In today's top match Vincent Keymer lost his first points playing with the White pieces in one of the classic games in Biel, against leader Radoslaw Wojtaszek. The Pole was able to keep the game balanced without any major problems and the draw offered by a replay after 40 moves was also well accepted by the marginally worse placed 15-year-old German. Thanks to the won 1½ points Wojtaszek goes into tomorrow's final round as leader with 33 points – where he will play with the white pieces the penultimate Noël Studer, with whom he still has a score to settle: In the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament, Wojtaszek gave away the victory by being defeated by the Bernese in the last round.
Harikrishna and Adams in waiting
Pentala Harikrishna reaches the final with the smallest possible gap to the Polish leader. Thanks to his confident win today against Romain Édouard, Harikrishna now scores 32.5 points, keeping up the pressure to the maximum. However, the Indian will have a more difficult task tomorrow than Wojtaszek: he will have to play with the black pieces against David Antón Guijarro, nominally the third strongest player of the tournament. The Spaniard continued his rollercoaster ride of the last days today with a defeat against Arkadij Naiditsch.
Close behind Harikrishna follows Mickey Adams. Thanks to his victory with the black pieces against Noël Studer today, the Briton still has a chance to win the Biel Chess Festival too: with 31.5 points in the ranking he is only a draw away from the top spot.
Ranking GMT
After Rapid, Blitz and six rounds classic:
|
Rank |
Name |
Games |
Classical |
Rapid |
Blitz |
Total |
|
1 |
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek |
27 |
10 |
12 |
11 |
33 |
|
2 |
GM Pentala Harikrishna |
27 |
16.5 |
10 |
6 |
32.5 |
|
3 |
GM Michael Adams |
27 |
12.5 |
8 |
11 |
31.5 |
|
4 |
GM Vincent Keymer |
27 |
13.5 |
10 |
4.5 |
28 |
|
5 |
GM Arkadij Naiditsch |
27 |
11 |
5 |
6.5 |
22.5 |
|
6 |
GM David Antón Guijarro |
27 |
9.5 |
4 |
8.5 |
22 |
|
7 |
GM Noël Studer |
27 |
7 |
3 |
5 |
15 |
|
8 |
GM Romain Édouard |
27 |
6 |
4 |
3.5 |
13.5 |
Corona Amateur Tournament: 8th round
The Frenchmen Christian Bauer with 7½ and Phileas Mathieu with 7 points continue to lead the open Corona main tournament. Only theoretical chances of victory are left for the ex-aeqo third placed Bilel Bellahcene, Gerlef Meins and Frank Buchenau before the last round.
More excitement is promised by the team competition, in which eight three-man teams are participating this year. At the top a trio is competing for the win: Team 150 with 18½ pt, La Jeune Équipe with 18 pt and Charmois at 17½ pt.
The games of the grand master tournament can be followed online on the festival's homepage, accompanied by the comments of Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/LIVE.html
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/albums