Helped by excellent preparation, Anish Giri grabbed the lead with a win against Etienne Bacrot on Wednesday. Hikarua Nakamura buit up an advantage in a Polugaevsky Najdorf against Wang Hao but then missed a tactic and even lost. The biggest news from Biel today, however, was the withdrawal of Alexander Morozevich. See the official statement by the organizers below.

Anish Giri leads in Biel after three rounds | All photos © Biel Chess Festival

The third round in Biel had an unusual start. When the chess fans tuned in at the live page of the tournament website no moves were made in Morozevich-Carlsen, and in fact the other two games didn't immediately start at 14:00 either. Then, a note above the live game viewer appeared, saying that "due to health reasons" the game Morozevich-Carlsen was postponed. Further information would follow and a few hours later this statement appeared on the tournament site's homepage: 

Morozevich withdraws

Due to health issues, Alexander Morozevich retired from the Biel Grandmaster Tournament after Round 2. He has been this Wednesday with the organisers of the Festival to a hospital, where a doctor confirmed, with a medical certificate, his unability to go on to play the competition. Alexander Morozevich will travel back to Moscow as soon as possible to recover. The length of his healing process is unknown.

After the approval of the players, the organisers could secure a substitute. GM Victor Bologan (Moldova, World No 20, 2732 Elo) takes the place of Alexander Morozevich. He arrived already in Biel. He starts the tournament from Round 3. His game against Magnus Carlsen, scheduled for Wednesday July 25th, will be held on Sunday 29th. Victor Bologan will play his first game on Thursday July 26th against Hikaru Nakamura.

The 3 points of the victories of Anish Giri and Etienne Bacrot, achieved against Alexander Morozevich, are kept. Victor Bologan acccepted to play with two games less.

Biel International Chess Festival
Organisation Committee

Alexander Morozevich	Viktor Bologan

Morozevich's condition wasn't specified, but we were told that he might be missing the Olympiad as well. Therefore we can only hope that he'll recover soon, and wish him all the best.

It must be noted that it's not the first time that something like this happens to the Russian grandmaster. Shortly before the start of the 2004 Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, he had to withdraw as he caught a severe form of the flue. Veselin Topalov replaced him. Morozevich also withdrew from the 2010 Amber tournament in Nice, for private reasons, and was replaced by Alexander Grischuk.

Update: Morozevich also withdrew from the 1999 Dos Hermanas tournament due to illness and was replaced by Boris Gelfand, as was mentioned here.

Victor Bologan was asked to replace Morozevich, and accepted. He told us that he was in his summer house in Sevastopol,

so I had to "jump" from Crimea to Biel.

We may assume he started preparing right away, with his laptop in the airplane!

In the comments section people wonder why Leinier Dominguez, who would play originally instead of Magnus Carlsen, didn't substitute for Morozevich. We couldn't reach the organizers but it's safe to assume that he wasn't available. Besides, in an earlier note the organizers told us that 

We found a fair compromise with Leinier, who will be invited next year. The deal was solved in a nice way, even if it's not easy to do this.

Well, it's about time to look at the games of the third round that were actually played, because both of them were really interesting, also from a theoretical point of view.

Hikaru Nakamura, to start with, chose the legendary Polugaevsky variation of the Sicilian Najdorf in his game against Wang Hao. The theoretical status of the "Polu" hasn't been that great in recent years (some people believe that there's more than one refutation) so to play it at this level is another example of Nakamura's courage and fighting spirit.

It was funny to hear Wang Hao say that he had forgotten about "his preparation", while he played the most critical moves anyway! Nakamura's 15...Qc7!? (instead of the often played 15...Qxb2) was in fact Polugaevsky's own choice back in 1960 and now, more than half a century later, it will surely be looked at again...

PGN string

Video produced by Pascal Simon (Chessbase)

In the game between Anish Giri and Etienne Bacrot the players followed theory even longer – for 25 moves! Giri repeated the moves of his compatriot Loek van Wely, who played the same one month ago against... the same opponent.

Somehow Bacrot's preparation wasn't working, because already two moves after they had left that previous game the Frenchman made a mistake.

PGN string

Video produced by Pascal Simon (Chessbase)

Games round 3

PGN file

Biel 2012 | Schedule & results

Biel 2012 | Round 3 standings

Biel 2012 | Round 3 standings (classical)