Chess - The Scotsman 02/08/2012

IN major golf tournaments, Saturday is often referred to as “moving day” because it is the day where competitors try to set themselves up for the final round push on the Sunday. As a result, you’ll frequently see certain players advance up the leaderboard by leaps and bounds. Others collapse under the pressure and slide quickly, knowing that simply by making the cut, they’ve assured themselves a decent share of the purse.

And at the Biel GM Tournament in Switzerland, Tuesday proved to be moving day, as all three leaders won to put a great distance between them and the rest of the field, as they now battle it out over the last two rounds to see just who emerges as the victor.

First in the club house with a win was the young Russian-Nepalese Dutch champion Anish Giri, who beat Etienne Bacrot to solidify his third-place spot on 15 points (using the 3-1-0 scoring system). Giri, 18, has shot up the world rankings over the summer, with a big jump of 16 places to enter the Top 20 for the first time.

But the two overnight leaders, the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, and the Chinese No 1, Wang Hao maintained their relentless pace at the top to stay just ahead of Giri with wins respectively over Viktor Bologan and Hikaru Nakamura.

Standings: 1-2. M Carlsen and Wang Hao, 16/21; 3. A Giri, 15; 4. H Nakamura, 10; 5. E Bacrot, 6; 6. V Bologan, 1.

M Carlsen - V Bologan

45th Biel GM Tournament, (8)

Benko Gambit

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 g6 6 Nc3 Bxa6 7 e4 Bxf1 8 Kxf1 d6 9 Nf3 Bg7 10 g3 0–0 11 Kg2 Nbd7 12 Qe2 Qb6 13 a4 Rfb8 14 Nb5 Ne8 15 Bg5 Qd8 16 Ra3 Nb6 17 b3 Qd7 18 Ra2 f6 19 Bc1 f5 20 exf5 gxf5 21 Rd1 Nf6 22 Qe6+ Qxe6 23 dxe6 Ne4 24 Nh4! c4 25 bxc4 Nxc4 26 Nc7 Nc3 27 Nxa8 Nxa2 28 Nc7 Nc3 29 Rd3 Rc8 30 Nb5 Nxb5 31 axb5 Rc5 32 Rb3 Na5 33 Rb1 Bd4 34 b6 Nb7 35 Rb4 Bxf2 36 Kxf2 Rc2+ 37 Kf3 Rxc1 38 Nxf5 Rf1+ 39 Kg4 Nc5 40 b7 1–0