Chess players take over Biel's Congress Centre

With the Master Tournament MTO and the Amateur Tournament ATO, the two big tournaments of the Biel Chess Festival began today, filling the large hall of the Congress Centre with life. Participants from three dozen countries and five continents will be competing over nine rounds until 22 July to crown the best in their respective strength classes. In the ladies’ quadriathlon, the women competed today in Chess 960 - and as yesterday, the two French Cornileau and Ciarletta showed strong performances. The participants of the Grandmaster Triathlon were able to treat themselves to a day of rest today - and, accompanied by former world champion Vishy Anand, took a look behind the scenes at the Omega watch factory.

DAQ: Cornileau and Ciarletta in the lead

The women's ACCENTUS Quadriathlon (DAQ), which, unlike the GMT, also includes Chess 960 for the ranking, was on the programme today. The young players competed in rapid cadence over seven rounds. The winners of the day were the French players Juliette Cornileau and Iris Ciarletta, who had already played their way into the top 3 the day before and now lead in the Quadriathlon table. New on the board at the DAQ is Cecilia Keymer, the younger sister of Vincent Keymer, who replaced Veronika Kostina at short notice.

DAQ: Interim Ranking

Rank	Name	Country	Classic	Chess960	Rapid	Blitz	TOTAL
1	Juliette Cornileau	FRA		11	10		21
2	Iris Ciarletta	FRA		11	9		20
3	Zhuang Yongzhe	SUI		7	10		17
4	Gohar Tamrazyan	SUI		5	8		13
5	Laura Sumarriva Paulin	FRA		6	7		13
6	Yulia Avilova	SUI		8	5		13
7	Cecilia Keymer	GER		6	2*		8
8	Margaux Moracchini	FRA		2	5		7

* Scored by Veronika Kostina.

The Grandmasters visit a watch factory

The GMT grandmasters had their first day off today. They used it to visit the Omega watch factory in Biel - and were accompanied by none other than Vishy Anand, the five-time chess world champion, who stays in Biel for a few days. They were fascinated by the production process and had a lot of fun in the museum.

Outlook: Full bustle on Thursday

Tomorrow, Thursday, the four multi-day tournaments will all run in parallel for the first time. The Master Tournament and the Amateur Tournament will enter the second round, and the first rounds of the Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT) and the Women's Quadriathlon will take place in the classical cadence. In the GMT, Lê Quang Liêm, who is leading after the rapid games, will meet last year's winner Gata Kamsky, who is currently at the bottom of the table. High time for the old master to find his way into the tournament! On board 1, the best young players in the world will compete: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the No. 1 of the under-18s will face Dammaraju Gukesh, No. 1 of the U16s.

Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157720866132786/