7/30/2119 – From July 20th to the 31st, the Swiss watch metropolis of Biel/Bienne will once again be a focus of chess activity in Europe. The festival features many interesting and young players as well as a new format that combines rapid, classical and blitz chess. Vidit won again with Black adding to his immpressive run. Shankland is second. Live games and commentary from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 AM EDT).
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Classical Round 7
With the lone win in the sixth round, Peter Leko gained 3 points in the overall standings, but draws for Vidit and Shankland means the former cannot be overtaken in Tuesday's final round.
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Commentary by WGM Dina Belenkaya & GM Tal Baron
Overall standings
Rank
Name
Games
Classic
Rapid
Blitz
Total
1
GM Santosh Vidit
27
12
8
11
31
2
GM Sam Shankland
27
8
9
10
27
3
GM Peter Leko
27
8
10
6.5
24.5
GM Parham Maghsoodloo
27
7
8
9.5
24.5
5
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov
27
9
5
8
22
GM Jorge Cori
27
8
7
7
22
7
GM Nico Georgiadis
27
4
6
2
12
8
GM Sebastian Bogner
27
6
3
2
11
Current classical standings
A win in a classical portion is worth 3 points, with 1 point for a draw.
Blitz final standings
Normal scoring is used for blitz.
Rapid final standings
A win in a classical portion is worth 2 points, with 1 point for a draw.
Eclectic chess crowd in Biel
The chess festival Biel is trying something new, both in terms of the players invited and the radical new format. Of the eight participants, seven are under the age of 30 and of those two are under 20.
The Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko, at only 39 years old, is the tournament veteran in this year's field. Playing against 18-year-old Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) or against 14-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), may remind him of his own early career as a chess pro. In his teens, Leko was moving out of the "child prodigy" category and already participating in the major tournaments while still so young. Today, however, the prodigies have multiplied, especially in Asia, and turnout to international tournaments in force.
The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Black’s play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.
Vidit Gujrathi is right in the middle at the age of 24. He belongs to the "second generation" of top Indian players, if you count Anand (the first Grandmaster of 64!) as the first generation.
Two players represent the Americas in Switzerland: Sam Shankland (27) from the USA and Jorge Cori (23) from Peru. Switzerland itself is represented by Sebastian Bogner and Nico Georgiadis.
(L to R) Maghsoodloo, Shankland, Abdusattorov, Leko, Vidit, Georgiadis, Bogner, Cori | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival
A new format
The big novelty this year is that the eight players play three tournaments: rapid, classical and blitz. Each player plays 28 games over 10 days: 7 games with classical time control, 7 rapid games and 14 blitz games. The tournament results are added together to give the total result, with the classical games receiving the highest weight in the final point tally.
Peter Bohnenblust, President of the Organizing Committee, says: "We are very happy and proud that such a fresh top cast could be found for the Grandmaster Tournament 2019. This shows how much chess is alive."
The Masters Open
There are also many interesting players in the strong open tournament running in parallel from July 22nd to 31st. The Elo favourite is Jeffrey Xiong from the USA, and joined by a list of notable names including Gata Kamsky, Salem, A. R. Saleh, Harika Dronavalli, Tania Sachdev, Zhansaya Abdumalik, Irene Sukander and the world's youngest grandmaster D. Gukesh.
In addition to the GM tournament and the Masters Open there are plenty of other tournaments and events in the accompanying program, such as Blitz, Chess960, youth and even a physicians tournament — something for everyone, from novices to grandmasters.
2/17/2022 – The last two spots in the upcoming Candidates Tournament will be decided in the FIDE Grand Prix Series, with the first leg of the series taking place in Berlin on February 4 to 17. The new format consists of four-player double round-robins and a knockout stage. Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 15.00 CET (09.00 ET, 19.30 IST)!
1/30/2022 – Besides Magnus Carlsen, who got a win by forfeit over Daniil Dubov, Praggnanandhaa, Sergey Karjakin and Jorden van Foreest also scored full points in the last round of the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi (pictured), who had secured first place in the Challengers with a round to spare, collected yet another victory to finish the event with a remarkable 10½/13 score. | Replay all the games with computer analysis. Full report to follow shortly!
The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.
one of best article i ever read on Chess. Great work.
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EnzoL 4/19/2020 09:13
This article is for the year 2119.
mannyrvelez64 12/2/2019 03:43
I'm having trouble watching the tutorial. I keep getting interrupted.
Sagar Shah 7/25/2019 06:45
@Susiep - Vidit is his first name, his father's name is Santosh and his surname is Gujrathi. So yes, calling him Mr. Gujrathi would be appropriate. However, Vidit is well known in the chess world with his first name and hence even when other players like Leko and Maghsoodloo are referred to with their surname, people call him Vidit.
susiep 7/25/2019 09:40
Vidit is his first name. His surname is Gujrathi. He is Mr. Gujrathi (like his father), not Mr. Vidit.
melante 7/25/2019 07:29
3 points for the win and quite an exciting tournament so far. I wonder if the two facts are correlated? ;)
The new Komodo Dragon 3 engine has gained 100 Elo points in playing strength over its predecessor when using a processor core in blitz. That's a huge improvement for a program that already reached at
an Elo level of over 3500!
FIDE Grand Prix 2022: Esipenko, Giri, Vidit, Oparin, Predke, Shankland, So and Vitiugov comment + videos by Rogozenco. "Special" on Bent Larsen. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Ragger and Marin. 11 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire!
The new Opening Encyclopaedia offers fast access to all openings. Openings are sorted via the menu by name & ECO Code for fast and easy access to your favorite openings.
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