Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012 begins with strongest-ever participants' list
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Guess what was World Chess Champion Viswanathan doing on Monday night? He was emailing the organisers of the Gibraltar Chess Festival!
Anand wrote: "I would like to wish the organisers of the Tradewise Chess Festival a very successful 10th anniversary. The event has grown in stature and popularity over the years and has become a marquee event attracting the best names in chess including a lot of players from my country." You can read the full text of the world chess champion's email at the official website.
Culture and Sports Minister Steven Linares weclomed all the players and thanked them for coming to the Rock to play in the tournament. Tournament director, Stuart Conquest, said participants' number was a record high.
Miss Gibraltar 2011 Michelle Gillingwater Pedersen helped draw the pairings for the opening top six games.
First up was Peter Svidler from Russia, a former winner in Gibraltar, and a huge cricket fan. So it was not surprising that he drew a white cricket ball received with much approval from the players. He plays Jovanka Houska in the opening round from UK.
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| Tournament director Stuart Conquest, Culture and Sports Minister Steven Linares, Miss Gibraltar 2011 Michelle Gillingwater and Festival organiser Brian Callaghan OBE. |
The other top boards today are: Junio Molina v Mamedyarov, Michael Adams (former Gib winner) v Natalia Zhukova, Robert Aloma Vidal v Zoltan Almasi, Ismael Karin v Liem Le Quang, and Judit Polgar v Alex Astaneh Lopez.
 Meanwhile Monday evening also saw the launch of the first Gibraltar stamps featuring chess. One of the pairings for yesterday between Adams and Zhukova, was an exact repetition in both names and colours as that featured on the 30p stamp.
PLAY BEGINS
A reminder that play begins shortly at 3 pm Gibraltar time and can be followed live on www.gibraltarchesscongress.com.
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Labels: Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012
2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival begins Jan 23
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012Hi everyone,The 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is beginning from January 23 and will run till February 2 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The main event of the Festival will be the 10-round Masters tournament from 24th January.
In addition, there will be the 1st Amateurs and Challengers events from 23rd to 27th January, the 2nd Amateurs and Challengers from 28th January to 1st February, two evening blitz events and Master classes with elite players. The festival celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.The popularity and over subscription of the 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival Masters tournament has meant that organisers have had to close the Masters tournament to any further entries! The festival will have 57 Grand Masters, 11 of which are rated 2700 or over, attracting some of major names in both the men’s and the women’s game with a total of 240 players competing in the 2012 Gibraltar Masters. This is a record on both counts for Gibraltar.The Amateur and Challenger tournaments played simultaneously remain as popular as ever and entries are still being taken for these.Organiser Brian Callaghan, who received an OBE in the New Year’s honours list appointed by Her Majesty The Queen for his services to tourism and chess, is delighted with the growth and success of the festival.“I am ready to welcome all the top chess players in the world to our tournament at the end of this month, and looking forward to the best 10 days of chess yet. It is indeed an honour to be hosting the 10th edition of the festival in Gibraltar, important too because it falls in the Diamond Jubilee year,” he said.The 2012 tournament promises to be stronger than ever before and will be enjoyed by a huge internet audience, thanks to Gibtelecom’s innovative technology and the unique, built-for-purpose webcasting suite installed at the Caleta Hotel. Hosting the broadcasts this year is Macauley Peterson, a freelance mediamaker. He was voted 2008 “Chess Journalist of the Year” by the Chess Journalists of America, and has written in Chess Life, Chess Life Online (U.S.A.), New in Chess (Netherlands), “64″ (Russia), Chess (U.K.), and elsewhere.Her Majesty The Queen appointed Brian Callaghan to be Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (“OBE”) for services to tourism and chess. Brian Callaghan is the driving force behind the Gibraltar Chess Festival, which will shortly celebrate its 10th anniversary and now attracts 300 players from over 40 countries, including some 50 grand masters. He is also a former Deputy Chairman of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust.Make a note in your diary… Masters (Open to all): Tues 24 January – Thurs 2 February (10-round Swiss, FIDE rated) Challengers A (Under 2250): Mon 23 January – Fri 27 January (5 rounds, FIDE rated) Challengers B (Under 2250): Sat 28 January – Wed 1 February (5 rounds, FIDE rated) Amateurs A (Under 1800): Mon 23 January – Fri 27 January (5 rounds, FIDE rated) Amateurs B (Under 1800): Sat 28 January – Wed 1 February (5 rounds, FIDE rated). Play starts every morning at 9 am. The Masters start every afternoon at 3pm. Access the official website here.
