Kazan Chess - Candidates matches opening ceremony; $50 million chess palace announcement

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi everyone,


The opening ceremony is taking place in Kazan with the first match beginning on Thursday. You can keep track of all the action here at www.chessblog.com and the official website.

... And, Vladimir Kramnik picks his colour.

On behalf of the International Chess Federation President Council that unites 172 nations of the world, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov started his welcome speech with compliments to the entrants and guests on the occasion of the opening of the Candidates Matches.

Also, the talk of Kazan, ahead of the Candidates Matches is the announcement about the construction of a chess palace in Kazan. It will be in the form of chess king and will be between 20 and 25 floors high. Official information is still expected, but the construction site designated is already known.

The "chess palace" will include a large chess academy and will also play a key role for chess in the University 2013 in Kazan. The value of the project is said to be around $50 million, and the construction time is 1.5-2.5 years.



How cool. Stay tuned.

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From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

World Chess Championship Candidates Matches in Kazan from May 3-27, 2011

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

Hello Everyone,

Fide has announced that the Candidates Matches to select an opponent for the current World Chess Champion Vishy Anand will be held from May 3-27, 2011 in the beautiful city of Kazan, Russia.

The eight players who are eligible to take part in the event include Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen (withdrawn and replaced by Alexander Grischuk), Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Mamedyarov Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Gata Kamsky.

Further withdrawals are to be replaced by Dmitry Yakovenko and Wang Yu in that order according to rules.

FIDE has also sent contracts to all the candidates and you can read more about it at the official Fide website.

Kazan (Russian: Каза́нь; Tatar: Казан, Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The sixth largest city of Russia, it lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the right to brand itself as the 'Third Capital' of Russia. In 2009 it was chosen as the 'Sports capital of Russia'.

Here is a nice tourism video of Kazan. Enjoy.

And, another nice slideshow video of Kazan.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com