Biel Chess Festival 2022: A top year!

The 55th Biel International Chess Festival – in memory of Peter Burri, who worked for the festival for 40 years – ended today. It was an outstanding edition in terms of both quality and quantity: the Grandmaster Triathlon and the Master Tournament were excellently staffed and offered world-class chess, and with 931 participants, the Festival attracted more players to Biel than ever before this century. A total of 37 countries and five continents were represented at this year's edition. As the final event, the Swiss Rapid Championship took place on Sunday. The Swiss champion in this category, as in yesterday's blitz category already, is IM Gabriel Gähwiler from Zurich.

Swiss Rapid Championship: the double for Gähwiler!

Crowned Swiss Blitz Champion yesterday, Gabriel Gähwiler did it again today in rapid pace, this time not only being the best Swiss player, but winning the tournament with 8 points out of 9! The podium was completed by two other Swiss players, Patrik Grandadam and Noah Fecker, each with 7½ points! An extraordinary performance from the Swiss players who closed the access to the podium to the foreign players, with notably the victories of Gabriel Gähwiler and Patrik Grandadam over the only GM of the tournament, Romain Edouard. The two Swiss players, in great shape, propelled the Frenchman to the twelfth place, while he had won the blitz with 13 points out of 13! This was a good thing for our Swiss hopefuls who were very determined to take their revenge this Sunday!

Swiss Rapid Champion 2022

IM Gabriel Gähwiler

 

Podium Swiss Rapid Championship

1. IM Gabriel Gähwiler

2. FM Patrik Grandadam

3. FM Noah Fecker

 

Full Ranking Swiss Rapid Championship:

https://chess-results.com/tnr652546.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9

 

Conclusion: top class chess

GMT: This year's edition of the Biel Chess Festival offered world-class chess. The Grandmaster Triathlon, including the three best under-18 players in the world, Abdusattorov, Keymer and Gukesh, remained open right to the end and Lê Quang Liêm, Esipenko and Gukesh engaged in an enthralling three-way battle for victory. In the end, it was Lê Quang Liêm from Veitnam who prevailed. In Biel, the only 16-year-old Indian Gukesh managed to break the magic barrier of 2700 Elo points as the fourth youngest player in history.