The Week in Chess

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Liren Ding 2-0 in a blitz (5 mins + 2 seconds per move) semi-final and Alexander Moiseenko 1.5-0.5 in a rapid (15 mins + 10 seconds per move) final to win the first Breisacher Memorial as part of the 46th Biel Chess Festival.

In the final Moiseenko was under pressure and having difficulties developing but his 21...f6 destroyed his position as 22.Bxa7 Rd7 23.Bc5 (f6 blocked the square the bishop needed) picked up decisive material. As it was losing the a7 pawn was immediately decisive. Moiseenko was completely winning the second rapid game (52.Qb6 was a more flixible move) but it was technically difficult to deal with Vachier-Lagrave's passed c-pawn and eventually Moiseenko was forced down to just the increment and couldn't find a way through.

Final Standings: 1st Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 2nd Alexander Moiseenko, 3rd Etienne Bacrot (on Sonneborn-Berger from Ding), 4th Ding Liren, 5th Ian Nepomniachtchi and 6th Richard Rapport. All but one of the blitz playoff games is available.