The 44th Biel (Switzerland) festival

The six players before the battle!© official site

This year the Biel ACCENTUS Grandmaster tournament runs from the 18th of July until the 29th. The presence of Magnus Carlsen will be complemented with young guns Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana. Local hero Yannick Pelletier will also have to cope with the dynamic duo Alexei Shirov and Alexander Morozevich in the six player double-round robin.

Here is a list of the players:

Name Country Rating Age				World ranking
Magnus Carlsen	NORWAY	2815	20	1
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	FRANCE	2731	20	22
Alexei Shirov	SPAIN	2721	31	29
Fabiano Caruana	ITALY	2714	18	32
Alexander Morozevich	RUSSIA	2694	34	48
Yannick Pelletier	SWITZERLAND	2587	34	258

The schedule :

18th to 20th of July: Rounds 1 to 3 at 2 pm (local time)

21st rest day

22nd -23rd: Rounds 4 and 5 at 2 pm

24th rest day

25th to 28th: Rounds 6 to 9 at 2 pm

29th: Round 10 at 11 am

2pm is the same as in Paris and Madrid.

Subtract one hour for London and six for New York.

Official site : www.bielchessfestival.ch

live play : http://live.bielchessfestival.ch/

The 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw system will be used. I'm not sure this makes anyone play any differently, but it looks good on paper!

The rate of play: 120 minutes for 40 moves, then 60 mins for 20 further moves

and then 15 mins (with a 30 seconds increment per move) for the rest of the game, .

No draw offers are permitted before move 30.