55th Biel International Chess Festival 2022 opens tomorrow

The 55th edition of the Biel International Chess Festival opens tomorrow and will take place from 10-24 July in Biel, Switzerland, featuring more than 15 events. This year’s Biel Chess Festival will be dedicated to the memory of Peter Burri “PeBu” who was involved in the festival in various functions.

The activities of the Biel Chess Festival will start on Sunday, 10.7.2022 at 4 p.m. with the simultaneous exhibition by GM Yu Yangyi who will face 25 amateur players at the Berner Kantonalbank.

The Biel Chess Festival will be officially opened with the opening ceremony in the foyer of the Bieler Kongresshaus on 10.7.2022 at 6 pm. In the presence of Martin Schlup, President of the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern and André Vögtlin, Central President of the Swiss Chess Federation, the President of the Organising Committee, Peter Bohnenblust, will open the 55th edition of the Festival.

The event gathers the world’s chess elite competing in Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT) and Master Tournament (MTO). Eight grandmasters will compete in the Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT) which will be held from 10-22 July at the Main stage of the Concert Hall, Biel Congress Center. The Grandmaster Triathlon will be played in 3 round-robin sets with 28 games: 7 Classical games, 7 Rapid games (reversed colours), and 14 Blitz games (double round-robin). The distribution of points for each game is as follows:

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Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT) line up:

• GM Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2709)
• GM Liem Le Quang (VIE, 2709)
• GM Saleh Salem (UAE, 2690)
• GM Vincent Keymer (GER, 2667)
• GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2661)
• GM Gata Kamsky (USA, 2661)
• GM Gukesh D (IND, 2659)
• GM Arkadij Naiditsch (AZE, 2654)

Final standings of the GMT will be established according to the number of points scored, accumulating the three series (classical + rapid + blitz). In case of a tie, the ranking in the ACCENTUS Chess960 will decide the final ranking of the Triathlon and corresponding prizes. The total prize fund of the Triathlon is 30.500 CHF, with 10.000 CHF reserved for the Winner of the event.

Master Chess Tournament will be played from 13-22 July at the Concert Hall of the Biel Congress Center with participation of 140 players from 23 countries. GM Yu Yangyi, GM Kirill Alekseenko, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, GM Haik Martirosyan, GM Shant Sargsyan with 25 more grandmasters and more than 30 international masters headline the field. (scroll down for starting rank list of players)

The event will be played in 9 rounds, swiss system, with time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The total prize fund is 37.000 CHF, with the Winner prize of 6.000 CHF.

Starting rank list of players – Masters Chess Tournament (MTO):