He was one of the very few chess players from the world’s elite who had never previously competed at the Biel Chess Festival, and now he has won at the first attempt: Levon Aronian. The former world number two has won the 2026 Masters Triathlon, thanks in particular to outstanding performances in the fast-paced Rapid and Blitz disciplines. Aydin Süleymanli finished second, ahead of Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and Lê Quang Liêm.
The Generations Challenge was won by Vaclav Finek, the youngest player in the competition. The young Czech put in an outstanding performance in all three disciplines, leaving Xiao Tong and Marco Materia in second and third place respectively.
Masters Triathlon: Aronian wins ahead of Süleymanli and Erdogmus
The situation was already looking good for Levon Aronian ahead of today’s final round: trailing by four points, his closest rival and today’s opponent, Aydin Süleymanli – playing with the black pieces – had to go for a win. That would have allowed him to overtake Aronian. However, the American played virtually flawlessly again today, leaving Süleymanli with no opportunities, and the game ended in a draw by repetition of moves. Aronian proved to be rock-solid in classical chess, drawing all eight of his classical games. Combined with his outstanding performances in rapid (9/10 points) and blitz (8½/10 points), he finished with a total of 29½ points, thereby winning the 2026 Biel Masters Triathlon.
With his victory in Biel, Levon Aronian – the 43-year-old Armenian-born player who has been representing the USA since 2021 – adds yet another title to his impressive list of achievements. Once ranked number two in the world, he achieved the fourth-highest Elo rating of all time in 2014 with 2830. He has now been playing at the very highest international level for over 20 years, and in Aronian, the Biel Chess Festival has a more than worthy winner for 2026.
Aydin Süleymanli finished in second place. Had the Azerbaijani won today’s game, he could even have secured the tournament title. He would have been level on points with Aronian and would have beaten him thanks to his better performance in the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament. However, second place is still a major success for Süleymanli, given that, according to his Elo rating, he was only ranked fifth out of the six players – but above all, Süleymanli was only called up at short notice to replace Yakubboev, who was unable to take part, and was therefore unable to prepare for the tournament as thoroughly as his rivals.
The other two remaining players, Lê Quang Liêm and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, also still had a chance of finishing second: a win would have given both of them the opportunity to overtake Süleymanli. Lê could well have managed this: his b-pawn was able to advance all the way to his opponent’s back rank, and with flawless play he could have converted this advantage into a win. However, this did not succeed, as Erdogmus was able to force a draw against Lê by repeating moves. With this result, the two are tied on points in third and fourth place, with Erdogmus taking the podium place thanks to a better ACCENTUS Chess960 rating.
GMT-Masters: Final Ranking
Finek wins the Generations Challenge
Vaclav Finek celebrated a start-to-finish victory in the Generations Challenge. He took the lead on the very first day in the Rapid discipline and never relinquished it. Hot on his heels was Xiao Tong, against whom he still had to defend his lead today. As in the Masters, the closest challenger would have needed a win today to catch the leader. However, Xiao could only manage a draw here too, meaning that Finek – at sixteen, the youngest of the teenagers in the Generations Challenge – secured victory. Finek performed strongly in all three disciplines of the triathlon, coming top in classical chess and rapid chess, and finishing just ½ point behind Xiao – the best in this discipline – in blitz chess. In the Czech player, the Challenge has a winner who has not yet been awarded the title of Grandmaster and is currently still ranked as an International Master (IM) – though he is likely to be able to call himself a GM very soon.
Xiao Tong finished in second place behind Finek. The young Chinese player had already competed in the open Masters tournament in Biel two years ago, aged 15. On his return this year, he too put in a strong performance and proved himself worthy of his status as the field’s highest-ranked player. Behind him, Marco Materia will round off the podium. He, too, has competed three times in the Biel Masters tournament in recent years and has now had the chance to prove himself on stage.
GMT-Generations Challenge: Final Ranking
MTO
FOLLOWS
Podium MTO:
1. IM Christian Glöckler (GER)
2. IM Cao Qingfeng (CHN)
3. GM Adam Kozak (HUN)
Final Ranking MTO: https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1451903.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=10&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
ATO
FOLLOWS
Podium ATO:
1. Dimitrios Alexakis (GRE)
2. WCM Abigail Zhou (USA)
3. WCM Ena Bangerter (SUI)
Final Ranking ATO: https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1451908.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
WT1
FOLLOWS
Interim Ranking WT1: https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1451997.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=8&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30&SNode=S0
Tureshbayev leads in Total Chess
After four rounds, FM Anuar Tureshbayev remains the only player with a perfect record in the Biel Hospital Centre Total Chess Tournament: so far, he has won his Rapid, Blitz and classical games every day. In tomorrow’s final round, he will face the current runner-up, GM Alexander Cherniaev, who trails by 1½ points in the overall standings. Jérémie Papaux is the highest-placed Swiss player, in fourth place.
Interim Ranking TRI: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Tournaments/Open-Tournaments/Physicians-Spitalzentrum-Biel-Tournament.html
Outlook: Award ceremony on Friday morning
This Friday, the 59th edition of the Biel International Chess Festival will draw to a close: the closing ceremony will take place at 10.30 am in the lobby of the Biel Congress Centre, where the tournament winners will be presented with their awards.
The final chess matches will also be played: in the morning, the final rounds of the Total Chess and Fast Standard tournaments will take place.
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.