The Biel International Chess Festival is an annual chess tournament that takes place in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. It consists of two events, the Grandmaster Tournament, held with the round-robin system, and the Master Open Tournament (MTO), held with the Swiss system. The Grandmaster Tournament has taken place since 1977.[1][2] The city of Biel hosted three Interzonal Tournaments, in 1976, 1985 and 1993.
The 2023 event invited 8 players to play a triathlon of time control formats: single round-robin in 15+5 rapid time controls, single round-robin in classical time controls with colors reversed from Rapid, and double round-robin in 3+2 blitz time controls. Points are given each game according to time controls: 4-1½-0 for classical, 2-1-0 for rapid, and 1-½-0 for blitz.[3] This event was included for the 2023 FIDE Circuit, but only the classical section results were used for circuit points calculation.
The 2024 event had 2 invitational sections, Masters and Challengers, with 6 players each. Each section played the same triathlon format from the previous event with the same point distribution, except that after all three phases are played, top 3 in total points, along with 4th place if they are within 12 points from first place, will continue play with a second classical round-robin.[8]
