Navara and Keymer neutralise each other - Lê benefits

Last year's winner wants to know: Lê Quang Liêm took the lead at the Biel Chess Festival after his victory against Yu Yangyi. Lê defeated the nominal No. 1 in a convincing manner, although he had to play with the disadvantage of the black pieces. The other three games of the grandmaster tournament all ended in draws: Also the two previous leaders Navara and Keymer drew and thus slipped to 2nd and 3rd places. In the master tournament, the duel between the two top seeds went in favour of Bu Xiangzhi, who thus defends his lead in the tournament.

Lê Quang Liêm and the classical games in Biel, that fits. He was already the best player in the slow discipline last year and he is also impressive in 2023: Lê has won four of his five classical games so far, two of them even with the black pieces. This was also the case today, against Yu Yangyi, the best player in the tournament according to Elo rating. Only against Vincent Keymer did Lê have to admit defeat in classical chess so far.

Keymer, as well as Navara, the best players on points so far, played a draw in a direct duel. Both thus maintain their undefeated record in the classical games, but they lose the top position to Lê. Keymer might be a little annoyed in retrospect, as he would have had a good chance to win after a blunder by Navara on move 30 that he didn’t spot. The players in the second half of the table all failed to make any progress: both, the game between Arjun Erigaisi and Jules Moussard, and the one between Bassem Amin and Bogdan-Daniel Deac, ended in draws.

GMT Triathlon: Interim Ranking

Rank	Name	Games	Classical	Rapid	Blitz	Total
1	GM LÊ Quang Liêm	26	16	5	8½	29½
2	GM David NAVARA	26	10	10	7½	27½
3	GM Vincent KEYMER	26	12 ½	10	5	27½
4	GM YU Yangyi	26	4 ½	9	7½	21
5	GM Jules MOUSSARD	26	7 ½	6	7	20½
6	GM Arjun ERIGAISI	26	4 ½	5	10½	20
7	GM Bassem AMIN	26	7	8	3½	18½
8	GM Bogdan-Daniel DEAC	26	6	3	6½	15½

Master Tournament: Bu wins in top fight

The duel between the two seed numbers 1 and 2 of the Master Tournament MTO was won by the No.1: Bu Xiangzhi, playing with white, did not show any weakness and won against the Vietnamese Ngyuen Ngoc Truong Son with very precise play. The Chinese Bu thus has 6 points and continues to lead the table by half a point. His first two pursuers are compatriot GM Liu Yan and Indian IM Samant Aditya, who is still undefeated with four wins and three draws – and will meet Bu in the next round. The best Swiss in the tournament is now Oliver Sutter in 38th place.

The other open tournaments: Start of the week’s tournament

Premiere on Monday in Biel: For the first time, the Week's Tournament WTO has started at the Biel Chess Festival. Within five days, the participants play seven rounds with a "medium" time of 90 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move.

In the Main Tournament HTO Alexei Khanabiev (BLR) took the sole lead. He defeated Lukas Oestmann, who previously was in the same position, with black. First runner-up is now Shourya Vihan (GER), who drew against Michal Mirski from Poland. Oestmann, the best Swiss player, is now in fourth place.

In the direct duel of the two first runners-up in the Amateur Tournament ATO, Thomas Mani won against Matthias Gallus. With 6 out of 7 possible points, he was able to catch up with leader Athanasios Zafeiridis, who drew against Alexis Rose today, but remains unbeaten.

Outlook: A trio in the fight for the tournament title

Three contenders are still in the running to win the Biel Grandmaster Triathlon. The leader, Lê, he will play against Moussard tomorrow. The Frenchman, nominally the worst player in the GMT, has done very respectably so far, drawing all his classical games. The second, Navara, has a tough Asian final programme ahead of him: on Tuesday against Yu, on Wednesday against Lê in the possibly all-decisive match. Finally, third-placed Keymer faces Amin tomorrow.

The open tournaments all have a round tomorrow as well, so it's a full house in Biel's Congress Centre.

Beauty Award Round 6 MTO, HTO, ATO

Winner MTO: FM Karthik Rajaa vs. FM Sedrani Ammar 1-0

Winner HTO: no valid proposal

Winner ATO: Dennis Marketos vs. Charles Duong 0-1

Games of the winners: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Open-Tournaments/ISF-Beauty-Awards/Day-6.html

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.