An overview of the Master Tournament MTO
The Master Tournament MTO, which attracts year after year strong players from all over the world to Switzerland, is the flagship event among the open tournaments in Biel. This year's tournament attracts 128 participants, including 24 women. They come from 34 different countries, with Switzerland best represented with 23 players, followed by 17 from India, 13 from Germany, 9 from Mongolia and 8 from Kazakhstan. No fewer than 82 of the participants are title holders, including 16 grandmasters. 15 players have an Elo rating of over 2500, three of them over 2600: Aryan Chopra (IND) with 2632 Elo; Leon Luke Mendonca (IND), 2615 Elo and Arseniy Nesterov (FIDE), 2602 Elo. They are therefore among the tournament favourites.
None of the grandmasters stumbled in the first round. However, three Swiss players were able to draw attention to themselves by achieving a draw against opponents rated over 300 Elo higher: Simon Schnell, Romain Gemelli and Raphael Erne.
Starting list: https://chess-results.com/tnr963846.aspx?lan=0&art=0&fed=VIE&turdet=YES&flag=30
GMT: Excursion on the rest day
The participants in the GMT Grandmaster tournaments had a rest day on Monday. The majority of them took part in the organised excursion to La Neuveville by boat. Lunch awaited them in the medieval town on Lake Biel, as well as a short tour through the old alleyways.
Outlook: First round classic at the GMT, start of the ATO
Tomorrow, Tuesday, after today's rest day, five days of classical chess begin at the GMT Grandmaster Tournaments. In the first round of the GMT-Masters, leader Martirosyan will face Shankland, who is bottom of the table, Praggnanandhaa will play Mishra and Keymer will take on last year's winner Lê Quang Liêm. In the GMT-Challengers tomorrow, Donchenko will play Samunenkov, Bjerre Vaishali and Salem Maurizzi.
The Master Tournament MTO enters its second round and the second major open tournament of the festival begins tomorrow with the Amateur Tournament ATO. The ATO is a tournament over nine rounds for all amateurs with a rating of up to 2000 Elo, in which around 120 chess enthusiasts are expected to take part.
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157722912417534/
On the evening of each day of the Festival, the OC sends out a media report on the day's events.