[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Biel, Round 3

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Biel, Round 3
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1216792083.shtml


   This is the way tournaments are supposed to be, with lots of wins and
   a fight in every game. Only one game of the three was drawn, and that
   happened only when it was obvious that a draw would result. That game
   was Dominguez-Alekseev, a Berlin Defense where Black successfully
   minimized White's initiative while solving the traditional problem of
   Black's uncoordinated rooks.
   Onischuk-Pelletier should have been a draw as well, but Pelletier's
   decision on move 26 to take on a potentially weak, isolated d-pawn,
   and the paradoxical, panicky-looking decision on move 29 to try to
   liquidate it, resulted in the loss of the pawn and then the game.
   Finally, Carlsen-Bacrot was lively but a little strange. Bacrot
   outplayed Carlsen, despite the Black pieces and the quiet opening (an
   Exchange Queen's Gambit Declined), but Carlsen complicated the game
   and Bacrot lost the thread quickly, going from clearly better on move
   25 to clearly worse two moves later and dead lost just two moves after
   that. (Time pressure?) The bottom line is that Carlsen is in clear
   first, even though he isn't getting anything from his openings, and
   I'm guessing (but don't know for sure) that if the tournament were to
   stop right now and get rated, he'd have passed Anand for the #1
   position in the world rankings. There are seven rounds to go, however,
   and here are the pairings for round 4:
   Round 4 Pairings: (On Thursday; Wednesday is a rest day)
   Pelletier - Alekseev
   Onischuk - Carlsen
   Dominguez - Bacrot
   Standings after Round 3:
   1. Carlsen 2.5
   2-3. Alekseev, Onischuk 2
   4. Dominguez 1.5
   5-6. Bacrot, Pelletier
   Tournament site [1]here; games, with my comments, [2]here.

References

   1. http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/cms/
   2. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/biel2008_rd3.htm