The triathlons had their rest day on Monday in Biel. Instead, the Masters Open Tournament MTO got underway. This is an open tournament, but only for players with an Elo rating of over 1900, so it brings together players of a higher standard. A total of 94 participants are taking part in this year’s event, 42 of whom hold a chess title, including eight grandmasters.
The open Free Style Chess tournament, played in Chess960, has also begun at the Biel Congress Centre and will be played over the next seven days.
A day of rest dedicated to watches
On the rest day for the twelve competitors in the two triathlons – the Masters and the Generations Challenge – the programme traditionally includes an outing for those who fancied a change of scene. In the watchmaking town of Biel, the Grand Masters visited Omega’s modern manufacturing facility, where they were given a tour of the intricacies of watchmaking. Finally, the tour continued at the Omega Museum with a look back at the company’s history. After an entertaining afternoon, the players then retired to prepare for tomorrow’s match day.