Biel Chess Festival crowns the winners

The 58th edition of the Biel International Chess Festival has come to an end with the award ceremonies. Over the course of two weeks, a total of 879 participants – the second-highest participation in the 21st century – from all continents competed at the chessboard in 16 different tournaments in the Swiss watchmaking city. Vladimir Fedoseev won the prestigious Grandmaster Tournament Masters, which was highly exciting right to the end, just ahead of Aravindh Chithambaram and Saleh Salem. Things were clearer in the Challengers: this tournament was dominated by Nikolas Theodorou from day one and he secured the title in a superior manner. Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali won the traditional open Master Tournament MTO with 112 participants, which was held for the 58th time. At the closing ceremony on Friday morning in the lobby of the Biel Congress Centre, the four most valuable medal sets of the Chess Festival were awarded: those of the Masters and Challengers of the Grandmaster Triathlon, as well as those of the two ten-day and nine-day open tournaments, the Masters Tournament MTO and the Amateur Tournament ATO. At the end, tournament director Paul Kohler addressed the attendees in a flowery speech and thanked the players for their achievements and the festival team for their great commitment. On behalf of the city of Biel, Municipal Councillor Lena Frank already looked forward to welcoming chess enthusiasts from all over the world to Biel again next year. At the end of the ceremony, it was time to say goodbye and the protagonists from the Congress Centre set off again in all four directions.

GMT-Masters: The favourite wins

After three years in a row with Lê Quang Liêm at the top, the GMT-Masters of the Biel Chess Festival now has a new winner: Vladimir Fedoseev. He was not actually supposed to be in the field of participants, as Lê originally intended to defend his title in Biel. As this was not possible for family reasons, the organisers had to and were able to sign Fedoseev as a more than worthy replacement at short notice. The world number 16 ultimately lived up to his reputation, but the strong field challenged him to the end. Aravindh Chithambaram in particular proved to be a virtually equal opponent and – for the first time in the seven-year history of the triathlon format – it was a tie-break decision: the result of the previous ACCENTUS Chess 960 event comes into play in this case and Fedoseev was ranked higher than the Indian. Saleh Salem took an excellent third place in the GMT Masters. As last year's winner of the Biel GMT-Challengers, he had recommended himself for the Masters, but as the player with the lowest Elo rating, he started the Masters as an outsider – his third place must be rated accordingly highly.
At the award ceremony, winner Fedoseev was delighted with his victory in Biel, but also emphasised how challenging the triathlon format with three different time controls was. Anyone who succeeds in this format truly deserves the win!

GMT-Masters: Final Ranking

Rank	Name	Games	Classical	Rapid	Blitz	Total
1	GM Vladimir FEDOSEEV	23	14	7	7 ½	28 ½ **
2	GM ARAVINDH Chithambaram	23	15 ½	7	6	28 ½ **
3	GM Saleh SALEM	23	16 ½	2	6	24 ½
4	GM Volodar MURZIN	23	14 ½	5	4	23 ½
5	GM Radoslaw WOJTASZEK *	20	6	6	4	16
6	GM Frederik SVANE *	20	4 ½	3	2 ½	10

• not qualified for final phase
  ** Tie-break: The score from the ACCENTUS Chess960 decides the rank in the event of a tie

GMT-Challengers: Theodorou in form

The GMT-Challengers, held for the second time, presented a different picture: Nikolas Theodorou, a player who is currently stringing together a string of tournament victories, came out on top. In Biel, he took the lead on the first day of the triathlon and could not be displaced from there. Aram Hakobyan played a similarly good tournament, claiming second place with a large gap to the rear. However, the battle for bronze was exciting, with David Navara losing out to Rinat Jumabayev. With Jumabayev, a Biel winner from the previous year thus took third place, just like at the Masters: Jumabayev had won the Master Tournament MTO in 2024.

GMT-Challengers: Final Ranking

Rank	Name	Games	Classical	Rapid	Blitz	Total
1	GM Nikolas THEODOROU	23	19 ½	8	6	33 ½
2	GM Aram HAKOBYAN	23	14 ½	7	7	28 ½
3	GM Rinat JUMABAYEV	23	13	4	3	20
4	GM David NAVARA	23	11 ½	2	5	18 ½
5	GM MA Qun *	20	6	5	4	15
6	GM Daniel DARDHA *	20	4 ½	4	5	13 ½

• not qualified for final phase

MTO Master Tournament: Victory for Karthikeyan Murali

The 2025 Master Tournament was won by the favourite: GM Karthikeyan Murali, seeded number one in the tournament, lived up to expectations and won the tournament. After the ten rounds played, he has 8 points – the only one of the 112 participants to do so. He was followed by five players with 7 ½ points, with GM Pranav Anand in second place and GM Mustafa Yilmaz in third. The best Swiss player to finish the tournament was IM Fabian Bänziger in 13th place, while the best woman was WFM Alexandra Shvedova in 25th place. 27 players from countries as diverse as Australia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Israel took part in this year's Master Tournament.

Master Tournament MTO: Final Ranking

Rank	Name	Games	Points
1	GM Karthikeyan Murali	10	8
2	GM Pranav Anand	10	7 ½
3	GM Mustafa Yilmaz	10	7 ½
4	GM Karthik Venkataraman	10	7 ½
5	GM Pranesh M	10	7 ½
6	IM Poh Yu Tian	10	7 ½
7	GM Benjamin Bok	10	7
8	IM Dau Khuong Duy	10	7
9	IM Banh Gia Huy	10	7

Overall ranking: MTO Full Results

Aurelio Colmenares wins week's tournament

The last tournaments to finish on the final day were the two week's tournaments, which were held in the second week of the festival. FM Aurelio Colmenares won the WT2 tournament for the higher-rated players in the closest possible way: after the fifth and final round, he was tied on points with GM Alexander Cherniaev, thus the two played a play-off with blitz chess. This also ended without a decision, so that in the end an Armageddon game had to decide in favour of Colmenares. Wouter Bik took third place.
The WT1 tournament for players with a rating below 1800 Elo was won by Arsenii Filimonov, who was the only player to score 5 out of a possible 5 points. He was followed by Johan Thorens in second place and Simon Zumbrunn in third, who also had to secure this place in a play-off against three others.

Podium WT2 (Elo 1800<)

1. FM Aurelio Colmenares (SUI)

2. GM Alexander Cherniaev (ENG)

3. Wouter Bik (NED)

Podium WT1 (Elo <1800)

1. Arsenii Filimonov (SUI)

2. Johan Thorens (SUI)

3. Simon Zumbrunn (SUI)

WT2 Results: Link
WT1 Results: Link

Photos of the Biel International Chess Festival:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157723948559844/