Carlsen Clinches Biel With a Round to Spare
Magnus Carlsen struggled against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave once again (despite having White), but managed to obtain enough counterplay to hold the balance. And that was good enough to clinch clear first in the 2011 edition of Biel, as Alexander Morozevich lost his first game in the tournament. Morozevich played the ultra-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit in the Semi-Slav against Fabiano Caruana, and it looked like the Italian (send him back!) was better prepared. He kept the pawn, traded queens, neutralized White's bishop pair and won the ending. Finally, Shirov-Pelletier was a fairly short, safe draw in a sideline of the Rubinstein French.
Standings After Round 9:
1. Carlsen 18 (of 27 on the official 3-1-0 scoring used here; 6.5/9 on normal scoring)
2. Morozevich 14 (5.5)
3-4. Vachier-Lagrave, Shirov 11 (4.5)
5. Caruana 9 (3.5)
6. Pelletier 5 (2.5)
(A programming note: the final round starts earlier than usual - play begins at 11 a.m. CET/5 a.m. ET.)
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