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GM Suri Surprising Winner In Biel Master Tournament
GM Vaibhav Suri is happy with the biggest success of his career. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/ Biel International Chess Festival.

GM Suri Surprising Winner In Biel Master Tournament

Rakesh
| 18 | Chess Event Coverage

The Indian GM Vaibhav Suri was the surprising winner of the Biel Master Tournament (MTO) held alongside the Accentus Grandmaster Tournament in Biel, Switzerland.

The Biel Master Tournament (MTO) is a part of the Biel Chess Festival. This event was a nine-round Swiss-system for players with a 2000 rating or more. The tournament was held July 23–August 1, 2018 (with a rest day on July 28). Some 117 players from 31 countries participated. Seventy were titled, including 26 grandmasters.

nullGM Pavel Eljanov (rated 2706) of Ukraine was the top seed, followed by 27 GMs above 2500. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Biel International Chess Festival.

GM Suri started as the 19th seed but continued in the great form he showed at the Commonwealth Chess Championships, winning the tournament alone with 7/9 and a 2696 performance rating and gaining 17 Elo points. He won five games and drew four including the last two rounds.

GM Suri started strongly with 3.5/4 but two clutch wins in the fifth and seventh rounds against strong young German 2500s with the white side of the Italian Game proved pivotal for his tournament victory.

Here is his fifth-round game against German GM Dennis Wagner (rated 2558).

This was followed up by another nice tactical game in the seventh round against the German IM Jonas Lampert (rated 2546).

Suri had a slender half-point lead going into the last round. He easily managed to draw his last-round game with white against IM Bilguun Sumiya, ensuring himself at least a tie for first and a well deserved GM norm for his opponent.

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Final round underway with GM Vaibhav Suri vs. IM Bilguun Sumiya in the foreground.
| Photo: Lennart Ootes/Biel International Chess Festival.

None of the next three boards yielded a result, so GM Suri finished clear first. Eight players tied for the second spot with 6.5/9 including Dennis Wagner (GER), top seed Pavel Eljanov (UKR), and the former world's youngest GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) amongst others.

2018 Biel Master Open Tournament (MTO) | Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk. SNo Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2
1 19 GM Vaibhav Suri 2556 7 48 416
2 18 GM Wagner Dennis 2558 6.5 49 422.5
3 1 GM Eljanov Pavel 2706 6.5 48 424.5
4 21 GM Kuljasevic Davorin 2545 6.5 47 423
5 3 GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2642 6.5 47 419.5
6 29 IM Bilguun Sumiya 2490 6.5 46 410
7 9 GM Donchenko Alexander 2601 6.5 45 424.5
8 24 GM Lalith Babu M R 2529 6.5 45 411
9 23 GM Abdusattorov Nodirbek 2534 6.5 43.5 421
10 12 GM Baklan Vladimir 2595 6 45.5 411
11 36 IM Prithu Gupta 2436 6 45.5 409.5
12 48 Arjun Kalyan 2370 6 45.5 401.5
13 15 GM Kovchan Alexander 2572 6 44.5 421.5
14 17 GM Moussard Jules 2559 6 44 401.5
15 7 GM Karthikeyan Murali 2609 6 42 401
16 6 GM Antipov Mikhail Al. 2626 6 41.5 410.5
17 8 GM Bartel Mateusz 2604 6 41.5 394.5
18 5 GM Romanov Evgeny 2636 6 41 403
19 16 GM Michalik Peter 2562 6 39.5 378.5
20 2 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2652 5.5 46 416

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GM Dennis Wagner (Germany) [2nd], GM Vaibhav Suri (India) [Winner] and GM Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine) [3rd] Photo: | Lennart Ootes/Biel International Chess Festival

Three GM norms were scored, all by young Asian talents:

  • IM Bilguun Sumiya (Mongolia)
  • IM Prithu Gupta (India)
  • Arjun Kalyan (India)

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World Champion Magnus Carlsen was seen spectating the open games (especially his father's) during his mid-game strolls. | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Biel International Chess Festival.

The Biel Chess Festival also included an open, a rapid tournament, a blitz tournament, a rapid chess960 tournament, youth tournament, a physicians' tournament and a simultaneous exhibition by world number-eight, French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Rapid Tournament Winners

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GM Aravindh Chithambaram (India) [2nd], GM Mikhail Antipov (Russia) [Winner] and GM Alexander Donchenko (Germany) [3rd] | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust/Biel International Chess Festival.

Blitz Tournament Winners

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GM Kamil Dragun (Poland) [2nd], GM Alexander Donchenko (Germany) [Winner] and GM Jules Moussard (France) [3rd] | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust/Biel International Chess Festival

Chess960 Tournament Winners

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GM Pavel Tregubov (Russia) [3rd], FM Arjun Erigaisi (India) [Winner] and IM Gabriel Flom (France) [3rd] | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust/Biel International Chess Festival.

Simultaneous Exhibition

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World number-eight GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France gave a simul and scored 27-0. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust/Biel International Chess Festival.

Rakesh
IM Rakesh Kulkarni

Rakesh Kulkarni is the Director of Indian Social Media for Chess.com and a correspondent on chess in India.

Rakesh has earned the International Master title and is a former Commonwealth Blitz Champion and a Commonwealth Bronze medallist in the junior category. Rakesh has a Masters of Commerce degree in Management & Business administration. He now is a professional chess player and trains young talents across the globe on chess.com

Company Contact and News Accreditation:
• Email: rakesh@chess.com
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