8/6/2021 – Gata Kamsky won the Grandmaster Triathlon of the Biel Chess Festival. But there were many more winners: the Master Open was won by Salem Saleh in a photo finish. The best woman player was Vaishali. In the Amateur Open, the juniors dominated and the youngest on the podium was eleven-year-old Neeraj Harish from the USA. On the rest day, the players got insights into parts of life in Switzerland. | Photos: Schachfestival Biel

8/5/2021 – Gata Kamsky, the leader of the Grandmaster Triathlon in Biel, finished the tournament in style. In the last round he won with Black against Vincent Keymer to win the classical tournament and the triathlon. Kirill Alekseenko and Nihal Sarin finished second and third in the triathlon, Boris Gelfand was third in the classical tournament. Salem Saleh won the Master Open on tiebreak. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/4/2021 – In the penultimate round of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Kirill Alekseenko (pictured) and Vincent Keymer came to victories, while Gata Kamsky defended his lead with a draw against Nihal Sarin. In the Masters Open, the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan remains sole first. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/3/2021 – In round 5 of the Grandmaster Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival, Gata Kamsky won with Black against Alan Pichot and extended his lead as his closest rivals Kirill Alekseenko and Nihal Sarin both drew: Alekseenko against Noel Studer, Sarin against Vincent Keymer. In the MTO Master Open the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan defended his lead. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/1/2021 – Nihal Sarin and Kirill Alekseenko had the strongest performances at the blitz tournament, one of three events that make up the Grandmaster Triathlon at the Biel Chess Festival. Gata Kamsky is still leading the overall standings, but is now only 1½ points ahead of Nihal and Alekseenko. | Photos and report: Official site

7/31/2021 – Two legends met yesterday at the Biel Chess Festival: Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand, both former World Championship runners-up and World Cup winners. With a draw, Kamsky defended his lead in the overall standings. Frenchman Maxime Lagarde is the new runner-up, as the Frenchman defeated Kirill Alekseenko in round 4. | Photos: Official site

7/30/2021 – Three years ago Vincent Keymer defeated Boris Gelfand at the Isle of Man Open in a sensational game. In round 3 of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Gelfand, Vice World Champion 2012, now took a form of revenge and outplayed the young German Grandmaster. In the second decisive game of the round Noel Studer won against Maxime Lagarde. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/29/2021 – All four games of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel ended with a draw, but Noel Studer and Alan Pichot played for almost eight hours and made 138 moves before they agreed to share the point. The young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer had no easy task against Kirill Alekseenko, but solved it. In the Open, Salem Saleh and Surya Ganguly share the lead with 3.0/3 each. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/27/2021 – While the participants in the Grandmaster Tournament are enjoying a day of rest, the open tournaments at the Biel Chess Festival have started. The Master Tournament has an extremely strong field of participants: 27 Grandmasters are taking part, twelve (!) of them with an Elo rating of over 2600, furthermore 13 IM (International Masters) are present. The first round of the Amateur Tournament was also played today, which is completely booked up with 120 participants. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

7/26/2021 – The main event at this year’s edition of the Biel Chess Festival is the Grandmaster Triathlon, in which eight participants play a mix of classical, rapid and blitz chess. The rapid section was played on Sunday, and saw Gata Kamsky getting clear first place with a 5½/7 performance. Nihal Sarin and Maxime Lagarde finished second and third respectively. | Photos: Official site

7/24/2021 – The main event of the 2021 Biel Chess Festival kicked off on Saturday, as the 8 participants of the Grandmaster Triathlon battled it out at the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament. While the event did not grant points for the final standings, it decided who will get an extra white in the classical section of the triathlon, and might end up serving as the tiebreaker in case two or more players finish equal in points in the overall standings. | Photos: Official site

7/23/2021 – The Biel International Chess Festival takes place from 24 July until 04 August and offers a large variety of tournaments, and the prestigious Grandmaster Tournament impresses with an interesting format and an interesting line-up. Young players like Nihal Sarin and Vincent Keymer will meet veterans like Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky, and others, in a triathlon (Fischer Chess, Rapid, Classical). The tournament will begin on Saturday, 24 July, with the Fischerrandom event.