Biel: Le Quang Liem wins GM Rapid

After the Accentus Chess960 tournament on Monday, the Grandmasters started their GM triathlon on Tuesday. The triathlon consists of a rapid tournament, a classical tournament and a blitz tournament. In the rapid tournament, a win counts two points while a draw yields one point. In the classical tournament, a win counts four points while a draw yields two points. The blitz tournament, the last competition of the triathlon, is a double-round-robin and here the players receive 1 point for a win and half a point for a draw.

It was Le Quang Liem who had the best start into the triathlon: He won the Rapid tournament with 11/14.

Le Quang Liem

Le defeated Gata Kamsky, drew against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh and Keymer and finished the day with three more wins: against Salem Saleh, Arkadij Naiditsch and Andrey Esipenko.

 

Kamsky,G2717

0–1

Le,Q2626

55th Biel Festival GMT Rapid 20222022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.d4 Bg4 10.d5 Na5 11.Bc2 c6 12.h3 Bc8 13.dxc6 Qc7 14.Nbd2 Qxc6 15.Nf1 Nc4 15...h6 16.Ng3 Re8 17.Nh4 Be6 18.Nhf5 Bf8 19.Qf3 Nh7 20.h4 Kh8 21.h5 b4= 1-0 (47) Kamsky,G (2661)-Kovalev,V (2623) Chess.com INT 2022 16.Ng3 Be6 17.Nh4 White has also tried 17.a4 or 17.Ng5 17...Rfc8 In two previous games Black played 17...g6 18.Nhf5 White managed to bring his knight to f5 but the engines evaluate the position as equal. Bf8 19.Qf3 Ne8 20.Rd1 g6 21.b3 21.Ne3= 21...Nb6 22.Nh6+ Bxh6 23.Bxh6 Qxc3 24.Bd3 White sacrificed a pawn to attack on the kingside. Qc7 25.h4 Qe7 26.h5 Nd7 27.Nf5 gxf5 28.exf5 Kh8 29.fxe6 fxe6 30.Rac1 Nef6 31.Be2 Rg8 32.Qb7 Nd5 33.Bf3 Qf6 34.Qxd7 Rad8 Here White suffered from a blackout. 35.Bg7+?? After 35.Qb7 White should not lose, e.g. Qxh6 35...Qxf3? fails to 36.Bg7+ Rxg7 37.Qxg7+ Kxg7 38.gxf3 36.Bxd5 exd5 37.Qxd5 Qxh5 38.Rc3= and in this major piece ending Black will have difficulties to convert his extra pawn. 35...Rxg7 36.Rc8 Rgxd7 0–1

Vincent Keymer, on the other hand, did not have a good day.

The winner of the Accentus Chess960 tournament started with a loss against Esipenko, but then won against Kamsky. After a loss against Abdusattorov Keymer drew against Le but then suffered losses against Gukesh and Salem. Though Keymer ended the day with a win against Naiditsch he still finished second to last with 5/14. Only Gata Kamsky (1/11) fared worse.

Andrey Esipenko

Second place behind Le went to Andrey Esipenko who finished with 10/14. Esipenko started with five wins but then lost the last two rounds. Abdusattorov finished third with 9/14.

Parallel to the GM tournament, the eight women, who take part in the Accentus "Quadriathlon", also played a rapid tournament, which was won by Zhuang Yongzhe (SUI) and Juliette Cornileau (FRA).

The Rapid Open was won by Maxime Lagarde ahead of Eduardo Iturrizaga and Yu Yangyi.

Results GM Rapid

Overall standings

Games

Tournament page...