Biel Chess Festival
A Swiss summer festival held every July since 1968, with an elite Grandmaster Tournament and a large open.
- Founded
- 1968
- Held
- Annual, July
- Where
- Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
- Format
- Grandmaster Tournament (round-robin, in recent years mixing classical, rapid and blitz) plus the Master Open (Swiss)
- Champion
- Levon Aronian (2026)
- Most titles
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (5), Le Quang Liem (3), Alexander Morozevich (3)
History
Biel has hosted a chess festival every summer since 1968, making it one of the longest-running events in the game. Its Grandmaster Tournament has attracted world champions and future champions alike, including Magnus Carlsen, who won it in 2007 and 2011.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won it five times, four in a row from 2013 to 2016, and Le Quang Liem won three straight from 2022.
Biel Chess Festival in The Chess Herald
Winners
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Levon Aronian |
| 2025 | Vladimir Fedoseev |
| 2024 | Le Quang Liem |
| 2023 | Le Quang Liem |
| 2022 | Le Quang Liem |
| 2021 | Gata Kamsky |
| 2020 | Radosław Wojtaszek |
| 2019 | Vidit Gujrathi |
| 2018 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
| 2017 | Hou Yifan |
Show all winners since 2002
| 2016 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2015 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2014 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2013 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2012 | Wang Hao |
| 2011 | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2010 | Fabiano Caruana |
| 2009 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2008 | Evgeny Alekseev |
| 2007 | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2006 | Alexander Morozevich |
| 2005 | Boris Gelfand, Andrei Volokitin (shared) |
| 2004 | Alexander Morozevich |
| 2003 | Alexander Morozevich |
| 2002 | Ilya Smirin |
Source: Wikipedia.
Page last reviewed September 29, 2026.