Vidit Charges To Victory in Biel
With excellent play in the final rounds the world number 35 Vidit Gujrathi managed to pull away to win the 2019 Biel Chess Festival.
This eight-player elite round robin featured a unique format, with a mix of classical, rapid, and blitz segments. The scoring system and structure for the tournament was the following:
- Classical (7 games): 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss
- Rapid (7 games): 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss
- Blitz (14 games): 1 point for a win, 1/2 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss
At the time of our previous report, which covered the rapid segment of the event as well as the first four classical rounds, the tournament was led by Vidit along with Sam Shankland. Next came the blitz segment, followed by the final three rounds of the classical.
Vidit ended up narrowly winning the blitz event, taking a small lead in the tournament, before scoring 2.5/3 in the final three classical games to clinch a convincing tournament victory.
Final standings (individual standings for each segment can be found below)
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | Classical | Rapid | Blitz | Total |
| 1 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2703 | 2806 | 15 | 8 | 11 | 34 | |
| 2 | Sam Shankland | 2713 | 2732 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 28 | |
| 3 | Peter Leko | 2686 | 2623 | 9 | 10 | 6.5 | 25.5 | |
| 4 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2656 | 2688 | 7 | 8 | 9.5 | 24.5 | |
| 5 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2674 | 2662 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 23 | |
| 6 | Jorge Cori | 2598 | 2659 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 22 | |
| 7 | Nico Georgiadis | 2584 | 2442 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 15 | |
| 8 | Sebastian Bogner | 2514 | 2500 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
Blitz Segment
The blitz took place on Saturday, July 27th, with a double-round-robin format, meaning each player would play everyone else twice (once with each color). Both Shankland and Vidit started off well in the blitz, it was only in the final rounds that Vidit managed to secure a small lead going into the final classical games. Here are some highlights from the blitz:
Classical Segment
Following the blitz there was three more rounds of classical to go. Vidit was able to extend his lead in the fifth round by defeating GM Sebastian Bogner, while Shankland went down to GM Jorge Cori.
A draw in the penultimate sixth round against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov secured first place in the tournament for Vidit, who then received a gift from GM Parham Maghsoodloo in the final round:
Blitz Standings (time control: 3+2)
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Pts |
| 1 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2703 | 2857 | 10 | ½1 | ½0 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11.0/14 | ||
| 2 | Sam Shankland | 2713 | 2789 | 1 | ½0 | 10 | 11 | ½1 | 11 | 11 | 10.0/14 | ||
| 3 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2656 | 2768 | ½0 | ½1 | ½1 | 1½ | ½1 | 1 | 11 | 9.5/14 | ||
| 4 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2598 | 2697 | ½1 | 1 | ½0 | 0 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 8.0/14 | ||
| 5 | Jorge Cori | 2686 | 2635 | 0 | 0 | 0½ | 11 | ½1 | 11 | 10 | 7.0/14 | ||
| 6 | Peter Leko | 2674 | 2612 | 0 | ½0 | ½0 | 1 | ½0 | 11 | 11 | 6.5/14 | ||
| 7 | Sebastian Bogner | 2584 | 2338 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2.0/14 | ||
| 8 | Nico Georgiadis | 2514 | 2348 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2.0/14 |
Rapid Standings (time control: 15+5)
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Pts |
| 1 | Peter Leko | 2674 | 2795 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5.0/7 | ||
| 2 | Sam Shankland | 2713 | 2732 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 4.5/7 | ||
| 3 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2656 | 2688 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4.0/7 | ||
| 4 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2703 | 2683 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.0/7 | ||
| 5 | Jorge Cori | 2686 | 2635 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.5/7 | ||
| 6 | Nico Georgiadis | 2514 | 2609 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 3.0/7 | ||
| 7 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2598 | 2546 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2.5/7 | ||
| 8 | Sebastian Bogner | 2584 | 2424 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1.5/7 |
Classical Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Pts |
| 1 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2703 | 2857 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.5/7 | ||
| 2 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2598 | 2697 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4.0/7 | ||
| 3 | Sam Shankland | 2713 | 2631 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 3.5/7 | ||
| 4 | Peter Leko | 2674 | 2637 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.5/7 | ||
| 5 | Nico Georgiadis | 2514 | 2609 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 3.0/7 | ||
| 6 | Jorge Cori | 2686 | 2585 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 3.0/7 | ||
| 7 | Sebastian Bogner | 2584 | 2599 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.0/7 | ||
| 8 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 2656 | 2537 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 2.5/7 |
The Master Tournament, a large open running alongside the GM Tournament, will finish tomorrow. Leading the field going into the last round is GM Amin Tabatabaei of Iran, who won a beautiful game against GM Jeffrey Xiong to take the clear lead with 6.5/8:
You can find all games here as part of our live portal. More photos from the event can be found here. The official site is here.
Previous report:
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Bio
IM Kostya Kavutskiy is a professional chess author, journalist, coach, commentator, and player. As a part of Chess.com's content team since 2009, Kostya has recorded many video lectures, covered elite tournaments, written instructive articles & blogs, and has done many live commentary shows for Chess TV. Kostya has also written a number of articles for Chess Life magazine and Chess Life Online, and is currently an instructor for Chess University. In 2015, Modernized: The Open Sicilian was released, which Kostya co-authored with IM Zhanibek Amanov. Kostya's tournament accomplishments include winning the 2014 Southern California Closed Championship, as well as achieving his IM title in November 2016. In April 2017, he placed 6th in the star-studded 2017 Reykjavik Open. He currently resides in Mountain View, CA, and his plans are to pursue the GM title while working actively as a coach.
