Pranav Anand dominates 56th Biel Chess Festival Rapid Open 2023
GM Pranav Anand scored an unbeaten 8/9 to win 56th Biel International Chess Festival Rapid Open (RAP) 2023. He finished a half point ahead of the field. Both IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (CAN) and IM Marco Materia (FRA) scored 7.5/9 each. They secured second and third place. The total prize fund in this event was CHF 3600 + non-cash prizes. The top three prizes were CHF 800, 700 and 600 along with a medal each respectively. IM Vantika Agrawal and IM Harikrishnan A Ra scored 7/9 each. They secured fifth and sixth place respectively. Vantika is the sole female player to make a top 20 finish. GM Bharath Subramaniyam H scored 6.5/9 to finish eighth.Vincent Keymer (GER) and David Navara (CZE) topped the GMT Rapid event. They both scored 10/14 each. Today is a rest day for the GMT event. Round 1 Classical for GMT starts tomorrow Tuesday 18th July from 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Master Tournament (MTO) Round 1 starts today from the same time. Photo: Biel Chess Festival
Navara and Keymer top the GMT Rapid
GM Arjun Erigaisi continues to struggle with his form at this event. He scored only 5/14. After starting with three losses in-a-row, Arjun won against the defending Biel GMT champion, GM Liem Quan Le (VIE), GM Jules Moussard (FRA) and drew against GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU). GM Vincent Keymer (GER) and GM David Navara (CZE) topped the Rapid event of the Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT) with a 10/14 score. Only Keymer remained undefeated in this event.
Biel is definitely a great place for GM Pranav Anand. Last year, he scored his final GM-norm with a stellar performance.
A total of 122 players including 6 GMs, 10 IMs, a WGM and a WIM took part from 22 countries across the world in the Rapid Open tournament. The one-day nine-round Swiss-League Rapid Rating event had a time control of 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment. It was held on Sunday 16th July at Congress Hall, Biel Congress Center in Switzerland.
Final Standings in Rapid Open
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | Gr | FED | RtgI | RtgN | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | |
| 1 | 7 | GM | Pranav, Anand | U18 | IND | 2398 | 0 | 8 | 50 | 382,5 | ||
| 2 | 5 | IM | Rodrigue-Lemieux, Shawn | U20 | CAN | 2468 | 0 | 7,5 | 52,5 | 382 | ||
| 3 | 12 | IM | Materia, Marco | U14 | FRA | 2343 | 0 | 7,5 | 47,5 | 363 | ||
| 4 | 1 | GM | Quesada Perez, Luis Ernesto | CUB | 2538 | 0 | 7 | 52 | 384,5 | |||
| 5 | 17 | WGM | Vantika, Agrawal | w | IND | 2267 | 0 | 7 | 49 | 370,5 | ||
| 6 | 14 | IM | Harikrishnan, A Ra | IND | 2274 | 0 | 7 | 49 | 364 | |||
| 7 | 8 | IM | Saraci, Nderim | KOS | 2397 | 0 | 7 | 46,5 | 355 | |||
| 8 | 6 | GM | Bharath, Subramaniyam H | U16 | IND | 2420 | 0 | 6,5 | 52 | 380 | ||
| 9 | 9 | Huang, Renjie | U20 | CHN | 2377 | 0 | 6,5 | 49,5 | 361,5 | |||
| 10 | 2 | GM | Erdos, Viktor | HUN | 2524 | 0 | 6,5 | 48 | 358,5 |
Final standings in GMT Rapid
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | TB1 | |
| 1 | 2 | GM | Keymer, Vincent | GER | 2617 | 5 |
| 4 | GM | Navara, David | CZE | 2689 | 5 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Yu, Yangyi | CHN | 2734 | 4,5 |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Amin, Bassem | EGY | 2588 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | GM | Moussard, Jules | FRA | 2605 | 3 |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Erigaisi, Arjun | IND | 2714 | 2,5 |
| 8 | GM | Le, Quang Liem | VIE | 2661 | 2,5 | |
| 8 | 1 | GM | Deac, Bogdan-Daniel | ROU | 2634 | 1,5 |
Current GMT standings
Scoring in Rapid: Win = 2 points, Draw = 1 point and Loss = 0
