Biel Chess Festival 2011
The Biel International Chess Festival runs from 16-29 July in Biel, Switzerland.
There are many chess competitions during the festival, but the headline event is the Grandmaster Tournament, a 6-player double round-robin featuring Magnus Carlsen (pictured) as top seed.
Carlsen is the strongest player by nearly 100 rating points, but the other competitors all play strong, attractive chess in their own right.
Young stars Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana will face the more experienced hands of Alexei Shirov and Alexander Morozevich. Local hopeful Yannick Pelletier will need to play his very best chess to stand a chance in this company.
The full line-up:
| Name | Nat | Elo |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2821 |
| Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2722 |
| Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2714 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2711 |
| Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2694 |
| Pelletier, Yannick | SUI | 2590 |
The Grandmaster tournament starts on 18 July, with games underway each day at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC, 08:00 Eastern), except the final round on 29 July which starts three hours earlier. There are rest days on 21 July and 24 July.
The official site has more information on the festival.
Look out for coverage at Chess.com!
