Somewhat overshadowed by the Masters Triathlon, the Generations Challenge is taking place at the Biel Chess Festival, following the same triathlon format. In this tournament, the rising stars of the future are putting in impressive performances against strong women from the world of chess, led by the youngest competitor, Vaclav Finek. The 16-year-old Czech has so far performed best in both the rapid and the two classical games and now leads the table by a margin of 3½ points. There has been a tie at the top of the Masters Triathlon: thanks to his second consecutive victory – today against Blübaum – three-time Biel winner Lê Quang Liêm has drawn level with leader Aronian.
Biel Masters: Lê draws level with Aronian
Lê Quang Liêm, Biel and classical chess – it’s a perfect match: as in previous years, the Vietnamese player is managing to produce his best chess at the Biel Chess Festival in games with a long time control. Following his victory yesterday against Martínez Alcántara, he secured another win today, Wednesday, against Matthias Blübaum. Playing virtually flawlessly, Lê gave the German, who was competing in this year’s Candidates Tournament, no chance and forced him to resign after 60 moves. Lê has thus already made up the five-point deficit he had been trailing the leader by after the rapid games, having played just two games of classical chess.
This was also because the leader, Levon Aronian, failed to win his game against Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. As was the case yesterday, the young Turkish player found himself in serious time trouble and did not always find the best move in those circumstances. However, Aronian was unable to capitalise on the slight advantage this gave him, so the two agreed to a draw. Thanks to his better tiebreak score in the Accentus Chess960 tournament, Aronian remains at the top of the table, though he is now level on points with Lê.
The third game of the day at the Masters Triathlon also ended in a draw. Neither Aydin Süleymanli nor José Martínez Alcántara managed to secure victory, meaning that Süleymanli remains third in the standings and Martínez last.
GMT-Masters: Interim Ranking
Finek extends his lead
Vaclav Finek is doing the name of the Generations Challenge proud: the youngest player in the tournament at 16, who was already in the lead, managed to extend his lead further with a victory over Alexandra Kosteniuk, the oldest player in the Challenge. The young Czech, who has not yet been awarded the title of Grandmaster, showed no signs of weakness and managed to take a second pawn from his opponent in the endgame, forcing her to concede the game shortly afterwards.
Carissa Yip was able to capitalise on the clash between the two bottom-placed players to boost her points tally. In a meticulously played game against Vaishali Rameshbabu, the four-time US Women’s Champion managed to steadily build up an advantage, leading Vaishali to concede after 43 moves. With these four additional points to her name, Yip has now drawn level with Kosteniuk on place four.
The third game in the Generations Challenge ended in a draw: Marco Materia and Xiao Tong, who are tied on points in second and third place respectively, agreed to a draw after 41 moves. This consolidates their positions in the table, but they must be careful not to lose touch with Finek.
GMT-Generations Challenger: Interim Ranking
MTO
FOLLOWS
Interim Ranking MTO: https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1451903.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=3&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
The second day of the Amateur Open
A total of 53 games were played today as part of the Amateur Open Tournament. There were already a significant number of draws on the top boards, where the favourites were unable to prevail. Of the 109 participants, 16 still have a record of 2/2.
Interim Ranking ATO: https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1451908.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
Round 3 of the Free Style Chess Tournament
In the top-of-the-table clash of the third round of the Free Style Chess Tournament, FM Jonas Wyss and GM Alexander Cherniaev drew. This worked in Nicolas Perréard’s favour, who now stands alone at the top with 3/3, thanks in particular to his victory over IM David Gluckman in the second round. With four rounds still to go, however, a lot can of course still happen.
Interim Ranking FSC: https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1452009.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=3&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
Outlook: Lê is set to face Erdogmus; Kosteniuk vs Vaishali
Thursday will feature again a round of classical chess in both Triathlons, as well as in the Masters Tournament and the Amateur Tournament. In the Masters Triathlon, the man of the moment, Lê Quang Liêm, faces the prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. Can the highly acclaimed young Turk, playing with white, stop Lê? If so, can Aronian capitalise on this and pick up points against Martínez Alcántara, who is bottom of the table? And how will Blübaum fare against Süleymanli?
In the Generations Challenge, Finek must defend his lead against Xiao; today’s winner, Yip, faces Materia; and on board three, two big names – three-time Women’s World Champion Kosteniuk and Vaishali, the current winner of the Candidates Tournament – go head to head.
Tuesday in review
A local player caused quite a stir at the Masters Open on Tuesday: WGM Lena Georgescu from Bern, who defeated Grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan, who is rated almost 300 Elo points higher. Post-match interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfTGE3LLGT0
Pictures of the Biel International Chess Festival are available under the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157725129451868/
On the evening of each day of the Festival, the OC sends out a media report on the day's events.