
Looking back at the Biel Masters
By WIM Ioana Smaranda Padurariu
During the 46th Biel Chess Festival all attention went to the Grandmaster
Tournament, in memoriam of Olivier Breisacher. Rightly so, as the games
were full of fighting spirit. However there were also other two chess tournaments:
the Master Tournament (for players with FIDE rating 2000 and more) and the
Main Tournament (for players with FIDE rating 2050 and below). Other chess
events like blitz, rapid, chess960, chess-tennis and a simultaneous event
gathered many chess lovers in the city of Biel. There were over 200 players
from 30 countries, over 50 titled players in total from which 23 grandmasters.

The Master Tournament that was held simultaneously was very tough and
also deserves an article. The tournament was an eleven round Swiss, with
one rest day.
After five rounds Salem A.R. Saleh was the sole leader, having beaten
Jan Smeets. The GM from UAE lost in round six to Harikrishna, who took the
lead together with Mateusz Bartel. In the final round these two players
were leading: Pentala Harikrishna and Mateusz Bartel, both with 7.5/10,
with several players half a point behind. Harikrishna managed to beat Daniel
Hausrath, while Bartel was winning but had to settle for a draw against
Susant Megaranto.

The winner of the 2013 Biel Master Tournament:
Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna

Second (on tiebreak) with 8.0/11: Polish GM
Mateusz Bartel

The winners of the Master Tournament: Bartel
Mateusz (second),
Pentala Harikrishna (first place) and Dragan Solak (third)

Equal 2nd-4th: Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi, with
8.0/11 points
Top final standings (after eleven rounds)
# |
Player |
Ti. |
Rtng |
Nat |
+ |
= |
– |
Pts |
TB1 |
TB2 |
1. |
Harikrishna,Penta |
GM |
2680 |
IND |
6 |
5 |
0 |
8.5 |
68.5 |
665.0 |
2. |
Bartel,Mateusz |
GM |
2619 |
POL |
5 |
6 |
0 |
8.0 |
72.0 |
662.5 |
3. |
Solak,Dragan |
GM |
2598 |
TUR |
5 |
6 |
0 |
8.0 |
71.5 |
677.0 |
4. |
Bu,Xiangzhi |
GM |
2664 |
CHN |
6 |
4 |
1 |
8.0 |
70.0 |
669.5 |
5. |
Gharamian,Tigran |
GM |
2655 |
FRA |
5 |
5 |
1 |
7.5 |
68.5 |
646.0 |
6. |
Adianto,Utut |
GM |
2548 |
INA |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
64.0 |
631.5 |
7. |
Megaranto,Susanto |
GM |
2524 |
INA |
5 |
5 |
1 |
7.5 |
62.0 |
630.0 |
8. |
Grachev,Boris |
GM |
2683 |
RUS |
4 |
6 |
1 |
7.0 |
72.0 |
660.0 |
9. |
Salem,A R. Saleh |
GM |
2531 |
UAE |
6 |
2 |
3 |
7.0 |
69.0 |
654.5 |
10. |
Smeets,Jan |
GM |
2643 |
NED |
6 |
2 |
3 |
7.0 |
69.0 |
644.5 |
11. |
Hausrath,Daniel |
IM |
2516 |
GER |
4 |
6 |
1 |
7.0 |
68.5 |
647.0 |
12. |
Zhao,Xue |
GM |
2553 |
CHN |
6 |
2 |
3 |
7.0 |
65.5 |
645.5 |
13. |
Saric,Ivan |
GM |
2639 |
CRO |
6 |
2 |
3 |
7.0 |
65.0 |
632.0 |
14. |
Ganguly,Surya |
GM |
2628 |
IND |
4 |
6 |
1 |
7.0 |
64.5 |
632.5 |
15. |
Cvitan,Ognjen |
GM |
2562 |
CRO |
4 |
6 |
1 |
7.0 |
64.0 |
630.0 |
16. |
Malakhatko,Vadim |
GM |
2529 |
BEL |
6 |
2 |
3 |
7.0 |
61.5 |
627.0 |
17. |
Kurnosov,Igor |
GM |
2657 |
RUS |
4 |
5 |
2 |
6.5 |
67.5 |
630.0 |
18. |
Antipov,Mikhail A |
IM |
2490 |
RUS |
5 |
3 |
3 |
6.5 |
65.5 |
646.0 |
19. |
Sandipan,Chanda |
GM |
2623 |
IND |
3 |
7 |
1 |
6.5 |
65.5 |
641.5 |
20. |
Farid,Firman Syah |
IM |
2396 |
INA |
6 |
1 |
4 |
6.5 |
61.5 |
616.5 |
21. |
Donchenko,Alexand |
IM |
2477 |
GER |
4 |
5 |
2 |
6.5 |
60.5 |
616.5 |
22. |
Saric,Ante |
GM |
2565 |
CRO |
4 |
5 |
2 |
6.5 |
60.5 |
615.0 |
23. |
Medina,Warda Auli |
WIM |
2286 |
INA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
6.5 |
56.0 |
590.5 |
24. |
Raetsky,Alexander |
GM |
2412 |
RUS |
4 |
5 |
2 |
6.5 |
55.5 |
603.0 |

Ninth: UAE GM Salem A.R. Saleh, who led during
the first five rounds

Tenth: Dutch GM Jan Smeets
It is no surprise that in such a strong and big open several norms were
scored: GM norm by Daniel Hausrath (GER), IM norms by Qian Huang (CHN),
Rasch Holger (GER) and Ghazal Hakimifard (IRI), who also got a WGM norm.

Eleventh: Daniel Hausrath, happy about his
last GM norm (and other things)

Twelfth: Chinese GM Xue Zhao, best women in
the tournament

14th: Indian GM and Anand second: Surya Shekhar
Ganguly

IM Anna Zozulia, BEL, scored 5.5 points from
11 games

Iranian WIM Ghazal Hakimifard scored two norms:
WGM and IM

Chinese WGM Qian Huang finished 25th and made
an IM norm

The podium in the Main Tournament: Ireneusz
Lada (second),
Sayadyan Edvard (first) and Nadia Anggraeni (third)
Biel (in German) or Bienne (in French) is the biggest bilingual town or
city in Switzerland, in which German and French are spoken side by side
in equal measure. The beautiful town lies next to Lake Biel, at the foot
of the chain of Jura Mountains. Being the center of the largest continous
lake and river system in Switzerland, Biel is an ideal location for your
next trip! The dates for the 47th Biel Chess Festival are already announced:
12th-25th July 2014!

View of the Lake Biel – the weather was
good enough to have a swim

You can also go on a boat tour on the free
day

A rainbow over the city

Raclette
– a Swiss specialty (heating the cheese and scraping off the melted
part)

The beautiful old town of Biel

Pasquart Church in Biel

The funicular railway takes you up to Magglingen/Macolin
...
... which is more than 400 meters above the
lake and the city (scroll right)