With Gukesh holding a nice advantage over Esipenko, and his pursuers, Lê Quang and Salem, in trouble, the road seemed clear for Gukesh to win the tournament. Suddenly, the young Indian started to play a series of terrible shots, both strategically and tactically, and lost an advantageous position in a few moves. Some major troubles also occurred in the Lê Quang - Keymer game, which lasted for more than six hours: the young German, who went with an advantage into the final, got tangled up until he left the advantage to the Vietnamese, who proved to be ruthless! The ranking changed dramatically: Lê Quang took the lead with 26 points, Esipenko becomes second with 25.5 points and Gukesh is relegated to third place with 24 points! Abdusattorov received a "gift" from Salem who sacrificed a piece too ambitiously and lost in a few moves, and thus the Uzbek player is getting closer to the top three (22,5).
GMT: Interim Ranking
|
Rank |
Name |
Federation |
Games |
Classic |
Rapid |
Blitz |
TOTAL |
|
1 |
GM Quang Liêm LÊ |
VIE |
25 |
8 |
11 |
7 |
26 |
|
2 |
GM Andrey ESIPENKO |
FIDE |
25 |
8½ |
10 |
7 |
25½ |
|
3 |
GM Dommaraju GUKESH |
IND |
25 |
9½ |
7 |
7½ |
24 |
|
4 |
GM Nodirbek ABDUSATTOROV |
UZB |
25 |
5½ |
9 |
8 |
22½ |
|
5 |
GM Saleh SALEM |
UAE |
25 |
5½ |
7 |
8 |
20½ |
|
6 |
GM Vincent KEYMER |
GER |
25 |
4½ |
5 |
8 |
17½ |
|
7 |
GM Gata KAMSKY |
USA |
25 |
7 |
1 |
8½ |
16½ |
|
8 |
GM Arkadij NAIDITSCH |
AZE |
25 |
8½ |
6 |
2 |
16½ |
DAQ: Changes at the top
In the Ladies’ ACCENTUS Quadriathlon DAQ, Margaux Moracchini continues her fabulous run in classical cadence, of which she won all four so far and, thanks to her victory over Iris Ciarletta, takes the lead of the tournament for the first time! She is closely followed by her French competitor Juliette Cornileau (30.5 points and winner over Cecila Keymer). The former leader Yongzhe Zhuang stumbles against her Swiss compatriot Gohar Tamrazyan.
MTO: Alekseenko joins the leaders
In the Master Tournament MTO, Vikash and Aryan neutralised each other at table 1. Russian Alekseenko took his chance by beating Pranav to get ahead of him - and joining the leaders with 5/6, as does Motylev, with a victory against Huschenbeth. The Indians are now down to "only" two out of four in the leading group! The favourite of the tournament, Yu Yangyi, stumbles again and makes an unbelievable mistake, which costs him the whole point against Iniyan. The Chinese player is only at 3.5/6, 1.5 points behind the leaders... At 4.5 points, we find a group of nine players who have not said their last word. The best Swiss, with currently 3.5 points each, are Theo Stijve and Gabriel Gaehwiler.
ATO: Matteo Sala still flawless
The young Frenchman Matteo Sala (1708 ELO) achieves a new feat and wins with Black against the only other player who still had hadn’t lost any points, Hari Charan Sai Kalluri (2041 ELO). After 6 rounds, Sala is now alone in the lead with the maximal number of points and, for the moment, cashing in 161 additional ELO points! Will he keep this pace until the end? In any case, this young player has stunned us whatever happens!
Outlook: Wednesday is International Chess Day
The Biel Chess Festival is in full swing tomorrow on International Chess Day: the Master's Tournament and General Tournament are entering their seventh rounds, and the Grandmaster Triathlon and Women's Quadriathlon will see the fifth round of classical chess. The four first-placed players of the GMT will play against the four last-placed players - who will consolidate his position, who will fall behind?
The Swiss Youth Championships, held over seven rounds, are slowly but surely approaching their decision tomorrow with rounds 5 and 6.
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157720866132786/