GM Vladimir Fedoseev emerged as the winner of the grueling Biel Masters Triathlon, an event that required him to play a total of 30 games in Chess960, blitz, rapid, and classical formats over 11 days. The Russian grandmaster, who lives in Germany and represents Slovenia at the chessboard, earned 10,000 CHF (roughly €10,700 or $12,600).
The format of this triathlon, as they call it in Biel, is not the easiest to understand so, even though it’s been around for a few years now, here’s a quick explainer. For starters, there were two groups: the Masters and the Challengers. Both groups had six participants and played all the different formats, but this report focuses on the Masters event.
On July 12, a Chess960 tournament was played which didn’t count for points, but would serve as a tiebreaker in case there would be a tie all the way at the end of the triathlon. On July 13, there was a five-round rapid tournament with 15+5 games where a victory was worth two points, a draw one point, and a loss zero points.
Then, after a rest day, five rounds of classical chess were played on July 15-19 where a victory was worth four points, a draw one and a half points, and a loss zero points. On July 20, there was a blitz tournament (10 rounds of 3+2 games) where a victory was worth one point, a draw half a point, and a loss zero points. After another rest day, three more rounds of classical chess were played on July 22-24. The final standings were established by adding up all the achieved points combined.
Biel Masters 2025 | Final Standings
Wojtaszek Wins ACCENTUS Chess960
Whoever wins in Biel is a true jack of all trades, because the triathlon is a combination of different time controls and even starting positions. While the main focus last week was on Freestyle Chess in Las Vegas, the players in Biel also played Chess960, on the opening day.
Having played in Weissenhaus back in February (and winning the qualifiers to get there!) gave Fedoseev some good experience, but in the end it was Poland’s GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, the overall winner in Biel in 2020, who came first here with 3.5/5. (Eventually, on the final day, it would be more relevant who were the players below him: GMs Salem Saleh, followed by Fedoseev, and then Aravindh Chithambaram, then Volodar Murzin, and then Frederik Svane.)
Biel Masters 2025 | Chess960 Final Standings
In the fourth round, Wojtaszek managed to beat the eventual tournament winner with the black pieces.
Aravindh, Fedoseev First In Rapid Tournament
For the remainder of the tournament it was back to Chess960 position #518, also known as regular chess. The two highest-rated players in classical, Aravindh and Fedoseev, tied for first in this event, thereby taking the lead in the overall triathlon standings. While they agreed to a draw in their direct encounter, Aravindh remained undefeated whereas Fedoseev lost again to Wojtaszek but won his other three games.
Biel Masters 2025 | Rapid Final Standings
That Aravindh-Fedoseev game was a great fight which definitely should have gone to Aravindh, although Fedoseev was briefly winning too:
Fedoseev Dominates In Blitz
The blitz tournament took place on Sunday, July 20, after five rounds of classical chess had been played (see below). Not only did the players have to deal with different time controls but they also kept changing; quite a confusing long week this must have been for the players.
In the fastest time control, Fedoseev was clearly better than the rest. In this double round-robin, he finished 1.5 points ahead of his main rivals in the event, Aravindh and Salem. Against both, he won and lost one game, but scored 5.5/6 against the others.
Biel Masters 2025 | Blitz Final Standings
Classical: Fedoseev Wins It All
After three draws on the first day, it was Aravindh who took the sole lead thanks to a spectacular win against Svane, the only decisive game on day two. Svane was actually doing well but suffered from the time control in Biel, where a 30-second increment per move was only starting after move 40.
The 21-year-old GM from Lubeck, Germany, had to make his moves 36-40 in just twenty seconds. Ironically, that same day he had stated in an interview with local newspaper Bieler Tagblatt that time management was his weakness that still separated him from the world elite.
In round three, Fedoseev took revenge for his two earlier losses and beat Wojtaszek, thus again catching Aravindh, who drew with Murzin. The next day, it was Aravindh back in the sole lead – he drew with Wojtaszek – as Fedoseev went down against Salem. The UAE’s number-one grandmaster, who won last year’s Biel Challengers, had a great run as he also beat Aravindh the next day, his third win in a row, thus taking the lead in the overall standings.
After the blitz and another rest day, three more rounds of classical chess were on the schedule: a mini-round-robin among the top four at that point: Salem (24.5 points), Fedoseev (24.5 points), Aravindh (23 points), and Murzin (18 points). For Wojtaszek and Svane, the tournament was over.
This final phase started peacefully, with draws in Aravindh-Fedoseev and Murzin-Salem on Tuesday. Two dramatic days followed, which was a rollercoaster especially for Fedoseev. On Wednesday, he reached a winning position but then collapsed against Murzin, who had lost his chances for tournament victory the other day but was still willing to play spoiler.
Like Fedoseev, Salem remained on 24.5 points as he lost to Aravindh, who was now on 27 points going into the final round. As the Indian GM played an uneventful draw with Murzin on the last day, Fedoseev and Salem still had everything to play for. Since both of them had finished ahead of Aravindh in the Chess960 tournament, the winner of their game would win the tournament overall on tiebreak.
Fedoseev said he was “proud” of his opening preparation, and rightly so, as it was at least 18 moves deep. He got a good position out of the opening as well as a big advantage on the clock. Still with 44 minutes (vs. an hour and 19 minutes for his opponent), Salem played his 21st move too fast and it turned out to be the decisive mistake already.
“Pretty much for the whole tournament I thought if I wouldn’t do something dramatically stupid I should be able to win this tournament but I did many stupid things in the classical portion and it was a close contest until the end,” said Fedoseev. “As for Aravindh, he has not been playing so well in classical chess [in recent months] after a huge breakthrough, but I believe at some moment his dark times will end and he will show his best again.”
Biel Masters 2025 | Classical Final Standings
Fedoseev said he didn’t feel at his best during this tournament, and he actually will be leaving Biel with a loss of eight (classical) rating points, but he kept fighting till the end. It should be noted that he was originally not even going to play in Biel. Two weeks before the start he replaced GM Liem Le, who withdrew for family reasons. As the world number-16, Fedoseev only raised the level of the competition and ended up winning it.
The Biel Masters was the main event of the 2025 Biel Chess Festival, taking place in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, on July 12-24. 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).
