GM Levon Aronian emerged as the winner of the Biel Masters—Grandmasters Triathlon event of the Biel Chess Festival, Switzerland, pocketing the top prize of CHF 10,000 (roughly €10,750 or $12,250). The 59th edition of the festival had a total of 14 events spread over 15 days, the crown of them being the triathlon with three different qualification stages in classical, rapid, and blitz formats followed by the final phase.
There was another Generation Challenge—Invitational Triathlon with the same format, won by 16-year-old IM Vaclav Finek of the Czech Republic. 14-year-old IM Christian Gloeckler of Germany was the surprise winner of the Masters Open.Â
Masters—Grandmasters Triathlon
The Masters began with a change in field at the last moment, as Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev could not reach Switzerland in time due to visa issues and was replaced by Azerbaijani GM Aydin Suleymanli just three days before the event.
The multi-stage Masters Triathlon event had a complex path of formats in the following order:
- ACCENTUS Chess960: One-day single round-robin with a 15+5 time control, solely to decide the starting numbers for the main triathlon events.
- Rapid: One-day single round-robin with a 15+5 time control with two points for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss.
- Classical: Four-day single round-robin (colors reversed from Rapid) with 120/40 and G/30 time control with a 30-second increment from move 41 with four points for a win, one and a half for a draw, and zero for a loss.
- Blitz: One-day double round-robin with one point for a win, half for a draw, and zero for a loss.
- Final: The top four from the combined standings of all three of the earlier stages qualified for the final phase, which was a single round-robin with the same time control and scoring system as the Classical.
The final standings were decided by the total number of points scored across all the above formats.
Rapid
After the initial Chess960 event decided the draw numbers and the pairings, the rapids got underway, and Aronian emerged as the dominant winner.
Aronian’s four victories and a draw were an impressive performance that underlined his domination of the event. He had his winner’s luck in his game against GM Martinez Alcantra.
Aronian’s best effort was in the fourth round when he defeated GM Le Quang Liem with black pieces in a topsy-turvy game, which exemplifies the famous adage attached to his style, “Aronian and the art of slow-motion swindling.” Even in a rapid game, Aronian played his brand of imaginative chess in a wild position and steadily posed problems for his opponent.Â
Thus, when the classical games began, Aronian had a three-point lead over the rest of the field.
Classical
The segment proved to be a disappointing affair, as 11 of the 15 games ended in draws, though all of them were hard-fought.
The last-minute entrant to the tournament, Suleymanli, continued to show his resolute play by winning one game and drawing the rest to finish second, just as he did in the Rapid section. He inflicted the tournament winner’s only loss in the final game of the segment, exploiting the former’s tactical error in the middlegame.
The winner of the segment, Liem showed his class in a long, grinding win in the endgame against GM Matthias Bluebaum, an endgame specialist himself.
Thus, when the segment ended, the top four standings were: Aronian 16.5, Suleymanli 16, Liem 15, and Erdogmus 13.Â
Blitz
Blitz was a typical, well, blitz event with the regular dose of uneven games. But it was evident that Aronian staged the most turnarounds, while 15-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus played the expected amount of exciting games.
Thus, at the end of the blitz segment, the combined standings were: Aronian 25, Suleymanli 21, and Liem and Erdogmus 19.5. This enabled them to qualify for the finals.
Final
The final proved to be a lackluster affair, with all the games ending in draws, and thus all the players added 4.5 points apiece to their final scores and finished identically in the overall standings.
Generation Challenge—Invitation Triathlon
Finek produced dominating performances in Rapid and Classical, while 17-year-old Chinese GM Tong Xiao won the Blitz segment. The Final event was once again an all-drawn affair, producing the following final standings.
Finek has a logical style of play, which helped him play evenly throughout the tournament. His win against GM Rameshbabu Vaishali in the Classical segment is an example of his style.
Masters Open—MTO
The 10-round Swiss event was limited to players above Elo 1900 and had a total of 94 participants from 29 countries.Â
Gloeckler comes across as a talent to watch out for, winning the tournament with a round to spare with eight points from the first nine rounds. His ability to play tactical positions was evident in the win against GM Peter Acs in the sixth round, as were his wins against IMs Savitha Shri and Qingfeng Cao in the crucial seventh and eighth rounds.
The Biel Masters Triathlon was the main event of the 2026 Biel Chess Festival, taking place in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, during July 14-24. The six players competed in Chess960 (the tiebreaker), blitz (3+2 games), rapid (15+5 games), and classical chess (120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move after move 40).