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Theodorou wins Challengers, Aravindh ahead in Biel Masters race

Posted on July 24, 2025 BY R.R. Vasudevan

GM Nikolas Theodorou (32.0) emerged the Biel Challengers victor with a round to spare ahead of second placed GM Aram Hakobyan (27.0) after the 7th and penultimate round at the 58th Biel Chess Festival, Biel, Switzerland. In the all important final round Hakobyan, with white pieces, takes on Theodorou. But, a classical win fetching 4 points in the Biel GMT, is not enough for the second placed Hakobyan to overtake Theodorou in the final standings.

In the Biel Masters section, GM Aravindh Chithambaram (27.0) defeated joint leader GM Salem A R Saleh (24.5) moving closer to the Biel GMT Triathlon title. Overnight joint leader GM Vladimir Fedoseev (24.5) also went down to World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin (22.0) keeping the podium spots wide open.

With both the leaders losing their games, the GMT Triathlon Masters tournament got wide open. It will be all or nothing going into the final round. The slow start to the Queen’s pawn game between Saleh and Aravindh hid the nice looking middle-game that emerged. Black kept improving his position, while white unusually went in for few sub-prime moves that Aravindh noticed and grabbed spot on. With 20. Bd2? white walked into a combination maze from which Saleh never got out. Heavy material loss forced a quick black resignation by the 28th move.

In the crucial final round Murzin faces Aravindh, while Fedoseev takes on Saleh. A draw for Aravindh and win in the adjacent board might result in a tie. Three of the four Grandmasters have title chances while all of them can land on the podium with appropriate results.

Challengers winner GM Nikolas Theodorou was consistent right through with an ELO 2700+ show in the classical section of Biel Triathlon. The Grandmaster from Greece won the rapid leg and finished second in the blitz behind GM Aram Hakobyan, showcasing a fine overall performance. Thanks to his title win, Theodorou now gets seeded to the Biel Masters section in the next edition.

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 8th and final round of Biel Masters classical chess starts by Thursday 24th July at 2 PM local time, 5:30 PM IST.

Round 7 Standings: (Biel GMT Masters Triathlon): 1. Aravindh Chithambaram (27.0), 2-3 Salem A R Saleh, Vladimir Fedoseev (24.5), 4. Volodar Murzin (22.0), 5. Radoslaw Wojtaszek (16.0), 6. Frederik Svane (10.0)

Round 7 Standings: (Biel GMT Challengers Triathlon): 1. Nikolas Theodorou (32.0), 2. Aram Hakobyan (27.0), 3. Rinat Jumabayev (18.5) 4. David Navara (17.0), 5. Ma Qun (15.0), 6. Daniel Dardha (13.5)

Salem A R Saleh (2627) – Aravindh Chithambaram (2724) 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. c4 dxc4 4. d5 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. e4 exd5 7. exd5 Bd6 8. Bxc4 O-O 9. O-O h6 10. h3 a6 11. a4 Bf5 12. Nh4 Bh7 13. Bd3 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 Nc6 15. Nf5 Ne7 16. Ne3 Qc7 17. Rd1 Rad8 18. Qc4 Rd7 19. Ra3 Rfd8 20. Bd2 Nexd5 21. Ncxd5 Nxd5 22. Nf1 Be5 23. Re1? (a few inaccurate moves from here and white goes down quickly)