Lê Quang Liêm won the Biel Grandmaster Triathlon Tournament for the third time in a row. The Vietnamese player secured the title after defeating the world #8 Praggnanandhaa in the penultimate round. Lê Quang Liêm, the 2013 World Blitz Champion, showed once again that the triathlon format played in Biel suits him perfectly.

The Biel Chess Festival, supported by the FIDE Aid Package, featured GMT-Masters and Challengers tournaments (held for the first time) and several side events. The Masters and Challengers 6-player round robins combined three different time formats (blitz, rapid and classic), counting towards the final score.

A win in a classical game was worth 4 points, with 1½ points for a draw and 0 for a loss. In the Rapid (15min+5s) segment, a victory was worth 2 points and a draw 1 point. The blitz (3+2) was played as a double round-robin with 1 point for a win and ½ points for a draw. The top four players from the triathlon competed in another classical single round-robin.

With his third win in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament, Lê Quang Liêm drew level with Alexander Morozevich and only needs one more win to equal the record of four wins in a row, which Maxime Vachier-Lagrave achieved between 2013 and 2016. In the winner's interview after the game, Lê hinted that it would be nice to equal this achievement.

Haik Martirosyan of Armenia (pictured below, left) finished second, while Praggnanandhaa R bounced back from his loss in the penultimate round to take third place.

The Armenian lived up to his reputation in the Grandmaster Triathlon as an expert in the rapid cadences by being the best in rapid and the second-best player in blitz. It was a rather mixed tournament for the rating-favorite Praggnanandhaa that came to a conciliatory end. The Indian seized his chance to bronze by defeating Abhimanyu  Mishra in the final round and completed the podium.

Final standings GMT-Masters

Salem Saleh of UAE achieved an even more convincing victory in the GMT-Challengers, clinching the title with two rounds to spare. It is the Emirati's greatest success in his tenth participation in Biel.

Alexander Donchenko secured second place after winning over Vaishali R in the penultimate round. The only female player in the tournament, Vaishali, put in a solid performance to finish third.

Final standings GMT-Challengers

Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ), Leon Luke Mendonca (IND), Ayush Sharma (IND) and IM Mukhiddin Madaminov (UZB) tied for first place in the Master Tournament MTO with the Kazakhstani GM (pictured below) prevailing in the tie-break.

Final standings Master Tournament MTO

Text and photos: Biel Chess Festival official website

Official website: bielchessfestival.ch/