The unique tournament in the world
BIEL chess in Switzerland, is one of a kind. It is not a tournament but a festival and the 49th edition started last July 23 and will end Aug. 3.
There are a good number of tournaments played together or one after the other. The Masters Challenge is between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Peter Svidler. There are also Junior Challenges between Benjamin Bok and Nico Geordadis and Noel Studer and Fracesco Rabaldi.
There is a Blitz tournament composed of six players in the Master and Junior Challenges. The Masters tournament has 112 players, the main tournament 146 and the rapid division has 278 players.
There is also an Open Swiss Blitz with 78 players. The young ones can also play in the U10,U13 and U18, getting free lunch along with free registration.
There is also a tournament for doctors and a seminar. All in all there are 12 events. There are also prizes for best senior, lady and junior players in these tournaments.
Bilbao. Wesley So had a respectable finish, tied at third to fourth with the Chinese sensation Wei Yei in this tournament completely dominated by world champion Magnus Carlsen. The scoring follows football with 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. Format is double round robin.
Carlsen won a game over Wesley, Giri and Sergey Karjakin but lost to Hikaru Nakamura. Wesley and Yei scored a win each against the obviously off-form Giri. The final score was Carlsen (17), Naka- mura (12), Wesley and Yei (11), Karjakin (9) and Giri (7).
Wesley, who won the tournament last year, had mixed feelings about his 50 percent score.
“Fortunately, it’s not all draws. With the tournament situation, it’s better that you get more decisive results. I feel I’m getting more experienced, and playing these top-level tournaments are necessary for anybody. It’s been a bit difficult for me to climb higher, but at the same time, I am enjoying these top level guys, especially Magnus. That’s how you become better. It must be hard for Magnus to improve, because there is no stronger player!”
The next tournament for So is the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, which is part of the Chess Grand Tour.
Shell. Our lady journalist and my favorite player,Keith Claire Morala, sent in this report.
“Jethro Esplanada, Chris Aldritz Pondoyo and Jerish Velarde won their their respective categories after winning a tense ninth and final round in the 24th Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships-Visayas Leg.
The two-day 9-round Swiss tournament, which had 296 players from all over Visayas, was held at the SM City Cebu Event Center last July 23-24.
Nine-year old Lapu-Lapu chess prodigy Velarde stormed through the tournament with 8 wins and a draw to cop the solo title of the Kiddies Division (7-12 years).
Arje Villarin from Cabancalan NHS took second place, half a point behind So.
Adrian de Luna, Jave Peteros, John Belano, and Alphecca Gonzales scored 7 points each for 3rd-6th places respectively.
UC student-athlete Pondoyo racked 8.5 points and topped the Juniors Division (13-16 years). Fellow UC varsity player Adrian Basilgo scored 8 points to place second.
USJ-R players Esplanada and Allan Pason finished even with 8 points each, but the former took top spot with a superior tiebreak score, unseating 2015 Shell champion Adrian Dela Cruz.
Top Ladies of each category were Laila Nadera (Seniors), Glybel Quinanola (Juniors) and Alphecca Gonzales (Kiddies).
The top two qualifiers and top female of each division will qualify for the National Finals set later this year in Manila.”