Credit: X
Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa lost the second round of the GMT Round 2 final to Vietnamese GM Liem Quang Le and finished at third spot. With his win, Quang Le secured his third consecutive title. The Indian drew the match in round 1 and was unable to overcome the skillful game of his rival in round 2, who went on to win the match decisively. Liem had already gained a lead after he drew against Abhimanyu Mishra in round 1.
After the win, the Vietnamese said, "I’m extremely happy with the game today. Before the game I would be happy with a draw as well, but to be able to win such a nice game, in a really technical manner... and also with this victory I win the Festival with one round to spare, so that’s a very nice thing, because in the last two years it was still very tense, so it’s really nice that I make it with one round to spare this time."
In the GMT Challengers, R Vaishali went down to GM Alexander Donchenko of Germany. Vaishali had dominated in the earlier part of the tournament and later setbacks caused her to drop in the standings. With the defeat, the Indian finished the tournament in third position. GM Salem Saleh won the GMT Challengers.
On the other hand, IM Ayush Sharma registered a huge win over GM Krishnan Sasikiran in the ninth round. With this, he secured the first spot in a tie with Leon Luke Mendonca. They both were paired against each other for round 10 and were up against each other for the Masters Tournament Open (MTO) title. Ultimately, Rinat Jumabayev won the 57th Biel Festival MTO, with Luke Mendonca finishing second and Ayush Sharma finishing third.
