Game of the Week: Moiseenko, Vachier-Lagrave

The old Soviet expression “first among equals” comes to mind when seeing the results from the traditional Biel grandmaster round-robin, which was dubbed the Breisacher Memorial in honor of the event’s organizer who passed away just after last year’s event. The leaderboard shifted dramatically at the end with a most unusual result of four of the six players tied for first! In the ensuing playoff, Etienne Bacrot and Ding Liren were eliminated in the first round, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vanquished Alexander Moiseenko in the final to take the title. In the main portion of the competition, the roles were reversed when the top two finishers met in the ninth round. There were some interesting opening ideas and instructive potential endgames, but in the end an attack decided the game.