The Biel GM group has been a balanced affair through the first three of its nine rounds. No one has more than a single win and only van Wely has managed to lose two out of three. The leaders with 2/3 are Carlsen, Onischuk, and Motylev. Top seed Radjabov has played three draws: two wildly complex King's Indian's with black and a brief draw with white against Bu Xiangzhi. Grischuk missed a knockout blow against him in the third round. 55.Rxf4 would have ended the game immediately. Despite that flaw, the game contained a steady flow of sensational ideas and earned the rare "a wonderful game!" honor from Kasparov. 37.e5! opening the b1-h7 diagonal; 43..g4 was an amazing concept in return.
There have been quite a few other interesting games despite the high ratio of draws. The computer points out a cute shot that might have saved Polgar a loss against Bu Xiangzhi. 22..Bxf2+! 23.Kxf2 Qc5+ 24.e3 Nxd2 25.Rxc5 Nxb3. An elegant combination of tactical themes. The game itself had its share as well. Bu Xiangzhi moved two pieces backwards to a2, strong both times.
Thursday was a rest day. Polgar-Radjabov should be a good one in Friday's round four.
I don't suppose Judit hasn't seen an obvious combination like that. She must've underestimated her chances after the simplifications and chose a different route.
round 4
Motylev deserves the price of 'Idiot of the day'.
Maybe he thought that Qxg7 and Nf5, or Qxe8 was possible, but anyway, he made a mistake a 1600 player wouldn't make.
He played pretty well in the earlier stages against a genius on the rise, so maybe blunder of the day is more appropriate?
For some reason, I do not think Motylov is an idiot. Don't know why, perhaps because he outplayed Carlsen today...
Unfortunate blunder by Motylev today in a winning position, forgetting that his knight on g3 was pinned. Happens to everyone sometimes - anyone still remember Kramnik hanging mate in one against Fritz?
Nice games by Onischuk and Avrukh. Avrukh is the only one in this tournament that I know personally, and he's a very nice guy, so it's good to see him doing well.
Grischuk seems to have screwed up an unscrewuppable position and is going to snatch another draw from the jaws of victory.
Good, so it wasn't just my imagination that Motylev was playing very well today and at times winning until his blunder.
I stand corrected about Grischuk. Pelletier's 41...h5 looked like a ?? move. I'm not sure how white makes progress if black just shifts the king between d6 and e6 (if white plays Bf4, black can start moving the bishop back and forth along the a7-g1 diagonal, since the knight is no longer attacked). But then again, I probably shouldn't talk. I failed to win a similar position against Yuri Shulman some number of years back (opposite colored bishops, black pawns fixed on h7-g6 by white bishop on d3, white has an extra pawn), so maybe I just don't know how to play endgames. :)
Interestingly, Pelletier thought more than 45 minutes about 41...h5... :-)
interestingly,first reaction of fritz was also 41..h5 for pelletier so it wasn't a ??move.we wait for the experts..my first impression was also that grish messedup the endgame,but they were a lot of subtle moves so what do i know?nice queen pseudosacrifice by grish anyway!
Dany,
Have you never known Fritz to suggest clearly suspect moves at first glance, only to have the evaluation change dramatically momentarily?
Hotep,
Maliq
White could have just played g5 followed by h4-h5 if black just did nothing in the Grischuk game. That's why Pelletier decided on h5.