The 43rd Biel festival has begun

The traditional Biel festival takes place from the 17th to the 30th of July and includes a whole range of different tournaments. Youth is the order of the day in the featured event with all twelve players rated over 2600 and aged between 16 and 22 years old.
Wesley So and Maxim Rodshtein started with wins, whereas the favourite Vachier-Lagrave had to settle for a draw.

Tournaments like this 'young masters' edition should give the chess world an idea of who will be the world-beaters of tomorrow.

Wesley So, playing black, outplayed David Howell in the Exchange variation of the Caro-Kann. An exchange sacrifice led to him breaking through on the queenside.

Maxim Rodshtein played a complicated line of the Catalan against Negi and the fight for the initiative ensued, with both sides sacrificing a pawn at different moments for play. At the end Negi was faced with the loss of a piece after getting his pieces tangled.

Logo Biel © official site.

Of course these players have already made a name for themselves at junior level and Tomashevsky went even further becoming European champion. Top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from Paris is just outside the World's top twenty.

Here are the players in rating order.

SeedNameRatingCountryWorld rankingAge
1Maxime Vachier-LagraveFRA27232219
2Evgeny TomashevskyRUS27083322
3Fabiano CaruanaITA26973917
4Wesley SoPHI26746016
5Anish GiriNED26726316
6Dmitry AndreikinRUS26508820
7Nguyen Ngoc Truong SonVIE261716520
8David HowellENG261616919
9Parimarjan NegiIND261517117
10Maxim RodshteinISR260919121

The first round results were as follows.

NameCountryRatingResultNameCountryRatingNumber of moves
Anish GiriNED26720.5-0.5Evgeny TomashevskyRUS270828
Dmitry AndreikinRUS26500.5-0.5Nguyen Ngoc Truong SonVIE261728
David HowellENG26160-1Wesley SoPHI267432
Maxime Vachier-LagraveFRA27230.5-0.5Fabiano CaruanaITA269744
Maxim RodshteinISR26091-0Parimarjan NegiIND261530

So the leader board is as follows.

SeedNameCountryRatingPoints
1st-2ndWesley SoPHI26741
1st-2ndMaxim RodshteinISR26091
3rd-8thMaxime Vachier-LagraveFRA27230.5
3rd-8thEvgeny TomashevskyRUS27080.5
3rd-8thFabiano CaruanaITA26970.5
3rd-8thAnish GiriNED26720.5
3rd-8thDmitry AndreikinRUS26500.5
3rd-8thNguyen Ngoc Truong SonVIE26170.5
9th-10thDavid HowellENG26160
9rd-10thParimarjan NegiIND26150

For more information see the Official site


Published on , Updated on