English Chess Forum

Europe's strongest over the board tournament since the lockdown is going ahead this weekend. This gives me an excuse to add Leonard' Barden's Guardian Online article from last Friday which is superb as always with Mickey Adams as the fourth seed in an eight player tournament of classical, rapid and blitz. According to Leonard the way they are going to play the main tournament and the subsidiary tournaments will be very interesting indeed:

" Biel has stated that its GMs will be separated at the table by a plexiglass screen, although blitz and moving to the eighth rank could be problematic.

Players in the Corona Amateur tournament will sit at the same table 1.5 metres apart (Switzerland’s social distance), will be given their own set of pieces for the tournament, and will have the increment per move increased from 30 to 45 seconds, because making long moves or pressing the clock may require standing up. Face masks are optional. Will it work? We shall see."

If you want to read more about the special playing conditions click here and then download the Protection Concept pdf on the right hand side of the screen.

I have entered the Corona. There will not be any "long moves" - each player has own board - but pressing clock may be a problem, especially for disabled players

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 9:34 am

There will not be any "long moves" - each player has own board - but pressing clock may be a problem, especially for disabled players

That was the plan when the tournament was first announced, but now they say:

• The players are separated by the width of 2 tables.
• The board and the clock are in the middle.

Thanks. That's a major improvement. Will make it worthwhile having to wear a mask at Heathrow and on Swiss trains - but not Swissair!

It will be interesting to hear what it's like.

My dining room table is 1.5 m long and I've just put a large chess board in the middle of it. I could just reach to play e2-e4 sitting down; I had to stand up slightly to play a piece to the 5th rank; I had to stand up pretty well completely to play a piece to the 8th rank and put my other hand on the table to steady myself while I was leaning forwards a lot to reach the back rank.

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 9:54 am

Will make it worthwhile having to wear a mask at Heathrow and on Swiss trains

I guess we could also factor in the merits of not exposing other people to concerns about potential infection

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:09 am

It will be interesting to hear what it's like.

My dining room table is 1.5 m long and I've just put a large chess board in the middle of it. I could just reach to play e2-e4 sitting down; I had to stand up slightly to play a piece to the 5th rank; I had to stand up pretty well completely to play a piece to the 8th rank and put my other hand on the table to steady myself while I was leaning forwards a lot to reach the back rank.

Perhaps I should arm myself with a fairground-style grabber

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:09 am

I could just reach to play e2-e4 sitting down; I had to stand up slightly to play a piece to the 5th rank; I had to stand up pretty well completely to play a piece to the 8th rank and put my other hand on the table to steady myself while I was leaning forwards a lot to reach the back rank.

Perhaps, like some juniors, it will be necessary to kneel on the chair rather than sit on it.

Swissair now mandates the wearing of facemasks ...

Two ENG juniors, Rohan Pal and Theo Khoury, have entered Biel:

https://www.bielchessfestival.ch/Partic ... ayers.html

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 15, 2020 10:00 am

Swissair now mandates the wearing of facemasks ...

Facemasks on the train too, but none required at Biel if I understood correctly.

Wadih Khoury wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:33 pm

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 15, 2020 10:00 am

Swissair now mandates the wearing of facemasks ...

Facemasks on the train too, but none required at Biel if I understood correctly.

Yes, my understanding is I will have to wear a facemask on the underground and the overground getting to Heathrow, while at Heathrow, while on the plane and while on the train from Zürich to Biel, but not otherwise

TWIC

The main event is the Grandmaster Triathlon where the 8 players play at three time controls to decide the final result - Classical: 7 games, - Rapid: 7 games (reversed colors) - Blitz: 14 games (2-way).

The tournament kicks off with a Chess960 tournament on Saturday 18th July

Official site

Schedule

News

The extraordinary situation in the world forces the organizers of the Biel International Chess Festival to be spontaneous and to improvise. GM Salem Saleh from the UAE, who was scheduled to participate in the Grandmaster Triathlon Tournament, was unable to leave his home country despite earlier confirmations and therefore cannot participate in the tournament. For the Grandmaster Triathlon Tournament the organizers were able to engage GM Arkadij Naiditsch (Elo 2626) from Azerbaijan. The native of Latvia should be arriving in Switzerland tomorrow evening. GM Alexander Donchenko (Elo 2646) from Germany will replace Saleh in the ACCENTUS Chess 960 tournament of tomorrow. The 22-year-old is not unknown in Biel: Last year he finished second in the Biel Master tournament.

One of the GMT boards at Biel:

I wonder how much those screens cost. I could live with playing like that, even if it's totally unnecessary.