Unfortunately, like last year, due to Covid-19, we will not know until a few weeks before the beginning of the Festival if it can take place at all and in what form. We can therefore not go into detail now about the various tournaments and their prize funds, as it may be that the forecasts made today could be turned upside down, as was the case last year. However, it goes without saying that we do not intend to cancel the Festival activities altogether. In fact, this summer, for the 54th year in a row, we intend to offer the usual chess tournaments for all ages and all categories.
FIDE itself seems very confident that normality will return from July. Therefore, it has decided to organize the Open World Cup and the Women's World Cup in the middle of the Biel Chess Festival!
In order to give participants who were eliminated early in Sochi the opportunity to compete for revenge in Biel, we have decided to postpone the originally planned dates of the Festival by one week. So the Festival will take place from 24 July to August 04, 2021.
Another important information: We are pleased to announce that for the second year in a row we will be able to host the final of the Swiss Youth Championship during the festival, which will take place from July 25 to 28.
Please mark your calendars for the dates below, as we hope to be able to organize a full festival again, including:
- the closed Grandmaster tournament [GMT] (July 24 - August 04),
- the open tournaments for Masters [MTO] and Amateurs [ATO] (July 26 - August 04),
- the Swiss Blitz [BTO] (July 31),
- rapid chess [RAP] (July 25)
- and 960 (July 24) championships,
- as well as the free VINETUM youth tournament [JTO] (July 31),
- and the traditional opening simultaneous against a GM.
We ask for understanding that final information on the tournament cannot be released until the Covid-19 measures for the end of July are at least outlined and the borders are reopened.
Please check our website (https://www.bielchessfestival.ch) regularly for the latest festival information!