The eight players showed a thrilling competition at the start of the Grandmaster Triathlon: Navara, Keymer, Yu and Amin in particular fought a hard battle for the day's victory until the end. Finally, David Navara and Vincent Keymer prevailed with 10 points each. Keymer remained undefeated over all seven rounds, including a win against Navara, who in turn, however, conceded only half as many draws as Keymer. Lê Quang Liêm, who was the strongest player last year not only in the overall ranking but also in the Rapid games, must be disappointed of today’s performance, as he ended up at the third last place.
GMT Triathlon: Interim Ranking
|
Rank |
Name |
Games |
Classical |
Rapid |
Blitz |
Total |
|
1 |
GM David NAVARA |
7 |
|
10 |
|
10 |
|
2 |
GM Vincent KEYMER |
7 |
|
10 |
|
10 |
|
3 |
GM YU Yangyi |
7 |
|
9 |
|
9 |
|
4 |
GM Bassem AMIN |
7 |
|
8 |
|
8 |
|
5 |
GM Jules MOUSSARD |
7 |
|
6 |
|
6 |
|
6 |
GM LÊ Quang Liêm |
7 |
|
5 |
|
5 |
|
7 |
GM Arjun Erigaisi |
7 |
|
5 |
|
5 |
|
8 |
GM Bogdan-Daniel DEAC |
7 |
|
3 |
|
3 |
Rapid Tournament: Anand Pranav the only undefeated player
The one-day Rapid tournament, which was well attended with 122 participants, also kept the hall busy – and was not without surprises. Some of the participating grandmasters showed rather disappointing performances, but a fourteen-year-old played his way onto the podium. The Indian Anand Pranav was convincing, he remained undefeated with seven wins and two draws and was the only one to reach 8 points. The Canadian Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux and the 2009-born Marco Materia from France made it to the podium with half a point less. The best woman, Agrawal Vantika from India, was already in 5th place, and as the best Swiss Simon Schweizer ranked in 14th place.
Retrospect on Saturday: Opening and two Chess960 tournaments
The 56th edition of the chess festival was opened in Biel on Saturday in the presence of Council of States member Hans Stöckli. Stöckli, emphasised the great importance of the chess festival for the city of Biel. With a view to his successors, the former Biel mayor expressed the hope that they would continue to be well-disposed towards the event in the future. After the ceremony, two tournaments were already on the programme – both in the discipline of Fischer Random Chess (Chess960): The eight participants of the Grandmaster tournament played the ACCENTUS Chess 960 event; and the Swiss Championship in this type of chess took place in parallel. Among the grandmasters, Yu Yangyi proved to be the strongest player, remaining unbeaten over seven rounds. Swiss Champion 2023 in Fischer Random Chess is Simon Schweizer.
Outlook: Start of the three big open tournaments
Tomorrow, Monday, the big rush will follow in the Biel Congress Centre: the three big open multi-day tournaments will begin! The Master Tournament MTO for players over 2050 Elo, for which over 100 participants are registered. Among them four players with over 2600 Elo: Bu (China, 2676), Nguyen (Vietnam, 2645), Aryan (India, 2626) and Yuffa (Spain, 2603). About 50 participants are expected for the Main Tournament HTO, for players with an Elo rating above 1700, and finally almost another 100 for the Amateur Tournament ATO.
The eight GMT grandmasters have their first rest day tomorrow.
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157721909678547/
On the evening of each day of the Festival, the OC sends out a media report on the day's events.