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After a hat-trick of wins, Saleh leads @ Biel

Posted on July 20, 2025 BY R.R. Vasudevan

Three Grandmaster scalps in a row, including the top seeds, put GM Salem A R Saleh on top with 17.0 points after the fifth round of the 58th Biel Chess Festival at Biel, Switzerland. Favorites Fedoseev and Aravindh shared the second place with 15.5 points. World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin (12.5) along with GMs Radoslaw Wojtaszek (12.0) and Svane Frederik (7.5) completed the rear.

The Indian Defense, Anti-Grünfeld, Alekhine Variation game between GMs Aravindh Chithambaram and Salem A R Saleh had all the ingredients of a thriller. But the man in a chess wave, GM Saleh, rode it through as Aravindh erred a bit in the ever treacherous rook ending slipping to defeat. A large part of the middle game saw white holding the upper-hand on a highly double-edged position. Trade-offs of menacing double knights and the queen saw advantages getting ironed out. Subsequent liquidation, crucial pawn loss and an exposed king did Aravindh in. The ensuing rook and minor piece ending should have been a clinical draw where the Indian Grandmaster missed his way, going down after 53 moves.

Another day of three draws saw no change in the Challengers section, with GM Nikolas Theodorou (20.5), Aram Hakobyan (17.0) Rinat Jumabayev (12.5) holding on to the top three spots. Before the day of resr, the Grandmaster Triathlon now turns on to the blitz tournament part which offers speed merchants to make up for the points deficit.

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.

Time Control: Classical: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment as of move 41. Rapid: 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move & Blitz: 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move.

The Grandmaster Triathlon blitz is scheduled for Sunday 20th July followed by a day of rest on Monday 21st July, 2025. The 6th round of Biel Masters classical chess resumes by Tuesday 22nd July at 2 PM local time, 5:30 PM IST.

Round 5 Results (Biel GMT Masters Classical): Aravindh Chithambaram (15.5) lost to Salem A R Saleh (17.0), Vladimir Fedoseev (15.5) drew with Frederik Svane (7.5), Volodar Murzin (12.5) drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (12.0)

Round 5 Results (Biel GMT Challengers Classical): Nikolas Theodorou (20.5) drew with Aram Hakobyan (17.0), Rinat Jumabayev (12.5) drew with David Navara (10.5), Ma Qun (11.0) drew with Daniel Dardha (8.5)

Aravindh Chithambaram V R (2724) – Salem A R Saleh (2627) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Ne2 e6 7. Nbc3 exd5 8. cxd5 Nbd7 9. Ng3 h5 10. Be2 Nh7 11. a4 O-O 12. Ra3 Qe7 13. Nf1 f5 14. exf5 gxf5 15. Ne3 Ne5 16. O-O Bd7 17. g3 Rae8 18. Ng2 Ng6 19. Bb5 Bxb5 20. axb5 Bd4+ 21. Kh1 h4 22. gxh4 Nxh4 23. Nf4 Ng5 24. Nce2 Kf7 25. Nxd4 cxd4 26. Ne6 Nxe6 27. dxe6+ Qxe6 28. Qxd4 Qe2 29. Rg1 Ng6 30. Qd5+ Qe6 31. Qxe6+ Rxe6 32. Bg5 Re2 33. Rxa7 Rb8 34. Raa1 Rxb2 35. Rad1 Ne5 36. Bf4 Nxf3 37. Rg2 Rxb5 38. Rf2 Rb3 39. Kg2 Rg8+ 40. Kh1 Ne5 41. Bxe5 dxe5 42. Rxf5+ Ke6 43. Rff1? (43. Rh5! followed by precise play might still save the day for white)