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The International Chess Festival of Biel/Bienne, launched in 1968 with a small Swiss system tourney, is now ongoing as a beautiful summer gala for 57 editions, without any break!
In 1976, 1985, and 1993, Interzonal Tournaments took place in Biel. The closed elite invitational tournament series started in 1977, always together with a major Master Open (MTO), an Amateur Open (ATO), a youth tournament, and further side events.
Since 2019, the main Grandmaster Masters Tournament (GMT) is organised as a multi-format event, called Triathlon, combining classical, rapid, and blitz games with an innovative point scoring system, plus a Chess 960 (aka Fischer Random or Freestyle) contest at the beginning of the event, which serves as a tie-breaker, if necessary.
This year, the Biel Festival reintroduced a Challengers invitational tournament (as is the case at Wijk aan Zee Tata Steel or at the rising Prague Chess Festival), held in the Triathlon format. Both closed competitions, GMT Masters and GMT Challengers, are split into a qualifier round robin, and a following final stage.
A highlight of the 2024 Festival is the participation of the first-ever Grandmaster brother-sister pair in chess history!
Master advanced Tactics and Calculations like a super Grandmaster
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Rameshbabu Vaishali from India faces five male opponents in the closed GMT Challengers at the Biel Festival 2024
She is the sister of the #1 seed Biel GMT Masters player Praggnanandhaa, also known as "Pragg". They are the first ever brother-sister duo to both earn the absolute GM title.
They also became the first brother-sister duo ever to qualify for the respective Candidates Tournament, as both were qualified in their respective categories to play in Toronto in April 2024. At the Women's Candidates, Vaishali finished in a tie for second place, her brother finished sole fifth in the Open Candidates.
As of July 2024, Praggnanandhaa is ranked no. 8 in the world. Meanwhile, his sibling Vaishali is ranked no. 14 (women), but in the live ratings, she has already entered the Top Ten after scoring three consecutive wins at the Biel GMT Challengers.
Most certainly, they will become the first brother-sister Top Ten players in an official FIDE Elo rating list among men (open) and women, respectively.
A family-run start-up on a chess excellence mission: The Indian siblings taking the chess world by storm (bbc.com)
Cecilia Keymer, Germany, is one of more than a hundred participants in the Amateur Open
She is accompanied in Biel by her father and her older brother. You certainly guess who he is: Vincent Keymer, Germany's number one, playing again in the GMT Masters Triathlon, but missing the qualification for the new final stage.
Last year, he was sole second. Vincent went into the final round of the 2023 tournament with eight players as the leader, and a draw would have been enough for him to win the Triathlon title – but in the final round he suffered his only defeat in the classical games against Arjun Erigaisi, and allowed Lê Quang Liêm, from Vietnam, to leapfrog him on the finish line.
Lê Quang Liêm thus emerged as the winner of the Biel GMT Triathlon 2023 - he had already triumphed in 2022. Lê, who now teaches chess for the largest part of his life, is defending his previous two titles in Biel, aiming for a third victory with good chances.
WGM and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, Kazakhstan, is one of more than a hundred participants in the Masters Open
Bibisara Assaubayeva, the reigning #1 Girl U20 in the world and a two-time Women's World Blitz Champion, in 2021 & 2022, is chasing the ultimate GM title (peak Elo rating 2481 so far).
A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2
This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.
Krishnan Sasikiran (often called "Sasi" or "Sas") from India - exactly twenty years ago, he was the clear runner-up at the Biel Festival GMT in 2004, behind Morozevich, and above Ponomariov, Bacrot and McShane, among others
In 2000/2001 and in 2001/2002, he twice co-won the prestigious Hastings Chess Congress, then still held as a closed invitational tournament. Sasikiran was clear first at the Capablanca Memorial held in Varadero in 2017, above Ivanchuk and Shankland. He also took the traditional Sigeman & Co. in Malmö (shared with Timman), or the Pamplona invitational tournament, and a couple of prominent Open Festivals, such as the Rilton Cup in Stockholm and the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen, among several others.
He became only the second player from India, after Anand, to reach an Elo rating of 2700+. In the January to March 2007 FIDE ratings list, K. Sasikiran achieved his peak ranking, as he was the number 20= of the world.
Sasikiran is a multiple National Champion, and played in total more than 100 games at the Olympiad for India in eleven appearances between 1998 and 2022, five times on board one (Anand always absent). Sasikiran was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Championship title match 2013 against Carlsen.
