The 49th International Chess Festival Biel is taking place from Saturday, July 23 until Wednesday, August 3 2016. The exact schedule and further information are now published on the official website. Here are the main links:

All photos and videos by Pascal Simon (ChessBase)

Blitz tournament

Entering the final day, the rapid and classical matches had all been decided, and though that phase of the competition had come to an end, there was still one part left: the blitz tournament.

Although Noel Studer was the lowest rated of the players, he would not leave without drawing blood of his own. That said, it was not against MVL that he would shine as he lost the first round game.

To be fair to the Swiss player (left), he held off the new world no. 2 to a balanced endgame, and only succumbed to a tactic when he was down to seconds.

Dutch GM Benjamin Bok scored 50% and was tied with Italian player Francesco Rambaldi with 2.5/5

He also beat Studer, but Noel would still beat Rambaldi and his compatriot Nico Georgiadis

Nico Georgiadis was winless in this phase, but he did eke a draw from MVL, no mean feat

Peter Svidler lost to Rambaldi, but caught up with his main rival MVL in the end with 3.5/5

All blitz games

Select games from the list below the board.

Final standings

Blitz final

It finally came down to the two stars, the showdown that everyone expected. The Frenchman was running hot, as in volcano hot. After beating Peter Svidler in both the rapid and classical matches, raising his rating to a fantastic 2819, all that was left was the blitz. Here MVL was the outright favorite, not just because of the above, but because he is known as a blitz specialist whose FIDE Blitz rating has been consistently among the very best. Still, things happen, and the match was to be two games unless tied.

Game one was a spectacular melee with an exciting Sicilian Defense with MVL as white. A small oversight suddenly saw him facing the prospect of a nice round egg for his opening score as his bishop was caught in a pawn rush. The Frenchman struck back with verve and imagination and when the dust settled, White was better!

Pascal Simon from ChessBase, also author of all the photos in the reports, filmed the blitz games live and has added the live GM commentary by Daniel King as all heard it on Playchess and the official YouTube channel. Watch it and enjoy!

Game one

The first game of the blitz final, hand-recorded, with the GM commentary in the audio

First blood was drawn by MVL and it was now time for game two. Would Svidler be able to level the score and forestall defeat?

Game two

Game two of the blitz final between MVL and Svidler commented by GM Daniel King and Nico Georgiadis

MVL and Peter Svidler review their blitz games for the spectators

Yannick Pelletier congratulates Maxime for his victories

The participants of the Masters and Junior Challenges (left to right): Nico Georgiadis, Noel Studer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Benjamin Bok, Peter Svidler, and Francesco Rambaldi

The Masters Tournament

The Masters Tournament is still underway with six rounds played

Dozens of masters and grandmasters are playing and it is still very tight

Paraguayan GM Axel Bachmann is in the mix with 4.5/6

Standings after six rounds

Click for complete standings

Links Official tournament site All Blitz games in PGN All Blitz final games in PGN All Masters rapid games in PGN All Masters classical games in PGN All Junior rapid games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.