David Navara was under pressure in the second round: Arjun Erigaisi, playing with the advantage of the white pieces, initially managed to shape the game in his favour, but he then could not prevent Navara's h-pawn from advancing to the baseline. The ensuing endgame of rook and pawn against six (!) pawns resulted in a draw. Bogdan-Daniel Deac, also playing with white, only managed a limited return to the tournament: he drew against Vincent Keymer in a very even game. The same goes for Jules Moussard and Yu Yangyi, who also agreed on a draw.
GMT Triathlon: Interim Ranking
|
Rank |
Name |
Games |
Classical |
Rapid |
Blitz |
Total |
|
1 |
GM David NAVARA |
9 |
5 ½ |
10 |
|
15 ½ |
|
2 |
GM Vincent KEYMER |
9 |
3 |
10 |
|
13 |
|
3 |
GM LÊ Quang Liêm |
9 |
8 |
5 |
|
13 |
|
4 |
GM YU Yangyi |
9 |
3 |
9 |
|
12 |
|
5 |
GM Jules MOUSSARD |
9 |
3 |
6 |
|
9 |
|
6 |
GM Arjun ERIGAISI |
9 |
3 |
5 |
|
8 |
|
7 |
GM Bassem AMIN |
9 |
- |
8 |
|
8 |
|
8 |
GM Bogdan-Daniel DEAC |
9 |
1 ½ |
3 |
|
4 ½ |
MTO: A trio at the top
In the Master Tournament MTO it was the Chinese top favourite Bu Xiangzhi’s turn today to only drew against a weaker opponent. So after three rounds, of the four players above 2600 Elo, only India's Aryan Chopra remains without a loss of points. Also still immaculate with 3/3 points are GM Liu Yan (CHN) and IM Samant Aditya S (IND).
Main Tournament & Amateur Tournament
The three direct duels of the players who so far haven't lost any points in the Main Tournament HTO all produced a clear result, so that after three rounds Miralem Novalic (SUI), Michal Mirski (POL) and Alexey Khanabiev (BLR) are at the top of the tournament with three points each.
In the Amateur Tournament ATO, seven players are still without losses, among them the No. 1 seed Athanasios Zafeiridis. His chances of a top ranking should already be good, as the No. 2 and 3 seeds Nicola Schmid and Hans-Jürgen Weyer have both already lost 1 ½ points in 3 games.
Outlook: Thursday International Chess Day
Tomorrow's International Chess Day will see the third round of classical chess in the GMT Triathlon and the fourth round in the open tournaments MTO, HTO and ATO on the programme in Biel. In the grandmaster tournament, it will come down to a duel between the first two pursuers, Keymer, with White, and Lê, who so far is the only one to have won his two classical games. Navara will play Moussard with White to defend his lead, Yu will meet Deac and Amin plays Erigaisi.
All matches can be attended live on site and free of charge at the Biel Congress Centre.
Outlook: VINETUM Youth Tournament on Saturday
On Saturday, a youth tournament, supported by the VINETUM Foundation, will take place at the Biel Chess Festival. This is aimed at all young chess fans born in 2005 and younger in three different age categories. You can register on the chess festival website until 21 July: www.bielchessfestival.ch
Beauty Award Round 2 MTO, HTO, ATO
Winner MTO: Harikrishnan A Ra – Nikita Meshkovs 1-0
Winner HTO: Shiivesh Sunil Malli – Mikayel Zagarov 1-0
Winner ATO: Volker Meise – Lancelot Gafner 0-1
Games of the winners: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Open-Tournaments/ISF-Beauty-Awards/Day-2.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.