The 45th edition of the Biel Chess Festival is taking place July 21 – August 3 in Biel, Switzerland.
The main Grandmaster Tournament will be a category 21 event with the participation of the USA Chess Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura, the Russian top 10 player GM Alexander Morozevich, the Chinese N1 GM Hao Wang, the Chess Evolution author GM Etienne Bacrot, the newly crowned Dutch champion GM Anish Giri, and World’s top rated player Magnus Carlsen who is replacing the earlier announced Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez.
The Grandmaster Tournament will be a double round robin with classical time control, Chessdom.com will provide daily live coverage of the event.
The tournament is coming shortly after the Tal Memorial 2012 and Dortmund Chess 2012, while it will finish before the Chess Olympiad 2012 continuing a great period for top level chess.
Biel Chess Festival - Grandmaster Tournament
The Festival also features Exhibition Blitz Tournament, Master Tournament, Main Tournament, Rapid Tournament, Blitz Tournament, Chess960 Tournament, Youth Tournament, Simultaneous Exhibitions and Chess-Tennis Tournament.
The Exhibition Blitz Tournament, celebrating the 45 years of the Festival, will be held on Sunday 22nd July, 14.00 pm, as a knockout event with 8 invited Grandmasters.
Magnus Carlsen NOR (Seeded Nr 1)
Hikaru Nakamaura USA (Nr 2)
Alexander Morozevich RUS (Nr 3)
Wang Hao CHN (Nr 4)
Etienne Bacrot FRA (Nr 5)
Pentala Harikrishna IND (Nr 6)
Yannick Pelletier SUI (Nr 7)
Alexandra Kosteniuk RUS (Nr 8)
Playing System: Two games with 5‘+ 2‘‘/move. If 1-1, one Armageddon game with 5’ for white (has to win) and 4’ for black.
The Master Tournament will be an 11-round Swiss event, taking place on July 23rd – August 3rd, 2012. Rest day on July 29th. Total prize fund: CHF 43’000.
Prizes: CHF 7’000, 5’000, 4’000, 3’000, 2’500, 2’000, 1’500, 1’200, 2×1’000, 3×700, 3×500, 4×300, 5×200, best ladies: CHF 600, 400, 300, best senior (1952-), best junior (1994+), best child (1996+), best player without title: each CHF 500, best players with Elo <2200 and <2100: CHF 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, best Swiss players (with CH-passport): CHF 1'000, 700, 500, 300, 200.
Full participants list:
GM Sergei Movsesian ARM 2698
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2686
GM Pentala Harikrishna IND 2684
GM Christian Bauer FRA 2681
GM Boris Grachev RUS 2674
GM Igor Kurnosov RUS 2663
GM Evgeny Postny ISR 2653
GM Romain Edouard FRA 2646
GM Georg Meier GER 2644
GM Maxim Rodshtein ISR 2642
GM Maxim Turov RUS 2642
GM Hrant Melkumyan ARM 2639
GM Ivan Saric CRO 2638
GM Ildar Khairullin RUS 2631
GM Michael Roiz ISR 2615
GM Boris Avrukh ISR 2605
GM Yannick Pelletier SUI 2599
GM Samuel Shankland USA 2579
GM Sébastien Mazé FRA 2573
GM Yang Wen CHN 2569
GM Jean-Pierre Le Roux FRA 2559
GM Baskaran Adhiban IND 2553
GM Deep Sengupta IND 2548
GM Vitali Golod ISR 2547
GM Mikhail Ulibin RUS 2531
IM Benjamin Bok NED 2512
IM Martin Kraemer GER 2506
GM Ante Saric CRO 2503
IM Robert Hungaski USA 2488
IM Arghyadip Das IND 2485
GM Attila Czebe HUN 2478
IM Gerlef Meins GER 2475
GM Alexander Raetsky RUS 2449
GM Vladislav Vorotnikov RUS 2446
IM Vasanthan Perumal Vishnu Prasanna IND 2435
IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao IND 2428
FM Alexander Donchenko GER 2417
GM Miso Cebalo CRO 2416
FM Avital Boruchovsky ISR 2416
FM Eylon Nakar ISR 2416
IM Alain Genzling FRA 2408
IM David Pruess USA 2375
FM Torsten Lang GER 2374
FM Emanuel Schiendorfer SUI 2355
IM Alfred Weindl GER 2329
IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel IND 2319
FM David Burnier SUI 2315
IM Anita Gara HUN 2312
FIM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh IRI 2304
Christian Weidemann Dr. GER 2299
Ruslan Tleptsok RUS 2287
IM Jan Banas SVK 2285
Nikita Petrov RUS 2282
Jonas Lampert GER 2279
Julian van Overdam NED 2277
FM Bogdan Bozinovic CRO 2261
François Brethes FRA 2254
Roger Gloor SUI 2251
Emile Nass FRA 2235
Nicolas Duport SUI 2218
Nicolas Curien SUI 2216
Christoph Drechsler AUT 2214
WFM Zrinka Deur Saric CRO 2165
Sergej Perman SUI 2150
Florian Schiendorfer SUI 2147
Benedict Hasenohr SUI 2141
Klaus Kleibaumhueter GER 2140
Pablo Schmid AUT 2133
Corrado Astengo ITA 2133
Abdessadek Maalla MAR 2133
WFM Bergit Brendel GER 2131
Helmut Eidinger SUI 2125
FIM Ingrid Lauterbach GER 2125
Alexis Skouvaklis SUI 2122
Stephan Arounopoulos GER 2113
Chrisitan Terraz SUI 2112
Philippe Berset SUI 2111
Carole Forestier FRA 2107
Cédric Pahud SUI 2103
Daniel Mueller GER 2102
Jan van Overdam NED 2101
Giovanni Collareta ITA 2092
David Grosdemange FRA 2091
Damir Vrhovnik CRO 2090
Oliver Liepins LAT 2088
Roberto Schenker SUI 2087
Florian Zarri SUI 2087
Blaise Javet SUI 2073
Roland Buerki SUI 2072
Roland Arbinger Dr. GER 2067
Emma Richard FRA 2066
Christoph Kuert SUI 2063
Mathias Paul GER 2058
Robert Baskin GER 2055
Jean-Marc Horber SUI 2039
WFM Nagarajan Raghavi IND 2038
Niek Oud NED 2036
Hans Speck SUI 2034
Jan Cox BEL 2030
Richard Valet GER 2027
Brice Marty FRA 2027
Kaspar Stucki SUI 2023
Uwe Arndt GER 2007
David Schaffner SUI 1980
Aurélien Pomini SUI 1930
Ronnie Stone BRA 1928
Ricardo Stambull RSA
Taly Rivera PUR
Sascha Haefeli SUI
Boris Alexis Ariza Osorio COL
Sergo Sarqisiani GEO
Rizvanaj Miro SUI
IM Edwin Bhend SUI
