At the opening ceremony in the Biel Congress Centre, OC President Peter Bohnenblust did not miss the opportunity to refer to the great tradition of the Biel Chess Festival. At the same time, he also emphasised the innovative character that the festival is once again demonstrating this year with new formats. For example, a seven-day Freesytle tournament (Chess960) will be held for the first time and the Spitalzentrum Biel Blitz U20 will be a one-day tournament for youngsters.
Edith Siegenthaler, President of the Grand Council of the Canton of Berne, welcomed those present – and recalled evenings and nights spent playing chess during her student days in Italy. Municipal Councillor Anna Tanner delivered a greeting on behalf of the city of Biel. The opening ceremony was livened up by the musical interventions of Nico Brina.
Wojtaszek prevails in the Accentus Chess960-Masters
As a prelude to the GMT Grandmaster Triathlon, the invited grandmasters play the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament on the first day. This tournament, played over seven rounds with rapid chess time control, is not part of the actual Grandmaster Triathlon. However, it does have its significance: if two players are tied on points at the end of the
Grandmaster Triathlon, their result in the ACCENTUS Chess960 serves as a tie-breaker and decides the final ranking.
Among the participants in the GMT Masters, Radoslaw Wojtaszek proved to be the strongest player in the discipline of Fischer random chess today. The veteran, who already won the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in 2020, has thus already shown that he is a force to be reckoned with in Biel. He is followed by Saleh Salem, who is also a well-known player with his eleventh (!) participation in Biel, and the nominal tournament favourite Vladimir Fedoseev, by half a point.
Accentus Chess960-Challengers: Underdog Jumabayev wins
The Accentus Chess960 tournament ends with a surprise among the Challengers participants: Rinat Jumabayev picks up where he left off last year in Biel: The Kazakh, who won the Biel Master Tournament MTO last year, also wins the Accentus Chess960 Challengers this year – even though he is nominally the weakest of the six players.Jumabayev is followed by Aram Hakobyan, with Daniel Dardha and Ma Qun a further half point behind, who will also be a force to be reckoned with.
Kappeler Swiss Champion in Rapid Chess960
The Swiss Rapid Chess960 Championship took place in Biel today as well. International participants also took part in this open tournament, although they are not eligible for the title. The tournament was played over seven rounds. Of the 54 participants, GM Mustafa Yilmaz, who remained without losing any point, proved to be the strongest player, ahead of IM Banh Gia Huy. The eighth best player in the tournament was best Swiss, and therefore
Swiss Champion 2025 in Rapid Chess960: FM Kaspar Kappeler, with 5 out of 7 possible points.
Podium Swiss Championship
1. FM Kaspar Kappeler
2. CM Hassan Roger Sadeghi
3. WGM Lena Georgescu
Check Results
Simultaneous: Svane unbeaten, but not flawless
Even before today's opening day, the first event took place on Friday evening with the simultaneous tournament. Grandmaster Frederik Svane faced 17 opponents at the same time – it was, as he revealed, a first for him. His opponents included both simple amateurs, as well as three players with an Elo rating of over 2000, making the task correspondingly challenging. Although sometimes under pressure, Svane ultimately remained unbeaten and won 15 of the games. Two players were able to wrest a draw from him: Igor Kupalov and Roman Tkhoruk.
Check Results
Outlook: Rapid chess on Sunday
The GMT Grandmaster Triathlon begins tomorrow and will be the main focus for the next two weeks. Like last year, it is divided into two strength classes, Masters and Challengers, each with six players. The triathlon begins with a day of rapid chess as the first discipline. In five games, each player will play once against each other with a time limit of 15 minutes
and an additional 5 seconds per move. An open rapid chess tournament will also take place tomorrow in Biel with the same cadence. Around 150 participants are expected to compete over nine rounds in the concert hall of the Biel Congress Centre.
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link.
On the evening of each day of the Festival, the OC sends out a media report on the days events.