When organizers announced on June 23 of this year that the 53rd annual Biel International Chess Festival would indeed be held despite lingering COVID-19 concerns, you could almost hear chess players around the world jump to their feet and cheer.
The fact that a major over-the-board tournament was able to successfully move forward certainly bodes well for the future, and is especially exciting for those (myself included) who vastly prefer classical chess to the offerings that are currently available in the online world.
Even better news is the fact that, to my knowledge, no new COVID-19 cases resulted from the tournament, most likely thanks to the stringent distancing rules and other precautions enacted by the festival organizers.
The Biel Festival is organized chronologically into four legs, beginning with Chess960, Rapid, Blitz, and finally moving into Classical competition. The Chess960 portion was a round robin event played solely to determine the tiebreaks in the other three legs.
Next up in the blitz event, the format was a double round robin each worth the traditional amount (1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw, etc.). After that, the portions continue to increase in value. In the rapid (single round robin, as was the classical) each win was worth 2 points, and a draw 1. Finally in the classical portion each win was worth 4 points and, curiously, each draw was only worth 1.5 (I would have thought it would be worth 2).
On other important touch that other prospective organizers may want to take note of: in each portion the players were physically separated by a Plexiglass partition. Only in the blitz was the Plexiglass taken down for ease of movement, and thus the players wore masks.
Finally, here is the list of players (by FIDE classical ratings before the event):
1. PENTALA HARIKRISHNA (2719)
2. RADOSLAW WOJTASZEK (2719)
3. DAVID ANTON GUIJARRO (2703)
4. MICHAEL ADAMS (2701)
5. ROMAIN EDOUARD (2649)
6. ARKADIJ NAIDITSCH (2626)
7. NOEL STUDER (2580)
8. VINCENT KEYMER (2558)
There was also one wildcard who only played in the Chess960:
WC: ALEXANDER DONCHENKO (2657)
Before the tournament I had the feeling that Harikrishna and Wojtaszek would be the favorites. Not a difficult observation to make, as they are both the highest rated and have the most experience at top level events. Adams could also not be ruled out (as the veteran 2700), as he also has a lot of experience at the top. Meanwhile, both Guijarro and Keymer are young and talented, and I figured they could cause some upsets.
Moving on to the actual results, as we know the first leg was the Chess960. The time control for the Chess960 was 15 minutes plus a five second increment. Harikrishna squeaked ahead of the young star Keymer (by just half a point!), and left Wojtaszek a full point behind. I’m a fan of Chess960 partially because the starting positions are so interesting. Players start thinking from the first move! This leads to very interesting games and I enjoyed watching this portion. Here is an interesting win by the victor against a fellow 2700:
Up next was the rapid. The time control here was (as in the Chess960) 15 minutes plus a five second increment. This time Wojtaszek prevailed by a full point over Harikrishna and the persistent Keymer to also take the lead in the overall festival. Here’s a strong grind by the winner of this leg:
In an interesting twist in the format, 4 classical games were played… and then the blitz tournament. Despite the actual start times I will look at the blitz competition and then the classical.
In the blitz tournament the time control was the FIDE standard 3+2. Wojtaszek continued his streak by tying for first with grizzled veteran Michael Adams. Not to overshadow the other players, this brilliancy from Adams is begging to be shown:
And now, finally, the part we have all been looking forward to: the classical! The time control was a bit unusual: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves with an additional 30 minutes for the rest of the game, and a 30 second increment from the start. This was the most highly weighted portion for the standings since, as we know, a win was worth four whole points!
Heading into the classical Wojtaszek was leading by a full four points ahead of Adams and another 3 ahead of Harikrishna. But some decisive games turned the result into a total tossup. Here is a crucial game where Harikrishna won as black against the leader Wojtaszek and turned the standings upside down:
Heading into the last round Wojtaszek’s lead had been reduced to the bare minimum of half a point. Any of the three leaders (Wojtaszek, Harikrishna and Adams) had a good chance of winning. In a very bloody round, all three in the leading trio won to leave the final standings unchanged. The other game was also decisive. This is the kind of chess fans want to see!
Congrats to Radoslaw Wojtaszek on winning the first major post COVID-19 tournament. His final round win was not perfect, but it was an interesting game and in the end he got the job done:
As chess players and all people throughout the world continue to learn to adjust to the sometimes harsh realities of existing in this era of pandemic, here’s hoping that more and more successful events like this year’s Biel Festival will be held.
Considering that classical chess managed to survive the Spanish Flu of 1918 and even the horrific Black Death of the mid-1300s, there seems little doubt that the game we all love will surely emerge from our current challenging times going stronger than ever!
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