End of the week’s tournament and chess vs. poker

Before the Biel Chess Festival ends with the final bouquet this weekend with the two Swiss Championships in blitz and rapid chess, today was a quiet day on the programme. The last multi-day tournament to finish was the WTO week's tournament, which was won by Neboisa Illijin from Romania, ahead of Chase Knowles (USA) and Benjamin Brandis (SUI). In the evening, the "Brain Battle Chess vs. Poker" was on the agenda, in which four chess players and four poker players faced each other. Thanks to their superiority in chess, the chess players won the duel.

In the Brain Battle Chess vs. Poker, four chess players and four poker players faced each other, each of whom was drawn into a direct duel. The pairings resulted in (poker player first):

- Hubert Prachoinig vs. Simon Bohnenblust

- Boro Skalonja vs. IM Eric Rosen

- Tatjana Kraska Horvath vs. WFM Alessia Santeramo

- Jascha Berger vs. Angelika Valkova

The chess matches were one-sided: the two games between each opponents all went in favour of the chess players. The poker games proved to be more exciting, with Hubert Prachoinig and Jascha Berger on the one hand and Alessia Santeramo and Eric Rosen on the other hand, two players from each side winning their duel.

Illijin wins the week's tournament WTO

The week's tournament was an innovation at this year's edition of the Biel Chess Festival: seven games over five days to make a tournament possible for players who have no more than a week for the festival. The most successful player was the Romanian Neboisa Illijin with 6½ of the 7 possible points. He suffered the only draw against Chase Knowles from the USA, who finished the tournament in second place. Third place went to Switzerland’s Benjamin Brandis.

Ranking: https://chess-results.com/tnr766357.aspx?lan=1

Outlook: Swiss Championships

Two Swiss Individual Championships are still on the programme at the Biel Chess Festival this weekend, each of which is expected to attract just under 100 participants:

• Sat, 29.7. 14h00 - 18h30 Swiss Blitz Chess Championship (time to play per player: 3 min + 2 sec per move)
• Sun, 30.7. 9h45 - 19h00 Swiss Rapid Chess Championship (time per player: 15 min + 5 sec per move)

Beauty Award Round 9 MTO, HTO, ATO

Two MTO games were awarded.

Winner MTO: Roberto Carlos Sanchez Alvarez vs. Aarav Dengla 1-0

Winner MTO: Robert Shlyakhtenko vs. Luis Ernesto Quesada Perez 1-0

Games of the winners: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Open-Tournaments/ISF-Beauty-Awards/Day-9.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.