Sam Shankland, USA, won the strong Biel Masters Open in 2016 - a few years after this triumph, Sam finished clear runner-up in the GMT Triathlon 2019 behind winner Vidit, ahead of Leko, Maghsoodloo, and young Abdusattorov
US-born Sam Shankland created an upset when he won the National Championship 2018 convincingly and unbeaten as an underdog over the "Big Three" American chess players, namely Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So, all of whom ranked in the world’s top ten at the time (and today).
He is a two-time Olympiad Gold medallist. Playing as the 'super-sub' (board 5 reserve) for the USA at the Olympiad in 2014, Sam scored a powerful 9/10 to win an individual gold, and took a historic team gold in 2016.
He co-won the Edmonton invitational tournament in 2016, claimed the Capablanca Memorial held in Havana in 2018 ahead of Dreev, and the strong Prague Masters 2021 ahead of Duda, among some further favourable results. Shankland is a regular player, mostly rated around or just below Elo 2700. His peak ranking so far missed the Top Twenty just by a whisker.
He worked as an analyst for Magnus Carlsen, training with him to prepare for the 2014 and 2016 World Championship matches. Shankland is also a prolific author who has published several important chess books.
WIM Svitlana Demchenko, Canada's board no. 2 in the Women's section at the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai
Ukrainian-born Svitlana Demchenko is a multiple-time Canadian and North American Girls Champion in different age categories, an enthusiastic chess coach who has been a member of the Canadian Women’s Olympiad team since 2018.
She is a student of biomedical and molecular science at the University of Ottawa, Canada: Medical studies come first, but Ottawa university student also excels at teaching chess - The Globe and Mail
Demchenko produced several FritzTrainers and presents a popular weekly show on ChessBase, titled Svitlana's Smart Moves: Svitlana's Smart Moves - The 100th Anniversary Special - YouTube
Besides in-depth theory and exciting tactical exercises in the Scotch Game, this video course also includes a bonus section on the Scotch Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Bc4), a lively variation often leading to very dynamic positions.
WIM Gergana Peycheva, from Bulgaria, has played on second board (Stefanova absent) at the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai
Bulgaria is the surprising reigning Women's European Team Chess Champion, as they took the title at the ETCC 2023 in Budva, Montenegro, the biggest success in the history of Bulgaria’s national women's team chess.
In the last round, Bulgaria won by 2.5:1.5 points against Georgia, which has a rich tradition of strong female players in the world of chess. It was Gergana Peycheva on the third board who secured the first team gold medal ever for her team. After fighting hard for 83 moves, she won with white against renowned Lela Javakhishvili, as the three other games ended much earlier.
Peycheva is a student in business administration and a college chess team member. The University of Texas UT at Dallas takes chess seriously: https://chess.utdallas.edu/team-club/chess-team/
Ihor Samunenkov, born on June 15, 2009 in Kyiv, Ukraine, participates in the closed GMT Challengers
In December 2023, Samunenkov was formally awarded the Grandmaster title. Upon this, he became the then world's youngest grandmaster. There are now already more than 40 players who got the grandmaster title before their 15th birthday!
The youngest chess grandmaster ever – Abhimanyu (often called "Abhi") Mishra, USA
Mishra holds the world record for the youngest grandmaster ever in history - he was 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old when he achieved that feat in June 2021.
In the first round of classical chess at the Masters Triathlon in Biel, he scored a major victory: with black, he beat Praggnanandhaa, a top-ten player and the tournament’s number one seed.
Arne Kaehler met Abhi Mishra in Biel and asked him 30 rapid questions in 6 minutes in a must-see video: Abhimanyu Mishra - A unique ChessBase interview - YouTube
Saleh Salem, UAE, at the Opening Ceremony of the Biel Festival 2024 during the drawing of lots - in his hands a bar of Swiss chocolate with the number one, a good omen
The world's best Arab player returned to Biel after a victory in the 2021 MTO to play his second closed tournament after the 2022 GMT. The jovial Emirati can use his previous Biel experience, since he already took part in the MTO in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, and, as pointed out, in 2021, when he won.
He did not miss any Festival of the last 26 years! Well, it’s Peter Bohnenblust, the President of the Organizational Committee, together with Tournament Director Paul Kohler, the driving force behind the scenes. The chess community is looking forward to many more Biel Festivals!
