Biel, Round 8
Hello again, fellow chess lovers! Today's round of Biel marked a return to peaceful results, but all three games featured an incredible amount of struggle - though it didn't show in the final results, all three of these games featured brawls to the end.
The game Navara-Georgiadis featured the luckless tail ender's first real chance to emerge with a full point! Georgiadis played an odd version of the Ragozin, and Navara missed an easy chance in the opening to play a very favourable version of the Saemisch (the sort that started in the classic game Botvinnik-Capablanca AVRO 1938). Things transposed to a very fashionable line of the Rubinstein, and the players followed established theory for a good time. Navara continued with a normal buildup for a kingside attack, and Georgiadis responded inappropriately - Navara had some chances for an immediate knockout, but these were passed over for more "normal" play. Georgiadis managed to blockade the position and temporarily win a pawn, and Navara entombed a bishop on the queenside to regain the pawn. After a long tournament of suffering, Nico finally had a shot to win a game! And the winning method wasn't completely complicated - with a full rook credit, Georgiadis simply had to move his rook to a safe square and consolidate (he even had two good squares to choose from!). But...he chose the wrong square! This didn't end the drama, as Navara made a return blunder with 34. b4?, and Georgiadis had another chance to consolidate his extra material. But...alas, Nico chose wrong again, and after some further adventures the game liquidated to a dead drawn ending. At least Nico earned a half point from the brawl, but he very easily could have come away with his first win.
The game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave-Mamedyarov featured another Open Spanish from the Azeri gladiator, and went into the classic 9...Bc5 line. This choice has a long pedigree in chess history, and an especially established presence in the history of the Soviet Chess School (many of the crazy lines in this sub variation were developed by Soviet players in the 1940s). The players dodged the main historic craziness, but still ended up in a delightfully imbalanced middlegame where Black's rook and two pawns precisely balanced out White's two minors. MVL seemed to drift a bit, and 22. Nf4 Rxf4! led to a sequence that gave Black a slightly more comfortable game. MVL put on the brakes, however, and liquidated to an ending where Black symbolic edge in activity wasn't enough for anything concrete - the players agreed to a draw just after the time control, marking a deserved end to a well fought game.
And finally, the game Svidler-Carlsen marked more good play from Svidler against Carlsen. Carlsen chose one of the more positionally oriented anti Berlins possible, which led to a well balanced game with opposite side castling. Pieces were methodically liquidated, and we eventually reached an all heavy piece ending where Svidler had a passed d pawn but no real chances to push it through. The players found a repetition just before the time control.
Tuesday's round is incredibly critical for this tournament - with only one game remaining after Tuesday, Carlsen takes the Black pieces against Mamedyarov, who leads the tournament by a full point over Carlsen. Will Carlsen go all out in an attempt to overtake Shakhryiyar? Or will the World Champion be perfectly happy with a 2nd place as a tune up for his matchup against Caruana? I'd love to see Carlsen, regardless of the result, show up on Tuesday in full battle regalia. Two 2800s dueling to the death are bound to contribute something beautiful to the art of chess. We'll see you then!