Biel: Vaishali wins again, now sole leader in Challengers

Three draws in the Masters

Press release by the Biel Chess Festival

The top two in the Masters Triathlon faced each other in round 3 of classical chess – and decided not to fight for long. Abhimanyu Mishra and last year's winner Le Quang Liem agreed to a draw relatively quickly, after 22 moves, by repetition.

A draw by repetition was also seen a little later in the game between third-placed Haik Martirosyan and Praggnanandhaa.

Abhimanyu, Le and Martirosyan still occupy the top half in the standings. The duel between the players at the bottom of the table, Vinceny Keymer and Sam Shankland, which would have allowed the winner to catch up with the leaders, also resulted in a draw.

Interview with tournament leader Abhimanyu Mishra

The Keymer Variation - 1.Nf3 d5 2.e3

This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.

Interview conducted by Arne Kaehler

Masters Triathlon - Standings

All games: Classical | Rapid | Blitz

All games - Masters (Classical)

Challengers: Vaishali comes from behind, leads

Vaishali Rameshbabu continued her excellent run in the Challengers Triathlon. While her brother Praggnanandhaa has yet to get going in the Masters, Vaishali is now the only player in both GMT tournaments to have won all three of her classical games – and she is the player with the lowest Elo rating!

In Thursday's game against Ihor Samunenkov, Vaishali benefited from the fact that her opponent first failed to capitalise on a mistake and then made several errors of his own.

In second and third place are Salem Saleh and Alexander Donchenko, respectively, who ultimately played out a draw in their direct duel after the Emirati got a slight advantage. Jonas Bjerre, the top seed in the Challengers, was able to make a leap forward, as he finally won his first points in classical chess after suffering two defeats. He beat Marc'Andria Maurizzi by gaining a steadily growing advantage in the middlegame and then converting it with aplomb.

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

Saleh Salem

Challengers Triathlon - Standings

All games: Classical | Rapid | Blitz

All games - Challengers (Classical)

MTO: No more perfect scores, ten co-leaders

After four rounds are the Master Tournament MTO, there is still a lot to play for. Most of the favourites are still close together, with ten players leading the table with 3½/4 points each.

The best women are currently IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, WIM Alua Nurman and WIM Xeniya Balabayeva, all from Kazakhstan, with 3 points each.

The best Swiss players in the tournament are currently FM Moritz Collin and FM Teimur Toktomushev with 2 ½ points each.

Bibisara Assaubayeva

Standings after round 4

...128 players

All available games - Masters Open

The Beauty Awards

When so many games are played daily, it is inevitable that a few particularly outstanding encounters take place. To highlight these games, the organisers of the Biel Chess Festival have created the Beauty Award.

Every evening after the rounds are over, the most attractive game from the MTO, HTO and ATO can be voted for on the festival's social media channels. The winners will present their game on the live stream the following day and receive a small gift.

Replay the games that have so far won the awards below.

Master Class Vol.17 - Boris Spassky

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

Links

• Official site
• All ChessBase reports: Biel 2023 | Biel 2022 | Biel 2021 | Biel 2020 | Biel 2019
• Live commentary on site
• Recaps of the day
• Interviews post-mortem
• Tipeee to support the festival's livestream