Biel 2012, Round 6: Two Draws And Another Bolozevich Loss
The second cycle got underway today at Biel, and Wang Hao still leads after a short and easy draw with the black pieces against Etienne Bacrot. If White ever had anything, it was gone by move 20, and the rest was mass liquidation leading to a draw.
Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen had their second draw of the event, and like Bacrot-Wang Hao it was a Gruenfeld. This one too was quicker than it seemed. After Nakamura's 11.c5, Carlsen thought for half an hour and found an effective way to hoover up all the minor pieces to reach a drawn major piece ending; after that, it was just a matter of engineering a draw that would satisfy the nannies.
Finally, Anish Giri moved to clear second by beating poor Viktor Bologan in a 92-move marathon. Giri went up a pawn in the opening, but this wasn't easy to convert at all. After 30 moves they reached a position with rooks, opposite-colored bishops and knights, with each side having an a-pawn and White enjoying a 4-3 kingside majority. After 20 more moves White's e-pawn had been swapped for Black's f-pawn, but nothing much else had changed. What eventually made the difference was the poor position of Black's king. Giri seized the 7th rank, cutting off Black's king on the back rank, and that forced Bologan to make concessions that eventually proved fatal.
Standings After Round 6:
1. Wang Hao 13 (based on 3-1-0 scoring)
2. Giri 11
3. Nakamura 9
4. Carlsen 7 (based on five games)
5. Bacrot 5
6. Morozevich/Bologan 0 (based on five games)
Tomorrow is a rest day, except for Bologan and Carlsen, who will play their round 3 game. Round 7 will be Monday.
Reader Comments (7)
What eventually made the difference was the poor position of Black's king. Giri seized the 7th rank, cutting off Black's king on the back rank, and that forced Bacrot to make concessions that eventually proved fatal.
That should be Bologan, not Bacrot. Feel free to delete this part of the comment.
[DM: I would, but so many people commented on it I'll leave the whole lot of them.]
And three straight losses capped with a 90+ move loss, and for a reward you get Magnus Carlsen with no time to rest or prepare. They need to double whatever it is they're paying Bologan. This is like making a boxer get up and fight another fight the same night he gets KO'ed.
[DM: Yeah, it's not really good times for Bologan. Even more's the pity that he has had decent chances for a draw or more late into all or almost all of the games.]
Edit: Toward the end of your description of the Bolozevich game, Bologan suddenly became Bacrot, who had already been accounted for elsewhere.
[DM: Righty-o.]
You mean "...that forced Bologan to make concessions..."
[DM: You got it.]
Dennis, I think you meant Bologan made the concession. (last sentence)
[DM: Yep.]
Surely, the peaceful Wang Hao leading a 3-1-0 scoring event is unexpected.
[DM: I think you're confusing him with Wang Yue. Wang Hao has generally been a pretty sharp, fighting player in my experience. It is a surprise that he's leading though, but more because of his rating compared to Carlsen's, Nakamura's, and pre-departure Morozevich's.]
Bolozevich is headed for the Isle of Col. Moreau. Moreau's 23-round 0-fer is in an interesting interval of my all-time performances sorted by (unscaled) raw error as seen by Rybka 3 at depth 13:
Rank Move-match% Error/move #Moves Player Event/file
31625 45.8% 0.245 570 Tal, Mihail SaintJohnBlitz1988R3d13
31626 47.8% 0.245 385 Ryan, John S NewYork1893R3d13
31627 37.6% 0.245 165 Smorodsky, Andr USSR03ch1924AvailR3d13
31628 47.9% 0.245 655 Moreau, C. MonteCarlo1903R3d13
31629 54.7% 0.245 267 Yedidia, Jonath USAJrCh1983R3d13
31630 46.6% 0.245 1091 Hanham, James M NewYork1889R3d13
31631 51.2% 0.245 250 Kramer, George NewYork1948R3d13
31632 59.1% 0.245 208 Steinitz, Willi SteinitzGolmayoZupide1883R3d13
31633 50.8% 0.245 386 Showalter, Jack NewYork1893R3d13
They're all just outside the worst 400 of 32,087 performances I've tallied to date (about to collate some more). Of course Tal won the St. John Blitz---but it was blitz. For comparison, I've run one performance by our host, around top 20% all time!
6078 54.0% 0.070 287 Monokroussos, D NACA17FI2008R3d13
[DM: Woohoo! Go host!]
Your post's last sentence confused Bologan and Bacrot. You wrote: "Giri seized the 7th rank ... and that forced Bacrot
to make concessions that eventually proved fatal." Don't you mean Bologan?
By the way, how long must a game be to qualify as a "marathon"?
[DM: Bologan/Bacrot: Join the crowd. :) As for marathon, I don't have a ready definition for you, but I'm inclined to think that a 90-mover surely qualifies, at least as long as the players are playing at a normal rate.]