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Press release
With one round to go at the Biel Chess Festival, nothing has yet been decided. Both the Grandmaster Triathlon and the Women’s Quadriathlon will feature direct encounters between the first and second placed participants in battles for the respective titles.
The French Defence - Structures, Tactics and plans Vol.1 & 2
This video course is aimed as a tactical guide for Black, featuring the most typical combinations for the French structures.
In the Grandmaster Triathlon, Le Quang Liem beat Arkadij Naiditsch with the white pieces, while his last-round opponent, Andrey Esipenko, remains close behind thanks to his win against Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
Gukesh, on the other hand, had to settle for a draw against last year’s winner Gata Kamsky, which means he can no longer win the event.
In the ladies’ tournament, leader Zhuang Yongzhe drew her game, allowing Iris Ciarletta to grab the lead thanks to her win over Yulia Avilova.
The Swiss Youth Championships concluded on Thursday. The new national titleholders are:
In the Grandmaster Triathlon GMT, Le Quang Liem defeated Arkadij Naiditsch to keep the sole lead in the standings. The Vietnamese GM has yet to draw a classical game in Biel, as he won four times (including the last three games) and lost once so far in the most heavily weighed section of the event.
Andrey Esipenko, thanks to his victory with black over Nodirbek Abdusattorov, moved up to second place. Gukesh v Gata Kamsky and Vincent Keymer v Saleh Salem finished in draws.
With one round to go, Le is first with 34 points, Esipenko is second with 31 points, and Gukesh is third with 29½ points. Abdusattorov (26½ points) can still fight for a place on the podium.
Note that in the classical section, wins are worth 4 points and draws are worth 1½ points.
| Rank | Name | Games | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | GM Le Quang Liem | 27 | 16 | 11 | 7 | 34 |
| 2 | GM Andrey Esipenko | 27 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 31 |
| 3 | GM Dommaraju Gukesh | 27 | 15 | 7 | 7½ | 29½ |
| 4 | GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 27 | 9½ | 9 | 8 | 26½ |
| 5 | GM Saleh Salem | 27 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 22 |
| 6 | GM Gata Kamsky | 27 | 10 | 1 | 8½ | 19½ |
| 7 | GM Vincent Keymer | 27 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 19 |
| 8 | GM Arkadij Naiditsch | 27 | 8½ | 6 | 2 | 16½ |
Find all the games at Live.ChessBase.com: Classical | Rapid | Blitz
Iris Ciarletta defeated Yulia Avilova to take the lead with 36 points. Former leader Zhuang Yongzhe only drew and is now second with 35 points, half a point ahead of Juliette Cornileau who won a very important game against Margaux Moracchini.
Ciarletta will have the white pieces against Zhuang in the final round, while Cornileau, who still has an outside chance of winning the event, will face Sumarriva with black.
The final round kicks off four hours earlier than usual (10.00 CEST, 04.00 ET)!
| Rank | Name | Chess960 | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | Iris Ciarletta | 5½ | 9½ | 9 | 12 | 36 |
| 2 | Zhuang Yongzhe | 3½ | 15 | 10 | 6½ | 35 |
| 3 | Juliette Cornileau | 5½ | 13½ | 10 | 5½ | 34½ |
| 4 | Margaux Moracchini | 1 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 31 |
| 5 | Gohar Tamrazyan | 2½ | 15 | 8 | 5½ | 31 |
| 6 | Laura Sumarriva Paulin | 3 | 8½ | 7 | 8 | 26½ |
| 7 | Yulia Avilova | 4 | 3 | 5 | 7½ | 19½ |
| 8 | Cecilia Keymer | 3 | 8½ | 2* | 2 | 15½ |
* scored by Veronika Kostina
As part of the Biel Chess Festival, the Swiss Youth Champions in the categories U16, U14, U12, U10 and U8 were crowned for a third time in a row.
Over seven rounds, the country’s 16 best players per category (U8: the eight best) competed to earn the national championship. The following players reached the podium in their respective age groups:
Full results: U16 | U14 | U12 | U10 | U8
In the Master Tournament MTO, Vikash and Kirill Alekseenko drew on top board. This allowed Azerbaijani GM Mahammad Muradli to catch Alekseenko in the lead after beating Alexander Motylev in round 8.
Winning Chess Strategies Vol.1 and 2
Throughout this video course, we will study how to master sacrifices and the initiative in several aspects: opposite-coloured bishops, the bishop pair, the exchange sacrifice, launching an attack, and the good moment to sacrifice will be covered.
Alekseenko and Muradli are now in the lead with 6½ points. They are chased by a group of four players on 6 points, and ten players on 5½ points, some of whom have an excellent tiebreak score.
Alekseenko will likely try to get outright victory in the final round, as he will have the white pieces against his lower-rated direct rival!
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Alekseenko Kirill | 2708 | 6,5 | 34,5 |
| 2 | GM | Muradli Mahammad | 2523 | 6,5 | 34,5 |
| 3 | GM | Sargsyan Shant | 2661 | 6,0 | 36,5 |
| 4 | GM | Visakh N R | 2503 | 6,0 | 36,5 |
| 5 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2623 | 6,0 | 36,0 |
| 6 | GM | Mendonca Leon Luke | 2567 | 6,0 | 34,5 |
| 7 | IM | Pranav Anand | 2463 | 5,5 | 38,0 |
| 8 | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2632 | 5,5 | 37,0 |
| 9 | GM | Martirosyan Haik M. | 2672 | 5,5 | 35,5 |
| 10 | GM | Fedoseev Vladimir | 2686 | 5,5 | 35,0 |
| 11 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2612 | 5,5 | 35,0 |
| 12 | GM | Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo | 2619 | 5,5 | 34,5 |
| 13 | GM | Erdos Viktor | 2586 | 5,5 | 33,5 |
| 14 | GM | Pavlovic Milos | 2461 | 5,5 | 32,0 |
| 15 | GM | Raja Harshit | 2477 | 5,5 | 31,5 |
Find all available games at Live.ChessBase.com
