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.
Winners
# Year Grandmaster Tournament Master Open Tournament 1 1968 
Edwin Bhend (
Switzerland)
2 1969 
Jan Timman (
Netherlands)
3 1970 
Predrag Ostojic (
Yugoslavia)
4 1971
Stanimir Nikolic (
Yugoslavia)
5 1972
Milan Vukic (
Yugoslavia)
6 1973
Milan Vukic (
Yugoslavia)
János Flesch (
Hungary)
7 1974 
Bela Soos (
Romania)
8 1975
Mišo Cebalo (
Yugoslavia)
John Pigott (
England)
David Parr (
Australia)
9 1976 
Bent Larsen (
Denmark) (Interzonal)
Dragutin Sahovic (
Yugoslavia)
Radovan Govedarica (
Yugoslavia)
10 1977
Tony Miles (
England)
Miguel Quinteros (
Argentina)
11 1978
Charles Partos (
Switzerland)
12 1979
Viktor Korchnoi (
Switzerland)
Yehuda Gruenfeld (
Israel)
Jean Hébert (
Canada)
13 1980
Yehuda Gruenfeld (
Israel)
Israel Zilber (
United States)
Josip Rukavina (
Yugoslavia)
Beat Züger (
Switzerland)
Peter Scheeren (
Netherlands)
14 1981 
Eric Lobron (
West Germany) 
Vlastimil Hort (
Czechoslovakia)
Nathan Birnboim (
Israel)
Laszlo Karsa (
Hungary)
Ron Henley (
United States)
Eduard Meduna (
Czechoslovakia)
15 1982
John Nunn (
England)
Florin Gheorghiu (
Romania)
Ivan Nemet (
Yugoslavia)
16 1983
Tony Miles (
England)
John Nunn (
England)
Jaan Eslon (
Sweden)
17 1984
Vlastimil Hort (
West Germany)
Robert Hübner (
West Germany)
Carlos Garcia-Palermo (
Argentina)
18 1985 
Rafael Vaganian (
Soviet Union) (Interzonal)
Ian Rogers (
Australia)
Alon Greenfeld (
Israel)
19 1986
Lev Polugaevsky (
Soviet Union)
Eric Lobron (
West Germany)
Daniel Cámpora (
Argentina)
20 1987
Boris Gulko (
United States)
Lev Gutman (
Israel)
21 1988
Ivan Sokolov (
Yugoslavia)
Boris Gulko (
United States)
Gennadi Kuzmin (
Soviet Union)
22 1989
Vassily Ivanchuk (
Soviet Union)
Matthias Wahls (
West Germany)
23 1990
Anatoly Karpov (
Soviet Union)
Viktor Gavrikov (
Soviet Union)
24 1991 
Alexei Shirov (
Latvia)
Zurab Sturua (
Soviet Union)
25 1992 
Anatoly Karpov (
Russia)
Alexander Shabalov (
Latvia)
26 1993 
Boris Gelfand (
Belarus) (Interzonal)
Vadim Milov (
Israel)
27 1994
Viktor Gavrikov (
Switzerland)
Utut Adianto (
Indonesia)
28 1995 
Alexey Dreev (
Russia)
Igor Glek (
Germany)
29 1996
Anatoly Karpov (
Russia)
Zurab Sturua (
Georgia)
30 1997 
Viswanathan Anand (
India)
Ildar Ibragimov (
Russia)
31 1998 
Mladen Palac (
Croatia)
Milos Pavlovic (
Yugoslavia)
32 1999
Jeroen Piket (
Netherlands)
Vadim Milov (
Switzerland)
33 2000
Peter Svidler (
Russia)
Boris Avrukh (
Israel)
34 2001
Viktor Korchnoi (
Switzerland)
Boris Avrukh (
Israel)
35 2002
Ilya Smirin (
Israel)
Milos Pavlovic (
Yugoslavia)
36 2003
Alexander Morozevich (
Russia)
Mikhail Ulibin (
Russia)
37 2004
Alexander Morozevich (
Russia)
Christian Bauer (
France)
38 2005
Boris Gelfand (
Israel)
Andrei Volokitin (
Ukraine)
Mikhail Kobalia (
Russia)
39 2006
Alexander Morozevich (
Russia)
Bartosz Soćko (
Poland)
40 2007 
Magnus Carlsen (
Norway)
Mikhail Ulibin (
Russia)
41 2008
Evgeny Alekseev (
Russia)
Vladimir Belov (
Russia)
42 2009
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (
France)
Boris Grachev (
Russia)
43 2010 
Fabiano Caruana (
Italy)
Alexander Riazantsev (
Russia)
44 2011
Magnus Carlsen (
Norway)
Ni Hua (
China)
45 2012
Wang Hao (
China)
Igor Kurnosov (
Russia)
46 2013
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (
France)
Pentala Harikrishna (
India)
47 2014
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (
France)
Baskaran Adhiban (
India)
48 2015
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (
France)
Emil Sutovsky (
Israel)
49 2016 [3]
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (
France)
Samuel Shankland (
United States)
50 2017
Hou Yifan (
China)
Mateusz Bartel (
Poland)
51 2018 
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (
Azerbaijan)
Suri Vaibhav (
India)
52 2019
Vidit Gujrathi (
India)
Amin Tabatabaei (
IRI)
53 2020
Radosław Wojtaszek (
Poland)
Christian Bauer (
France)
54 2021
Gata Kamsky (
United States)
Salem Saleh (
United Arab Emirates)
55 2022 
Lê Quang Liêm (
Vietnam)
Mahammad Muradli (
Azerbaijan)
56 2023
Lê Quang Liêm (
Vietnam)
Bu Xiangzhi (
China)
References
- ^ International Chess Festival Biel – Previous winners
- ^ Torneo Biel
- ^ In 2016 a match between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Peter Svidler took place instead of the traditional round-robin Grandmaster Tournament.
