8/5/2016 – The last piece of the Biel Chess Festival puzzle was finally completed: the prestigious Main Open. It saw the top spots fought over by dozens of grandmasters and masters hailing from all over the world. The top seed was Russian GM Nikita Vitiugov (2728), but the player in form who dominated it was US grandmaster Sam Shankland, scoring one of the best victories of his career.
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The 49th International Chess Festival Biel is taking place from Saturday, July 23 until Wednesday, August 3 2016. The exact schedule and further information are now published on the official website. Here are the main links:
Sam Shankland first came into visibility during the campaign of the US team during the Tromso Olympiad, where he not only was a top scoring player, but was also enjoying a fantastic run of over 60 games undefeated. In spite of making it into the Top 100 and hovering around there, he had not been able to break past this peak. During the US Championships he said that he remained ambitious for more and optimistic. His victory at Biel, with 7.5/9 and a 2806 performance will rank as one of his best, and helps finally push him closer to the 2700 mark as he gains 18 Elo, and features at 2679 on the Live Ratings list.
Sam Shankland on the road to 2700
In the following game, Shankland faces yet another challegner to the gold: Ivan Saric (2660).
Shankland - Saric
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Elo
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1.e4
1,180,950
54%
2421
---
1.d4
956,910
55%
2434
---
1.Nf3
285,509
56%
2441
---
1.c4
184,270
56%
2442
---
1.g3
19,857
56%
2427
---
1.b3
14,569
54%
2428
---
1.f4
5,946
48%
2377
---
1.Nc3
3,897
50%
2383
---
1.b4
1,788
48%
2379
---
1.a3
1,247
54%
2406
---
1.e3
1,080
49%
2409
---
1.d3
965
50%
2378
---
1.g4
670
46%
2361
---
1.h4
465
54%
2381
---
1.c3
438
51%
2425
---
1.h3
289
56%
2420
---
1.a4
118
60%
2461
---
1.f3
100
47%
2427
---
1.Nh3
92
67%
2511
---
1.Na3
47
62%
2476
---
Please, wait...
1.d4Nf62.c4e63.Nf3Bb4+4.Bd2Qe75.Nc3b66.e30-07.Bd3Bb78.0-0a58...Bxc39.Bxc3Ne410.Bxe4Bxe411.Nd2Bb712.e4d613.f4f514.exf5Rxf515.Qg4Qf716.Rae1Nd717.Re3Rf818.Qe2Rxf419.Rxf4Qxf420.Rxe6Nf621.d5Bc822.Re7Bg423.Qe1Rf724.h3Bc825.Nf3Bxh326.Bxf6Qxf627.Re8+Rf828.Rxf8+Kxf829.Qe3Bf530.Nd4Bd731.b3h632.Ne2Kf733.Nf4g534.Ne2Qe535.Qf3+Qf536.Qe3Qf637.Ng3Qa1+38.Kh2 1-0 (54) Kazhgaleyev,M (2582)-Grischuk,A (2747) Almaty 20169.a3Bxc310.Bxc3Ne411.Be1f512.Nd2Ng513.f4Nf714.e4Nh615.Qe2d616.Nf3Nd717.Bh4This Bishop maneuver, culminating in the win, aims to trade off the knight on d6 for the bishop. If this sounds odd, the point is that the dark-squared bishop is confined due to the numerous pawns on its own color making it the 'bad' bishop.Qe818.Rae1Qh519.Bg5Rae820.Bxh6Qxh621.Ng5Qg6
22.d5!This move not only cuts off the diagonal for the black bishop, but also attacks and seizes control of the e6 square for the knight.Nf623.exf5exf524.Ne6Rf725.Qc2Ng426.h3Nh627.Nd427.g4 was a bit better, pressing forward its claim to the f5 pawn.27...Rxe128.Rxe1Rf829.Qf2Bc830.Nb5Qf731.Qh4Re832.Nxc7Rxe1+33.Qxe1Bd734.Qe3g535.fxg5f436.Qd4Bf537.gxh6Bxd338.Qxd3Qxc739.Qd4Qf740.Kf21–0
Sam Shankland faced one top grandmaster after another and always managed to protect his place under the sun. Here he faces Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaidjan, with whom he drew. Safarli finished in sole second wtih 7.0/9.
Indian Krishna Sasikiran was one of two Indians to finish within the top ten players
GM Saleh Salem scored 6.5/9 with a near 2700 performance
Vladimir Baklan from Ukraine finished with 6.5/9 and in seventh place on tiebreak
Nikita Vitiugov was the top seed with 2728 FIDE but had to content himself with 6.0/9 and a modest eleventh place
Biel Master Class Korchnoi summary with Yannick Pelletier and Daniel King
A blitz game played on a giant board between Yannick Pelletier and Daniel King
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12090 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 874 are annotated.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
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