The Biel Grandmaster Triathlon:
A day of rapid chess to start with, with five games each against each other. A win is scored with two points, a draw with one. This was followed in the last few days by five classic games, in which the six Masters players and the six Challenger players each faced each other once. In these games, a win is rewarded with 4 points, a draw with only 1½, an incentive to play for the win! The last discipline is Blitz on Sunday: 10 games are played, scored with 1 point for a win and ½ for a draw. Afterwards, the final score will be calculated: Only the best four players from Masters and the best four from Challengers qualify for the final phase next week. If a fourth-placed player is already so far behind the leader that he has no chance of catching him, the fourth-placed player is also eliminated from the race.
A great moment for Salem against Aravindh
Only one of the six games in the Grandmaster Triathlon had a winner today, but it was a spectacular one: Saleh Salem, nominally the weakest player in the Masters 2025 and the only one of the six opponents not currently ranked in the world's top 100, defeated Aravindh Chithambaram. The game started well for Aravindh and he gained an advantage in the middlegame. However, in this situation he decided to exchange queens, which proved to be a mistake. This was followed by an endgame in which Aravindh played imprecisely on several occasions, allowing Salem, last year's winner of the Biel Challengers, to win the match.
The game between Vladimir Fedoseev and Frederik Svane lasted almost six hours. As the player at the bottom of the table, the German was in desperate need of points. But it was Fedoseev who created the better chances. Svane managed to counter this with very precise play. In the equal endgame, both tried to find their chance, but neither blinked, so that the draw was sealed after 100 moves. Svane now needs an outstanding blitz to keep his chances of reaching the final phase alive.
The draw in the third game was less spectacular. Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Volodar Murzin agreed on a draw by repetition after just 29 moves. In the ranking, this means that Wojtaszek remains half a point behind Murzin in fifth place – and must therefore finish better than Rapid World Champion Murzin in tomorrow's blitz.
GMT-Masters: Interim Ranking
| Rank | Name | Games | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Saleh SALEM | 10 | 15 | 2 | 17 | |
| 2 | GM Vladimir FEDOSEEV | 10 | 8½ | 7 | 15½ | |
| 3 | GM ARAVINDH Chithambaram | 10 | 8½ | 7 | 15½ | |
| 4 | GM Volodar MURZIN | 10 | 7½ | 5 | 12½ | |
| 5 | GM Radoslaw WOJTASZEK | 10 | 6 | 6 | 12 | |
| 6 | GM Frederik SVANE | 10 | 4½ | 3 | 7½ |
Challengers: Tension at the back of the field
Today's fifth round of the GMT-Challengers did not provide any more clarity as to who will progress to the final phase: all the games ended in a draw. Theodorou is still in the lead with a 2½ point advantage over Hakobyan. The Greek is virtually certain to qualify for the final round, while the Armenian's chances are very good, so the draw in their direct duel today was in the interests of both. The pursuers follow with a gap of 4½ points and more: Ma Qun and Dardha did not concede anything to each other, so their draw did nothing to improve their position in the standings. The game between Jumabayev and Navara could have tipped to one side or the other, as neither played precisely, but in the end neither found a way to win.
For Jumabayev, Ma Qun, Navara and Dardha, tomorrow's blitz part of the triathlon will determine who will go through to next week's final phase. For two of the four, the tournament will surely end after that. Jumabayev has the best starting position with 12½ points, followed by Ma Qun (11) and Navara (10½) – as a three-time European blitz champion, most recently in 2023, Navara in particular will be counting on tomorrow. With 8½ points, Dardha faces the toughest task, but nothing is lost for him yet.
