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With the lone win in the sixth round, Peter Leko gained 3 points in the overall standings, but draws for Vidit and Shankland means the former cannot be overtaken in Tuesday's final round.
The Blitz games are played at a rate of 3 minutes for the entire game plus 2 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Commentary by WGM Dina Belenkaya & GM Tal Baron
| Rank | Name | Games | Classic | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Santosh Vidit | 27 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 31 |
| 2 | GM Sam Shankland | 27 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 27 |
| 3 | GM Peter Leko | 27 | 8 | 10 | 6.5 | 24.5 |
| GM Parham Maghsoodloo | 27 | 7 | 8 | 9.5 | 24.5 | |
| 5 | GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 27 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 22 |
| GM Jorge Cori | 27 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 22 | |
| 7 | GM Nico Georgiadis | 27 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 8 | GM Sebastian Bogner | 27 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
A win in a classical portion is worth 3 points, with 1 point for a draw.
Normal scoring is used for blitz.
A win in a classical portion is worth 2 points, with 1 point for a draw.
The chess festival Biel is trying something new, both in terms of the players invited and the radical new format. Of the eight participants, seven are under the age of 30 and of those two are under 20.
The Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko, at only 39 years old, is the tournament veteran in this year's field. Playing against 18-year-old Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) or against 14-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), may remind him of his own early career as a chess pro. In his teens, Leko was moving out of the "child prodigy" category and already participating in the major tournaments while still so young. Today, however, the prodigies have multiplied, especially in Asia, and turnout to international tournaments in force.
Vidit Gujrathi is right in the middle at the age of 24. He belongs to the "second generation" of top Indian players, if you count Anand (the first Grandmaster of 64!) as the first generation.
Two players represent the Americas in Switzerland: Sam Shankland (27) from the USA and Jorge Cori (23) from Peru. Switzerland itself is represented by Sebastian Bogner and Nico Georgiadis.
(L to R) Maghsoodloo, Shankland, Abdusattorov, Leko, Vidit, Georgiadis, Bogner, Cori | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival
The big novelty this year is that the eight players play three tournaments: rapid, classical and blitz. Each player plays 28 games over 10 days: 7 games with classical time control, 7 rapid games and 14 blitz games. The tournament results are added together to give the total result, with the classical games receiving the highest weight in the final point tally.
Peter Bohnenblust, President of the Organizing Committee, says: "We are very happy and proud that such a fresh top cast could be found for the Grandmaster Tournament 2019. This shows how much chess is alive."
There are also many interesting players in the strong open tournament running in parallel from July 22nd to 31st. The Elo favourite is Jeffrey Xiong from the USA, and joined by a list of notable names including Gata Kamsky, Salem, A. R. Saleh, Harika Dronavalli, Tania Sachdev, Zhansaya Abdumalik, Irene Sukander and the world's youngest grandmaster D. Gukesh.
In addition to the GM tournament and the Masters Open there are plenty of other tournaments and events in the accompanying program, such as Blitz, Chess960, youth and even a physicians tournament — something for everyone, from novices to grandmasters.
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
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