Biel Chess Festival 2012

The 45th Biel Chess Festival takes place from 21 July - 3 August in Biel, Switzerland.

The main GM event is a 6-player double round robin tournament headed by world #1 Magnus Carlsen.  Also taking part are Alexander Morozevich and the 2012 US Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

This year to celebrate the start of the 45th Biel Festival there will also be an Exhibition Blitz Tournament on Sunday 22 July featuring all the players in the GM tournament except Anish Giri (who is still en-route to Biel after winning the Netherlands Chess Championship) plus Pentala Harikrishna, Yannick Pelletier and Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Each match will consist of two blitz games at 5 minutes plus 2 second increment.  If scores are level, there will be a sudden-death game to decide the winner.  Games start at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) and a live broadcast is promised by the official site at this link.

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As always, there are many other events at the festival, including a Master Tournament, Main Tournament, Rapid Tournament, Blitz Tournament, a Chess 960 Tournament and a Chess-Tennis Tournament!

The main GM tournament starts on Monday 23 July at 14:00 local time, and there is one rest day on Sunday 29 July, with the final round on 2 August.  Magnus Carlsen will be defending the title he won in 2011.

Impressions from Biel 2011...

Photos and video from the official website.