GMT-Challengers: Interim Ranking
| Rank | Name | Games | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Nikolas THEODOROU | 10 | 12½ | 8 | 20½ | |
| 2 | GM Aram HAKOBYAN | 10 | 10 | 7 | 17 | |
| 3 | GM Rinat JUMABAYEV | 10 | 8½ | 4 | 12½ | |
| 4 | GM MA Qun | 10 | 6 | 5 | 11 | |
| 5 | GM David NAVARA | 10 | 8½ | 2 | 10½ | |
| 6 | GM Daniel DARDHA | 10 | 4½ | 4 | 8½ |
Tension in the master tournament MTO
After round six of the master tournament, there is still a lot to play for. The leading trio from the previous day drew all their games today, meaning that other players were able to move to the top with victories in their games. Six players are currently on 5 points, with seven more lurking half a point behind – one of them: IM Fabian Bänziger, currently the best Swiss player in a strong 10th place.
ATO: Draw in top match
The two previous leaders, Simon Künzli and Roman Tkhoruk, played their first draw of the tournament in a direct duel today. Eliza Tereshchenko was the only one of their six closest pursuers to win her game today, meaning that this trio now leads the table with 4½ points.
An open race for the freestyle victory
After the penultimate round of the Freestyle Chess tournament, the new seven-round tournament in Chess960, the standings are wide open: There are four participants at the top of the table with 4½ points each. Yesterday's three leaders, GM Alexander Raetsky, WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova and Evangelos Kostopoulos, played to a draw in their games today, allowing the victorious Alexandros Panagiotopoulos to catch up with them.
68 young players at the VINETUM youth tournament
The VINETUM Youth Tournament took place on Saturday at the Biel Chess Festival. This open tournament offers children and young people up to the age of 18 who are enthusiastic about chess the opportunity to gain their first experience at a major chess tournament. The tournament was organised in three categories: for players who already have a chess rating, one for 11-18-year-olds and one for under-11-year-olds. There was also a parallel tournament for interested chaperones.
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Rated: Angel Mathias Valdiviezo Garcia (ECU) won, ahead of Jacob Brandon Vassiliev (USA) and Marco Wilhelm (SUI).
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U18: Michel Goelff (LUX) won undefeated, ahead of Jan Hirt (SUI) and Matteo Caratti (SUI).
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U11: Jan Gisler (SUI) won undefeated, ahead of Luc Kunz (SUI) and Mark Palamarchuk (SUI).
Rating VINETUM JTO Rated
Rating VINETUM JTO U18
Rating VINETUM JTO U11
Rating VINETUM JTO Chaperons
Outlook: Blitz on Sunday
On Sunday, the Biel Congress Centre will be dominated by blitz chess. The third of the three disciplines, blitz chess, will take place on stage in the Grandmaster Triathlon – and thus also the decision as to which players will move on to the final phase of the Masters and Challengers. In blitz, all grandmasters play each other twice, resulting in ten games. There is one point to be won for each victory – so with a maximum of 10 points to be awarded, the rankings of the tournaments may well still change significantly!
Blitz will also be in the hall: MTO and ATO will have their rest day tomorrow, instead there will be an open blitz tournament over 13 rounds in the afternoon. Registrations can be made on site until 1 pm.
The last of the seven rounds of the new Freestyle Chess tournament will be played in the morning, and it promises to be exciting: four participants are leading the tournament with 4½ points. The two duels between them will decide the outcome:
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Evangelos Kostopoulos vs GM Alexander Raetsky
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WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova vs Alexandros Panagiotopoulos
Finally, the problem-solving contest PLT, another novelty, will take place in Biel at midday: organised by the Swiss Association of Art Chess Lovers, the aim of the event is to solve tricky chess problems correctly and as quickly as possible.
Announcement
Next week, from Monday to Friday, the week's tournaments will take place in two different strength classes. These two tournaments, divided into one for players below 1800 Elo and one for those above, will take place in the morning and – with a time limit of 60 minutes per player, plus increment – will therefore end at lunchtime. Registrations can be made online or on site on Monday until 9.15 am.
Beauty Award MTO, ATO
Every day, the best games from MTO and ATO are voted for on social media.
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Winner MTO RD4: GM Benjamin Bok (2593) vs. GM Pranav Anand (2566) 0 – 1
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Winner ATO RD3: Felix Meshach (1905) vs. Nizar Hilmi Nuh (1521) 1 – 0
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available here
On the evening of each day of the Festival, the OC sends out a media report on the day's events.