Carlsen beats Caruana in 4th round Biel

Magnus Carlsen defeated Fabiano Caruana at the Biel Chess Festival on Friday. The Norwegian strengthened his lead to 4 points in the football scoring system. The games Alexei Shirov vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alexander Morozevich vs Yannick Pelletier ended in draws.

General info

The 44th Biel Chess Festival takes place July 16-29 in Biel, Switzerland. The ‘Grandmaster Tournament’ is a six-player, double round robin with Caruana, Pelletier, Shirov, Carlsen, Morozevich and Vachier-Lagrave.The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from move 61. The ‘football’ scoring system is in effect: three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. Besides, no draw offers are permitted before move 30. More info here.

Round 4

Obviously Magnus Carlsen is the big star in Biel this year, and it easily explains the coverage he got today at the tournament website, about how he spent his rest day.

Magnus Carlsen has enjoyed a nice visit at the Swiss Tennis Center on Thursday 21st July. He could practice with Anastasia Vovk, Russian talent (18 yo) who belongs to the Swiss Tennis Academy, to improve his technique, under the supervision of national coach Rolf Bühler. Magnus Carlsen, who is a known Roger Federer admirer, admits that his style is more similar to Rafael Nadal.

There are some photos on the SwissTennis website about this.

Friday must have been quite a disturbing day for the 20-year-old Norwegian, who might not have heard about the terrible news from his home country before starting his game with Fabiano Caruana.

Update July 23, 2011 10:05 CET: at his blog, Carlsen wrote: “After the game today I heard about the horrible murderous double-attack on innocent people in and near Oslo this afternoon. Chess does not feel very important right now. I feel sorry for the victims and their families.”

As our thoughts are with Norway today, here’s what happened in that game.

Carlsen-Caruana
Biel, 2011

19. Nd4!?
An interesting but also slightly risky exchange sac.
19… Bxf1 20. Kxf1 Nb6 21. Nxc6 Rfe8 22. a4!
Putting the opponent under more pressure.
22… Kf8!
Caruana reactes well to Carlsen’s creative play.
23. a5 Nc4 24. Bc1 a6?!
With 24… f5! Black could have taken the upper hand, but it’s a difficult, tactical line: 25. Bxf5 Rxe1+ 26. Kxe1 Ne5! 27. Nxe5 Re8! 28. f4 Bxe5 29. Kf2 Bd4+ 30. Kf3 Re1 31. Bd2 Rf1+ 32. Ke4 Bg1! with the better chances.
25. f4

Both players thought the game was over here, as White is trapping the knight on c4.
25… Re6?
With the wonderful tactic 25… Ne3+! (missed by both players) 26. Rxe3 (26. Bxe3 Rxe4) 26… Bxf4 the game goes on: 27. Rf3 Bxc1 28. Bd5 f6 29. Kf2 and it’s tough to say who’s better.
26. Bd5!
Winning on the spot – the knight on c4 is doomed.
26…Rf6 27. Re4 1-0

Alexei Shirov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished their game rather quickly. In a 6.h3 Najdorf the position at move 21 seemed full of possibilities, but apparently both players weren’t so sure and decided to repeat moves. Alexander Morozevich got a small edge against Yannick Pelletier in a Rubinstein French, but a bishop ending was just drawn when Black could block all entry points for the opponent’s king.

Biel 2011 | Schedule & results

Round 1	18.07.11	14:00 CET		Round 6	25.07.11	14:00 CET
Caruana	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave		Vachier-Lagrave	-	Caruana
Pelletier	0-1	Carlsen		Carlsen	-	Pelletier
Shirov	½-½	Morozevich		Morozevich	-	Shirov
Round 2	19.07.11	14:00 CET		Round 7	26.07.11	14:00 CET
Vachier-Lagrave	0-1	Morozevich		Morozevich	-	Vachier-Lagrave
Carlsen	1-0	Shirov		Shirov	-	Carlsen
Caruana	½-½	Pelletier		Pelletier	-	Caruana
Round 3	20.07.11	14:00 CET		Round 8	27.07.11	14:00 CET
Pelletier	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave		Vachier-Lagrave	-	Pelletier
Shirov	1-0	Caruana		Caruana	-	Shirov
Morozevich	½-½	Carlsen		Carlsen	-	Morozevich
Round 4	22.07.11	14:00 CET		Round 9	28.07.11	14:00 CET
Shirov	½-½	Vachier-Lagrave		Carlsen	-	Vachier-Lagrave
Morozevich	½-½	Pelletier		Morozevich	-	Caruana
Carlsen	1-0	Caruana		Shirov	-	Pelletier
Round 5	23.07.11	14:00 CET		Round 10	29.07.11	11:00 CET
Vachier-Lagrave	-	Carlsen		Vachier-Lagrave	-	Shirov
Caruana	-	Morozevich		Pelletier	-	Morozevich
Pelletier	-	Shirov		Caruana	-	Carlsen

Biel 2011 | Round 4 Standings (Classical)

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts	SB
1	Carlsen,M	2821	3015		½	1	1		1	3.5	5.75
2	Morozevich,A	2694	2800	½		½	½	1		2.5	5
3	Shirov,A	2714	2737	0	½			½	1	2	3
4	Pelletier,Y	2590	2648	0	½			½	½	1.5	2.5
5	Vachier Lagrave,M	2722	2589		0	½	½		½	1.5	2.25
6	Caruana,F	2711	2521	0		0	½	½		1	1.5

Biel 2011 | Round 4 Standings (Football)

#	Name	Fed	Elo	Points
1.	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2815	10
2.	Alexander Morozevich	RUS	2694	6
3.	Alexei Shirov	ESP	2714	5
4-5.	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	FRA	2722	3
4-5.	Yannick Pelletier	SUI	2590	3
6.	Fabiano Caruana	ITA	2711	2