Today, 20 July, International Chess Day, the World Chess Federation FIDE has announced a world record attempt: The most chess games played within 24 hours: at one of the more than 800 registered tournaments, or on the major online platforms. FIDE's technical centre, where all the registered games from the various events were recorded, was located in Biel. As the day progressed, it became clear that a record number of games had been played. The representative of Guinness World Records was therefore able to officially announce the record at around 9 pm in the evening in the Biel Congress Centre and present IA Laurent Freyd, the FIDE Operational Director for this event, with the corresponding certificate. At this point, 5.4 million games had been played worldwide, 361 of which were played today at the Biel Chess Festival. The count will continue until midnight CEST.
GMT-Masters: Praggnanandhaa defeats Shankland to stay in the race
Before blitz, the third of the GMT-Triathlon categories starts tomorrow, the fifth round of classical chess was on the programme today. Praggnanandhaa celebrated the only win of the day in the GMT-Masters against Sam Shankland. This was desperately needed for the Indian to have a chance of making it into the top four who qualify for the final phase. To do so, he now needs a good result in tomorrow's blitz part of the triathlon to catch either Vincent Keymer, who is 1 ½ points ahead of him, or Haik Martirosyan, 2 ½ points ahead. In the event of a tie, Pragg will benefit from his victory in the ACCENTUS Chess960, which will be used as a tie-breaker. The other games of the day in the GMT-Masters ended in draws: between Vincent Keymer and Abhimanyu Mishra on the one hand, and between leader Lê Quang Liêm and Haik Martirosyan on the other. For the Vietnamese player, the draw meant defending his lead, but after a mistake by Martirosyan, a win was even possible for a short time, but Lê was unable to find the way.
GMT-Masters: Interim Ranking
|
Rank |
Name |
Games |
Classical |
Rapid |
Blitz |
Total |
|
1 |
GM LÊ Quang Liêm |
10 |
12 ½ |
5 |
|
17 ½ |
|
2 |
GM Abhimanyu MISHRA |
10 |
12 ½ |
4 |
|
16 ½ |
|
3 |
GM Haik MARTIROSYAN |
10 |
7 ½ |
7 |
|
14 ½ |
|
4 |
GM Vincent KEYMER |
10 |
8 ½ |
5 |
|
13 ½ |
|
5 |
GM PRAGGNANANDHAA R |
10 |
7 |
5 |
|
12 |
|
6 |
GM Sam SHANKLAND |
10 |
3 |
4 |
|
7 |
A preliminary decision in the GMT-Challengers
At best, there are still 10 points to be won in tomorrow's blitz games. Nevertheless, after today it already seems clear which four players will qualify for the final phase of the GMT-Challengers: With their victories against the two last-placed players Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Ihor Samunenkov, Alexander Donchenko and Jonas Bjerre (the two strongest players in the GMT-Challengers in terms of Elo) have secured themselves a large cushion towards the back and should secure third and fourth place (at least). Salem Saleh and Vaishali, who met directly today and drew, remain at the top. A result that should be doubly annoying for Vaishali: On the one hand, she was clearly in a winning position and completely lost her advantage under time trouble, with the fortieth move leading to 60 minutes of extra time. Secondly, she will probably play with the disadvantage of the black pieces twice in the three games of the final phase, which will make the path to victory in the GMT-Challengers doubly difficult.
GMT-Challengers: Interim Ranking
|
Rank |
Name |
Games |
Classical |
Rapid |
Blitz |
Total |
|
1 |
GM Saleh Salem |
10 |
15 |
6 |
|
21 |
|
2 |
GM VAISHALI Rameshbabu |
10 |
15 |
5 |
|
20 |
|
3 |
GM Alexander DONCHENKO |
10 |
11 |
7 |
|
18 |
|
4 |
GM Jonas BJERRE |
10 |
9 ½ |
5 |
|
14 ½ |
|
5 |
GM Marc'Andria MAURIZZI |
10 |
3 |
4 |
|
7 |
|
6 |
GM Ihor SAMUNENKOV |
10 |
1 ½ |
3 |
|
4 ½ |
Master Tournament MTO: Mendonca ahead of Chopra
The two top seeded Indian favourites for the Master Tournament MTO are living up to their reputation so far: after six rounds, Leon Luke Mendonca leads with 5 ½ points ahead of Aryan Chopra with 5 points. Both were able to win their games today on boards 1 and 2 against the grandmasters Moiseenko and Sokolovsky respectively and thus consolidate their position. On the following boards, the closest pursuers only played draws, so that no fewer than thirteen players with 4 ½ points follow in the next place. Among them is the current best woman in the tournament, IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, the world's best female junior.
Amateur Tournament ATO: Anna Andrzejewska in the lead
The top match between the two unbeaten in the Amateur Tournament ATO ended in favour of WCM Anna Andrzejewska. Despite the disadvantage of the black pieces against Anton Küenzi today, the Polish player is now the only one in the lead with 5/5 points. She is followed by five participants with 4 ½ points, including the two currently best Swiss players, Lukas Oestmann and Felix Meshach.
VINETUM Youth Tournament: Felix Phung comes out on top
The Youth Tournament sponsored by the Vinetum Foundation on Saturday attracted 57 youngsters (born 2006 and younger) to the Biel Congress Centre. The seven-round tournament was won by Felix Phung, who remained unbeaten and only had to concede a single draw. Phung, who was born in 2013 and sensationally won the C-Open at Grenke Chess (Baden-Baden) at the beginning of April with 490 participants, also prevailed in Biel against opponents up to seven years his senior. The podium is completed by Ukrainian Arseniy Filimonov and Gion Schäfer.
Outlook: Blitz chess on stage and in the hall
The two major open tournaments, MTO and ATO, will have their rest day tomorrow, Sunday. Instead, the Biel Congress Centre will be dominated by blitz chess.
In the two grandmaster triathlons, the third of the three triathlon categories will follow with the blitz games. The six players in the GMT-Masters and GMT-Challengers will each play two games against each other. A win in the Blitz is worth 1 point, so with a total of ten games, 10 more points can be won in the best-case scenario. While the preliminary decision as to which four players will qualify for the final phase after tomorrow is likely to have been made in the GMT-Challengers, the positions in the GMT-Masters are more open. Praggnanandhaa, currently fifth in the rankings, still has the chance to qualify for the final phase with a good blitz tournament, which he can definitely do! It will also be exciting to follow Mishra, who has little experience with competitive blitz games – and will play twice against his coach Sam Shankland, who has no chance of progressing any more.
At the same time, an open blitz tournament for everyone will take place in the hall from 2 p.m., with well over 100 players expected.
Beauty Award MTO, ATO
Every day, the best games from MTO and ATO are voted for on social media.
Winner MTO RD5: Zachary Saine (2058) vs. Shiivesh Sunil Malli (1916) 1-0
Winner ATO RD4: Patrick Rossi vs. Daniel Bachmann (1713) 0-1
Games of the winners:
https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Open-Tournaments/ISF-Beauty-Awards.html
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.