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Labels: Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012
Judit Polgar vs Koneru Humpy vs Hou Yifan in Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Get set to begin 2012 with the tenth anniversary of the Tradewise International Chess Festival in Gibraltar. And, it's billed to be the best yet! The chess festival - spanning 10 days - runs from January 24 to February 2.
Some super chess is likely with the likes of Judit Polgar, Koneru Humpy, Mickey Adams, Nigel Short and Peter Svidler having all accepted invitations to play.
It might as well be the strongest-ever open chess tournament in the world!
The prize money is upped by 20% to an amazing £150,000. In addition, there is a further prize of £5,000 to celebrate the HM Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee which will be awarded to the top scoring player from a Commonwealth country.
Here is a list of top-30 already registered for the Masters Open.
1 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2755
2 Adams, Michael g ENG 2734
3 M, Shakhriyar g AZE 2733
4 Le, Quang Liem g VIE 2714
5 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2710
6 Vachier-Lagrave, M g FRA 2710
7 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2707
8 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2705
9 Laznicka, Viktor g CZE 2703
10 Short, Nigel g ENG 2698
11 Sutovsky, Emil g ISR 2696
12 Sasikiran, Krishnan g IND 2689
13 Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2674
14 Bologan, Victor g MDA 2665
15 Fridman, Daniel g GER 2661
16 Lupulescu, Constantin g ROU 2657
17 Parligras, Mircea-Emilian g ROU 2650
18 Gupta, Abhijeet g IND 2640
19 Erdos, Viktor g HUN 2623
20 Negi, Parimarjan g IND 2617
21 Akobian, Varuzhan g USA 2612
22 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2600
23 David, Alberto g LUX 2597
24 Robson, Ray g USA 2594
25 Kulaots, Kaido g EST 2577
26 Felgaer, Ruben g ARG 2573
27 Jussupow, Artur g GER 2569
28 Yifan, Hou g CHN 2568
29 Korchnoi, Viktor g SUI 2567
30 GN Gopal g IND 2566
Establishing chess as an international festival on the Rock was the dream of organiser Brian Callaghan who, as anyone in the world of chess will tell you, has made the Caleta Hotel the home of chess for those 10 days in the middle of winter. In just nine years, with the help of sponsors, his staff at the hotel, and a top chess organising team, he has assured the growth of chess locally and of the tournament world-wide.
The full break-up of the chess festival events:
- Masters (Open to all): Tues 24 January - Thurs 2 February (10-round Swiss, FIDE rated)
- Challengers A (Under 2250): Mon 23 January - Fri 27 January (5 rounds, FIDE rated)
- Challengers B (Under 2250): Sat 28 January - Wed 1 February (5 rounds, FIDE rated)
- Amateurs A (Under 1800): Mon 23 January - Fri 27 January (5 rounds, FIDE rated)
- Amateurs B (Under 1800): Sat 28 January - Wed 1 February (5 rounds, FIDE rated).
- Play starts every morning at 9am. The Masters start every afternoon at 3pm.
For more information contact: Alice Mascarenhas, Chess Press Officer Email: Chesspo@caleta.gi or gibchesspress@gmail.com Website: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com Labels: Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012
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Meanwhile Monday evening also saw the launch of the first Gibraltar stamps featuring chess. One of the pairings for yesterday between Adams and Zhukova, was an exact repetition in both names and colours as that featured on the 30p stamp.
