georgiadis - Nico's hat had to be feeling snazzy with the gaudy feather of a draw against Carlsen, while MVL was looking to get his tournament back on track after a dispiriting 1 of 4 start to the tournament. MVL issued the English, but not for the stereotypical slow positional massage - instead, after 2...e6, he issued 3. e4 and the Mikenas Attack! This is most certainly not your granddad's English - White's immediate central thrust tends to lead to sacrifices and hanging pawns and all sorts of unwholesome attacking themes. Georgiadis chose 3...d5 (the other mainline being 3...c5, with a White pawn sacrifice typically happening that gives him chances of a strong bind), and play went along fairly traditional lines - MVL chose the traditional 7. Nf3 instead of the new fangled 7. Bd3!? that had a brief spurt of popularity (it's possible that 7. d4 is the most accurate move order, but transpositions between it and 7. Nf3 are quite likely). Nico chose the somewhat unpopular 7...Nc6 (likely unpopular for good reason - the two main moves 7...e5 and 7...c5 are logical and more established), and MVL continued with normal Mikenas moves to reach a position with hanging pawns but excellent development, open lines, and generally pleasant activity. 15...b6 was most likely unwise, and MVL immediately seized some tactical opportunities with 16. c5! MVL won a pawn after a short forced sequence, and the game liquidated down to a two rooks + knight ending where White had no chances to lose and a passed a-pawn for pushing. Technical progress could have been difficult, however - the passed pawn was isolated, and it would have been difficult to break a blockade had Georgiadis simply held tight and forced MVL to find something. Georgiadis, however, did not hold tight - 29...Ne7 and 30...Nd5? was the wrong way to repeat moves, and MVL managed to organize an attack against the c pawn (the principle of two weaknesses at work - just the passed a pawn isn't enough!). MVL penetrated to the 7th and won Black's f pawn - Georgiadis could have made life more difficult had he just captured the a pawn and forced MVL to find the win, but 34...Ra5? was too clever - White shortly forced the win of Black's rook with an obvious tactic, and Black resigned. A good way to get MVLs tournament back into action, and another messy game from Georgiadis - almost all of his games have featured gaudy sacrifices in lieu of normal moves, and today his ornate play did not work.

A somewhat more peaceful game (but still hard fought!) was Svidler-Navara, which featured a 4. e3 English Four Knights - hey, I know a few things about this line! Navara replied with the trendy mainline 4...Bb4, with 5. Qc2 as the normal rejoinder. 5...Bxc3 has become the new mainline, as 5...0-0 allows White too much leeway to comfortably meet (English players in the 1970s were specialists in 5...0-0 6. Nd5 Re8 7. Qf5!?, looking to damage Black's pawn structure). Svidler responded with the classically inclined 6. Qxc3, but the real trend lately has been 6. bxc3!? - White avoids losing time with his queen and looks to establish a Botvinnik style pawn triangle with d3 and e4. Svidler, however, has extensive experience playing against this, so perhaps he knows something we don't... 7. b3 followed, which I think is a trend that will die out - 7. d4 is the most logical, when White tries to make something of his two bishops against Black's lead in development. Caruana did win a high profile game in the 2018 Candidates against Karjakin with 7. b3, but post game analysis showed some excellent equalizing resources that Karjakin missed. Navara played very directly with 7...d5, and 8. d4 perhaps demonstrated that 7. d4 should have been played to begin with. The game eventually reached a queenless middlegame where the bishops vs. bishop and knight was the only imbalance in the position - the bishop pair grow in power with pawn imbalances and pawn breaks, but without any Svidler's bishop pair had no way to grow in scope. Navara defended very professionally, and the game liquidated to complete peace and a draw just after the time control had been reached.

Of course, the fight of the day was Carlsen-Mamedyarov, and the two gentlemen did not disappoint with their struggle - while it may not have been fireworks, it was still a prolonged grappling match where neither showed any inclination for an early draw. Carlsen issued the Spanish, and chose one of the many slow systems that result in the the amorphous c3/d3/e4 structure that denotes many of the slower Spanish systems. Carlsen chose a very early Bg5, almost goading Black to push on with ...h6 and ...g5 (which is perfectly thematic in many Spanish and Italian positions). Mamedyarov chose the quieter option of simply castling, and after 12. Re1 we reached a position that Mamedyarov has actually had twice before in two games against Grischuk. Mamedyarov deviated with 12...Bxb3, which looks perfect logical to me - each of White's possible recaptures has a drawback. Carlsen chose to slightly misplace his knight with 13. Nxb3 (takes it off the usual "Spanish track" of d2-f1-g3), and Mamedyarov chose a Breyer style regrouping with 13...Nb8. Carlsen pushed on with the normal looking d4, but this looks like it loses some punch without the Spanish bishop and with Carlsen's remaining bishop marooned on h4. However, Carlsen seemed to develop a bit of pressure with his active rook, and he used this marauding torre to change the structure with 24. Rxc6!? Carlsen never seemed to develop a grip on the position, however, and we reached a queen + bishop and knight vs. queen + two knights endgame where Carlsen's bishop didn't really have anything to do while Mamedyarov had appreciable pressure on the kingside. This pressure wasn't necessarily dangerous, but kept Carlsen from developing any play of his own. Carlsen developed a passed c pawn, but Mamedyarov seemed to have everything under control. Carlsen made some optical progress by getting his pawn to c5, but otherwise had no concrete chances for an advantage - Carlsen probed for awhile, but finally agreed to a draw at move 67. Not flashy, but a very professionally hard fought game from both 2800s.

With today's results we remain knotted at the top, with Carlsen and Mamedyarov sharing the lead with 3.5/5. Svidler occupies the 3rd spot by himself with 3/5, Navara with 2.5/5, MVL with a slightly more respectable 2/5, and Georgiadis with a tough 0.5/5 (but what a .5!) Friday features Round 6 with Navara-Carlsen, Svidler-MVL, and Mamedyarov looking to get his chance at a point against Georgiadis - we'll see you then!