Who's watching the Biel Chess Festival Tournament? Highlights of Round 1 & 2

Biel is one of the tournaments I've always wanted to play in, and hopefully, I'll get the chance to do so one day. This year's edition features an interesting lineup, balancing young talents with seasoned professionals.

The tournament is split into different groups:

Grandmaster Triathlon (Round Robin)
Challenger Triathlon (Round Robin)
Masters Tournament (Swiss System)

The Triathlon stands for three different time controls: Blitz, Rapid, and Classical.

After three rounds, here are some highlights:

Mishra's Win Over Pragg in Round 1

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Mishra started with a sensational win over Pragg with the black pieces. After a complex theoretical battle, the position became extremely unclear by move 20. Although Black's exposed king was supposed to give White more than enough compensation, Pragg wasn't able to navigate accurately and let the black king escape to safety. Mishra kept the extra material and converted masterfully.

See the full game in GIF.

Link to the game: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-biel-international-chess-festival-grandmaster-triathlon/06/Praggnanandhaa_R-Mishra_Abhimanyu

Vincent Keymer vs. Le Quang Liem 0-1

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An interesting encounter between two tournament heavyweights. The tense strategic battle seemed headed for a draw until the dreaded 40th move for Vincent. (By the way, the 40th move is statistically where the most mistakes happen, as it is the last move to reach additional time control.)

A simple 40.axb5 would have led to a slightly superior pawn structure for White in a seemingly equal rook endgame. However, Vincent played 40.g4?, allowing Black to get active after the trade of rooks with 40...bxc4. The black king became much more active than White's. Le Quang's technique for the rest of the game was highly instructive.

See the full game in GIF.

Link to the game: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-biel-international-chess-festival-grandmaster-triathlon/06/Keymer_Vincent-Le_Quang_Liem

Haik Martirosyan vs. Vincent Keymer

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What a game this was! I was happy to see Haik invited to this tournament. He crossed 2700 at one point last year but hasn't had good tournaments since. His style is unique, combining deep positional understanding from the Armenian chess school with concrete dynamic play. I see similarities to Abdusattorov's style.

The game started with a standard Semi-Slav Defense, with Haik opting for the Anti-Meran Gambit, trading the dark-squared bishop early for the f6 knight. White claimed the superior pawn structure out of the opening, leading to a comfortable advantage throughout the game.

Around move 35, it seemed like White had a considerable advantage on the board and the clock. The computer evaluated it as +3. However, where is the break? Vincent showed impeccable resilience for the rest of the game.

You can now check out the GIF for the full game and then come back here for important moments.

Link to the game: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-biel-international-chess-festival-grandmaster-triathlon/07/Martirosyan_Haik_M_-Keymer_Vincent

Here comes the break after some 15 moves later, culminating in a spectacular little combination to simplify the game into a winning rook endgame. See the picture for the Diagram 1, names of the files should correspond to players.

That's correct, 54.Qf6 does the trick, resulting in a winning rook endgame. See the Diagram 2.

It's going to be a race, and White seems to be way ahead, with Black still needing to capture on a5 to get the pawns rolling.

Critical position arrived on move 69. where White could have sealed the deal. Take some time to think through what is going on and how White can win. The position is very instructive.

See the Diagram 3.

The winning idea is to play 69.Rd7! immediately. The line goes: 69...Kg8 70.d5 a3 71.d6 Rb4 72.g4 a2 73.Rd8+ Kh7 74.Ra8, and after neutralizing the a2 pawn, White's connected passed pawns should ensure a win.

However, the game saw 69.h6+?, which throws away the win.

In the same line, Black has a key defensive idea: 72...Rb4! The h6 pawn is too far advanced and will be lost. What a difference one subtle pawn move can make, especially when advancing forward. See the Diagram 4.

Tough miss for Haik and what a save by Vincent.

Shankland vs. Mishra

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Second black game in a row? No problem for Mishra. It's a bang!

Sam seemed to have a comfortable advantage in the first phase of the game, with two bishops and an extra hour on the clock. However, nothing concrete came of it, and after reaching the second time control, Sam weakened his kingside unnecessarily.

See the full game in GIF.

Link to the game: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-biel-international-chess-festival-grandmaster-triathlon/07/Shankland_Sam-Mishra_Abhimanyu

The high point of the game for Mishra was his conversion technique at the end.

See the Diagram 5. Black to play and win.

The natural-looking 91...Kg1 doesn't work due to 92.Ke2! Kxh1 93.Kf1!, and we have reached a theoretically drawn position. As crazy as it may sound, the knight alone cannot kick the white king away from the f1 and f2 squares, so there is no way to make progress!

Instead, Mishra played 91...Kf1! With the help of Zugzwang, the white king cannot stay near the f1 square, so Black wins!

See the Diagram 6 for the final position.

Up next, we'll delve into the Challengers section, where numerous surprising twists and turns have taken place!

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