Riazantsev takes the Biel open on tie-break.

Alongside the 'Young Masters' round robin there was the traditional eleven round 'Masters' swiss in Biel, played from the 19th to the 30th of July.
The top seed finished ahead of the pile, but only just(!) as seven players made their way to equal first on 8/11.

One of the most competitive opens on the European circuit led to a seven-way tie on eight points.

The favourite Alexander Riazentsev was placed ahead of Nadezhda Kosintseva and Leonid Kritz (on buchholz) to take the highest spot on the podium.

The most notable result was perhaps the second place obtained by World No.6 (on the female list) Nadezhda Kosintseva. Not surprisingly, with such a high position, she obtained a valuable GM-norm. Both sisters seem to be on the rise and are challenging each other in the race towards the 2600 mark!

Top three winners © official site.

The final Standings of the leading players were as follows:

1	Alexander Riazantsev	GM	2682	RUS	8	74.5
2	Nadezh Kosintseva	IM	2551	RUS	8	73.5
3	Leonid Kritz	GM	2618	GER	8	72
4	Sebastien Feller	GM	2611	FRA	8	71.5
5	Christian Bauer	GM	2612	FRA	8	71.5
6	Vitali Golod	GM	2585	ISR	8	71
7	Sebastien Maze	GM	2573	FRA	8	64
8	Arnaud Hauchard	GM	2526	FRA	7.5	71.5
9	Victor Mikhalevski	GM	2610	ISR	7.5	70
10	Michael Roiz	GM	2645	ISR	7.5	66.5
11	Evgeny Gleizerov	GM	2573	RUS	7.5	63.5
12	Igor Lysyj	GM	2631	RUS	7	71.5
13	Mikhail Ulibin	GM	2540	RUS	7	71.5
14	Sasha Kaplan	IM	2422	ISR	7	69.5
15	Milos Pavlovic	GM	2534	SRB	7	66.5
16	Benjamin Bok	FM	2449	NED	7	66.5
17	Yannick Pelletier	GM	2589	SUI	7	66
18	Vladim Onoprienko	IM	2343	RUS	7	64.5
19	Mohammed Al-Sayed	GM	2498	QAT	7	64.5
20	Miso Cebalo	GM	2500	CRO	7	64
21	Alex Domont	IM	2328	SUI	7	64
22	Husein Aziz Nezad	IM	2398	QAT	7	61.5
23	Marsel Efroimski	WFM	2169	ISR	7	58

As the leader board suggests, this was a varied international field as usual (18 nations), with particularly strong French and Israeli contingents this time around. Overall there were 16 GMs out of 115 participants.

For more information see the Official site