Biel: Salem storms to the top of the standings

Biel Media Bulletin

What a run! With his third win in a row, Saleh Salem has taken the lead in the GMT-Masters in Biel. After beating Fedoseev the day before, the Emirati also defeated the other tournament favourite, Aravindh, on Saturday. The two defeated players, Fedoseev and Aravindh, are tied for second place. The Challengers round was less spectacular: the three draws primarily consolidated the leading position of Theodorou and Hakobyan.

The blitz section of the Biel Grandmaster Triathlon follows on Sunday: this phase will decide which of the players will contest the final phase of the Masters and Challengers next week.

A great victory for Salem against Aravindh

Only one of the six games in the Grandmaster Triathlon had a winner today, but it was a spectacular one: Saleh Salem, nominally the weakest player in the Masters 2025 and the only one of the six opponents not currently ranked in the world's top 100, defeated Aravindh Chithambaram.

The game started well for Aravindh, and he gained an advantage in the middlegame. However, in this situation he decided to exchange queens, which proved to be a mistake. This was followed by an endgame in which Aravindh played imprecisely on several occasions, allowing Salem, last year's winner of the Biel Challengers, to win the match.

The game between Vladimir Fedoseev and Frederik Svane lasted almost six hours. As the player at the bottom of the table, the German was in desperate need of points. But it was Fedoseev who created the better chances. Svane managed to counter this fact with very precise play. In the equal endgame, both tried to find their chance, but neither blinked, so that the draw was sealed after 100 moves. Svane now needs an outstanding blitz performance to keep his chances of reaching the final phase alive.

The draw in the third game was less spectacular. Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Volodar Murzin agreed on a draw by repetition after just 29 moves. In the ranking, this means that Wojtaszek remains half a point behind Murzin in fifth place – and must therefore finish better than Rapid World Champion Murzin in the blitz section.

Games

GMT-Masters: Interim Ranking

Challengers: Tension at the back of the field

Saturday's fifth round of the GMT-Challengers did not provide any more clarity as to who will progress to the final phase: all the games ended in a draw. Theodorou is still in the lead with a 2½-point advantage over Hakobyan. The Greek is virtually certain to qualify for the final round, while the Armenian's chances are very good, so the draw in their direct duel was in the interests of both.

The pursuers follow with a gap of 4½ points or more: Ma Qun and Dardha did not concede anything to each other, so their draw did nothing to improve their position in the standings. The game between Jumabayev and Navara could have tipped to one side or the other, as neither played precisely, but in the end neither found a way to win.

For Jumabayev, Ma Qun, Navara and Dardha, the blitz phase of the triathlon will determine who will go through to next week's final phase. For two of the four, the tournament will surely end after that. Jumabayev has the best starting position with 12 ½ points, followed by Ma Qun (11) and Navara (10½) – as a three-time European blitz champion, most recently in 2023, Navara in particular will be counting on Sunday's performance. With 8½ points, Dardha faces the toughest task, but nothing is lost for him yet.

Games

GMT-Challengers: Interim Ranking

MTO: Tension

After round six of the Master Tournament, there is still a lot to play for. The leading trio from the previous day drew all their games today, meaning that other players were able to move to the top with victories in their games.

Six players are currently on 5 points, with seven more lurking half a point behind – one of them, IM Fabian Bänziger, is currently the best Swiss player in a strong 10^th place.

Standings after round 6

...112 players

Games

ATO: Draw in top match

The two previous leaders, Simon Künzli and Roman Tkhoruk, played their first draw of the tournament in a direct duel on Saturday. Eliza Tereshchenko was the only one of the closest pursuers to win her game, meaning that this trio now leads the standings with 4½ points.

Interim Ranking ATO:

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=5&SNode=S0&tno=1215292

An open race for the freestyle victory

After the penultimate round of the Fresstyle Chess tournament, the new seven-round tournament in Chess960, the standings are wide open. There are four participants at the top of the table with 4½ points each. The previous round's three leaders, GM Alexander Raetsky, WGM Evegniya Doluhanova and Evangelos Kostopoulos, drew their games, allowing the victorious Alexandros Panagiotopoulos to catch up with them.

Interim Ranking FSC:

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=6&SNode=S0&tno=1215326

68 young players at the VINETUM Youth Tournament

The VINETUM Youth Tournament took place on Saturday at the Biel Chess Festival. This open tournament offers children and young people up to the age of 18 who are enthusiastic about chess the opportunity to gain their first experience at a major chess tournament. The tournament was organised in three categories: for players who already have a chess rating, one for 11 to 18-year-olds and one for under 11-year-olds. There was also a parallel tournament for interested chaperones.

Angel Mathias Valdiviezo Garcia (ECU) won the tournament for players with a rating, ahead of Jacob Brandon Vassiliev (USA) and Marco Wilhelm (SUI). The U18 tournament went to Michel Goelff (LUX) without losing any points, ahead of Jan Hirt (SUI) and Matteo Caratti (SUI). Jan Gisler (SUI) won the youngest category, also without losing any points, ahead of Luc Kunz (SUI) and Mark Palamarchuk (SUI).

Ranking VINETUM JTO rated:

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&SNode=S0&tno=1220880

Ranking VINETUM JTO U18:

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&SNode=S0&tno=1220879

Ranking VINETUM JTO U11:

https://s1.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&SNode=S0&tno=1220877

Ranking VINETUM JTO Chaperons:

https://s1.chess-results.com/tnrWZ.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=4&SNode=S0&tno=1221030

Outlook: Blitz on Sunday

On Sunday, the Biel Congress Centre will be dominated by blitz chess. The third of the three disciplines, blitz chess, will take place on stage in the Grandmaster Triathlon – and thus also the decision as to which players will move on to the final phase of the Masters and Challengers. In blitz, all grandmasters play each other twice, resulting in ten games. There is one point to be won for each victory – so with a maximum of 10 points to be awarded, the rankings of the tournaments may well still change significantly!

Blitz will also be in the hall: MTO and ATO will have their rest day tomorrow, so instead there will be an open blitz tournament over 13 rounds in the afternoon. Registrations can be made on site until 1 pm.

The last of the seven rounds of the new Fresstyle Chess tournament will be played in the morning, and it promises to be exciting: four participants are leading the tournament with 4½ points. The two duels between them, Evangelos Kostopoulos vs GM Alexander Raetsky and WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova vs Alexandros Panagiotopoulos, will decide the outcome.

Finally, the problem-solving contest PLT, another novelty, will take place in Biel at midday: organised by the Swiss Association of Art Chess Lovers, the aim of the event is to solve tricky chess problems correctly and as quickly as possible.

Announcement

Next week, from Monday to Friday, the week's tournaments will take place in two different strength classes. These two tournaments, divided into one for players below 1800 Elo and one for those above, will take place in the morning and – with a time limit of 60 minutes per player, plus increment – will therefore end at lunchtime. Registrations can be made online or on site on Monday until 9.15 am.

Beauty Award MTO, ATO

Every day, the best games from MTO and ATO are voted for on social media.

• Winner MTO RD4: GM Benjamin Bok (2593) vs. GM Pranav Anand (2566) 0 – 1
• Winner ATO RD3: Felix Meshach (1905) vs. Nizar Hilmi Nuh (1521) 1 – 0

Tournament page...