Biel Main Open: resounding victory for Shankland
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
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
Final standings
|
Rk
|
Name
|
Ti.
|
Rtg
|
Fed
|
Pts
|
TB
|
| 1. | Shankland,Samuel L |
GM
|
2661
|
USA
|
7.5
|
48.0
|
| 2. | Safarli,Eltaj |
GM
|
2678
|
AZE
|
7.0
|
47.5
|
| 3. | Aravindh,Chithambaram VR |
GM
|
2543
|
IND
|
6.5
|
49.0
|
| 4. | Bachmann,Axel |
GM
|
2649
|
PAR
|
6.5
|
46.0
|
| 5. | Salem,A R. Saleh |
GM
|
2608
|
UAE
|
6.5
|
45.5
|
| 6. | Sasikiran,Krishnan |
GM
|
2639
|
IND
|
6.5
|
45.0
|
| 7. | Baklan,Vladimir |
GM
|
2618
|
UKR
|
6.5
|
43.5
|
| 8. | Khairullin,Ildar |
GM
|
2629
|
RUS
|
6.5
|
43.5
|
| 9. | Saric,Ivan |
GM
|
2660
|
CRO
|
6.0
|
48.0
|
| 10. | Kovchan,Alexander |
GM
|
2576
|
UKR
|
6.0
|
47.5
|
| 11. | Vitiugov,Nikita |
GM
|
2728
|
RUS
|
6.0
|
47.0
|
| 12. | Kraemer,Martin |
GM
|
2567
|
GER
|
6.0
|
43.0
|
| 13. | Erdos,Viktor |
GM
|
2578
|
HUN
|
6.0
|
43.0
|
| 14. | Henrichs,Thomas |
IM
|
2471
|
GER
|
6.0
|
43.0
|
| 15. | Brkic,Ante |
GM
|
2585
|
CRO
|
6.0
|
42.0
|
| 16. | Meier,Georg |
GM
|
2657
|
GER
|
6.0
|
42.0
|
| 17. | Edouard,Romain |
GM
|
2639
|
FRA
|
6.0
|
42.0
|
| 18. | Donchenko,Alexander |
GM
|
2583
|
GER
|
6.0
|
41.0
|
| 19. | Balogh,Csaba |
GM
|
2635
|
HUN
|
6.0
|
40.5
|
| 20. | Rodshtein,Maxim |
GM
|
2698
|
ISR
|
6.0
|
39.5
|
| 21. | Bartel,Mateusz |
GM
|
2649
|
POL
|
5.5
|
46.5
|
| 22. | Kunin,Vitaly |
GM
|
2592
|
GER
|
5.5
|
46.0
|
| 23. | Gozzoli,Yannick |
GM
|
2571
|
FRA
|
5.5
|
44.5
|
| 24. | Bellahcene,Bilel |
IM
|
2498
|
FRA
|
5.5
|
44.5
|
| 25. | Karthikeyan,Murali |
GM
|
2513
|
IND
|
5.5
|
43.0
|
Links
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. |
|
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
Showblitz is an exercise for both mind and body
Sam has been on a hot streak lately. He won a tournament in Canada not long ago. US Olympic team is going to be stronger than ever.
Took a class with Shankland recently. The dude is intense. A calculating machine. He's wrapped a bit tight, but that may be what it takes.
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