Fedoseev & Aravindh lead after rapids @ Biel Chess Festival
GMs Vladimir Fedoseev & Aravindh Chithambaram (7.0) led the field after the completion of rapid section in the 58th Biel Chess Festival at Biel, Switzerland. Behind the leaders were GMs Radoslaw Wojtaszek (6.0) & Volodar Murzin (5.0) with Frederik Svane (3.0) and Salem Saleh (2.0) in the rear.
GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Aravindh Chithambaram have arrived in Biel under contrasting situations. As a wildcard, Fedoseev came up with a fine show in GCT Warsaw winning the prestigious Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland 2025 by a mile. Aravindh on the other hand had a forgettable event in the 2nd Uzchess Cup at Tashkent finishing at the bottom. Both would look forward to stabilize and go further at Biel. By sharing the first place in the Biel GMT Rapids the top two seeds have shown they are in good nick and more could be expected from them.
In recent times, the Biel Masters became a GMT – Grandmaster triathlon (an Olympic sport of endurance involving swimming, cycling, and running) showcasing top GMs skills in classical, rapid and blitz chess.
Holding the rich tradition intact, the annual Biel Chess Festival took off for the 58th straight year. The event has seen legends, former world champions and a number of top Grandmasters. Past winners’ include Bent Larsen, Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi, Viswanathan Anand, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen among others.
With the changing times Biel has evolved and has come up with an exciting format bringing excitement with every game & game round. Biel Chess Festival has a plethora of events viz., Masters, Amateurs, Under 20, Chess960, Youth, Solving contest, Rapid, Blitz, Below & above Elo 1800+ tournaments. The chess fortnight is always in the thick of action and keeps throwing up surprise talents. Former World Blitz Champion Le Quang Liem who made it three-in-a-row in Biel winning the 2022, 2023 & 2024 editions, withdrew in the last minute and has been replaced by GM Vladimir Fedoseev.
Similar to Norway Chess, Biel has it’s own unique points system for the Grandmaster triathlon GMT viz., (a) Classical: 4 points for a win; 1.5 point for a draw; 0 point for a loss, (b) Rapid: 2 points for a win; 1 point for a draw; 0 point for a loss (c) Blitz: 1 point for a win; 0.5 point for a draw; 0 point for a loss.
The 1st round of Biel Masters classical chess starts by Tuesday 15th July at 2 PM local time, 5:30 PM IST.
Standings Biel GMT Masters Rapid: 1-2 Vladimir Fedoseev, Aravindh Chithambaram 7.0, 3. Radoslaw Wojtaszek 6.0, 4. Volodar Murzin 5.0, 5. Frederik Svane 3.0, 6. Salem Saleh 2.0
Standings Biel GMT Masters Challengers: 1. Nikolas Theodorou 8.0, 2. Aram Hakobyan 7.0, 3. Ma Qun 5.0, 4-5 Rinat Jumabayev, Daniel Dardha 4.0, 6. David Navara 2.0
Fedoseev Vladimir (2740) – Murzin Volodar (2644) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Bf4 e6 5. Qb3 Bd6 6. Bg3 Ne7 7. e3 Nf5 8. Bd3 Nxg3 9. hxg3 Nc6 10. Nc3 Bd7 11. Nf3 h6 12. a3 a6 13. O-O O-O 14. e4 dxe4 15. Nxe4 Be7 16. Rad1 Na5 17. Qc3 Rc8 18. Qd2 Bc6 19. Nc5 Bd5 20. b4 Nc4 21. Bxc4 Bxc4 22. Rfe1 Bd5 23. Ne5 Rc7 24. a4 a5 25. b5 b6 26. Ncd3 Qa8 27. Rc1 Rfc8 28. Rxc7 Rxc7 29. Nxf7 Bxg2 30. Nfe5 Bh1 31. Nc6 Bxc6 32. bxc6 Qxc6 33. Qe3 Qd6 34. Nf4 Bg5 35. Qb3 Qb4?? (35…Re7 should work)
36. Qxe6+ Rf7 37. Rc1 Qe7 38. Rc8+ 1-0
Aravindh Chithambaram V R (2576) – Svane Frederik (2487) 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 c5 5. b3 Bd6 6. O-O O-O 7. Bb2 cxd4 8. exd4 b6 9. Nbd2 a5 10. a4 Ba6 11. c4 Nc6 12. Rc1 Nb4 13. Bb1 Rc8 14. Re1 Bf4 15. Ne5 Nc6 16. Nef3 Re8 17. g3 Bh6 18. h4 g6 19. Ng5 Bg7 20. Ndf3 Rc7 21. Ne5 Bb7 22. c5 Nxe5 23. dxe5 Nd7 24. cxb6 Rxc1 25. Qxc1 h6 26. Nxf7 Kxf7 27. Bd4 Nf8 28. Qd2 g5? (better was 28…Qa8)
29. Rc1 gxh4 30. Qf4+ Kg8 31. Rc7 Re7 32. Qxh4 Nd7 33. Rxb7 Qf8 34. Rc7 Nxe5 35. Bxe5 1-0
Complete Results
Pictures Courtesy: Biel Chess Festival 2025
Official Site: https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Homepage.html
