"The annual Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has established
itself as the most prestigious open tournament in the world" -
THE
SUNDAY TIMES
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For your diary:
The organisers of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival are
pleased to announce that it will take place from
Monday 27th January - Thursday 6th February.
Further news and details about the Masters, Challengers, Amateurs and side
events will be available soon.
"I like Gibraltar a lot and I am grateful to
the sponsors and organizers and hope they will carry
on forever" ~ Zhao Xue in 'NEW in
CHESS' magazine.
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"I would recommend it to any chess parent"
- Malcolm Pein, Chief Executive,
Chess in
Schools and Communities.
Categories: Under 16 years and under
12 years.
Competitors arrive on 15
August and depart 20 August (five nights'
stay). The event will be run under the auspices
of the English Chess Federation.
The prize fund
total is £10,000.
There are two main categories: a) open to competitors
aged under 16 on 1 January 2013 (i.e. born in 1997
or later); b) open to competitors aged under 12 on 1
January 2013 (i.e. born in 2001 or later).
Maximum FIDE rating of 2300 on
May 1st 2013.
The Gibraltar Junior International
Chess Festival takes place in August each year. The
venue is the Caleta Hotel and follows the successful
pattern of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival,
offering some good and very competitive
chess-playing opportunities with an equally strong
social, fun and educational programme.
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Your
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Esta es la
tercera edición del
Festival
Internacional de Ajedrez de
la Juventud en
Gibraltar
(llegada el 15 de agosto
de 2013 y
partió el 20).
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Read the brochure online
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Entry form
(English) |
Entry
form (Spanish) |
Enter
Online
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More about this event
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Congratulations to Nikita
Vitiugov who has won the Gibraltar Masters
following a tense and exhilarating play-off against the 2012
winner Nigel Short. Nikita won the play-off 1½-½.
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Nikita Vitiugov receives his winners cheque for £20,000 from
Tradewise CEO James Humphreys. Nikita scored 8/10 (+6,=4) and then
won a play-off 1½-½ to take the title. |
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Final Masters Standings |
All Commentary Videos |
Closing ceremony photos | All games in PGN |
Playoff Games |
John Saunders reports:
Nikita Vitiugov, from St Petersburg in Russia, won the Tradewise
Gibraltar Masters title at the Caleta Hotel on Thursday after a
pulsating play-off final against three times winner and reigning
Masters champion Nigel Short of England. Four players – the
above two, plus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Chanda
Sandipan of India – tied for first place on 8.0/10,
necessitating a knock-out play-off to decide the winner of the
£20,000 first prize.
The play-off consisted of two rapidplay semi-finals, played at
the rate of 15 minutes plus ten seconds a move, with Short
beating Vachier-Lagrave and Vitiugov beating Sandipan over two
games. The semi-finals were one-way traffic for the most part
but the final match between Vitiugov and Short
was a thriller.
A complete list of title norms achieved at the
2013 Tradewise Chess Festival is
here. Many
congratulations to the players involved. Also available in
PDF.
Our last video of the 2013 Festival starts with
the play-off between Chanda Sandipan (India), Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave (France), Nigel Short (England) and the eventual
winner Nikita Vitiugov (Russia) who is also interviewed. Also
included: images of the closing ceremony, hosted by Stuart
Conquest and Emil Sutovsky and Elisabeth Pähtz at the piano.
Video
produced
by Peter Doggers |
More here
Congratulations to Chinese GM Zhao Xue for
winning the top female prize of £12,000.
She
drew her last round game after nearly five hours of play against Vassily Ivanchuk
and achieved a score of 7½/10.
In October 2011 Zhao Xue won the FIDE Women's
Grand Prix tournament at Nalchik, Russia with the massive score
of 9½/11. Her greatest success before Gibraltar 2013 in an
individual event was winning the 2002 Under-20 World Junior
Girls Chess Championship.
Zhao also gave
a highly instructive Masterclass during the Festival.
Another memorable Tradewise Masters tournament
comes to an end so farewell from Gibraltar for a little while.
We are proud to have a great tournament, a fabulous venue,
wonderful people and delightful weather with temperatures often
over 20° C. There is a word to describe all of this ...
paradise! See you in 2014.
John Saunders reports:
The story as we left it... Le Quang Liem of Vietnam
and Nikita Vitiugov were the last remaining players
on a 100% score, so were fated to meet in the sixth
round. It was a keenly contested encounter, with Le
Quang Liem pressing for a win, first with an extra
pawn and later, more improbably, with rook and
knight against rook. Of course it was a draw,
opening up the possibility of them being
joined in
the lead by others.
Read more ...
30.1.13
- Irina Krush takes the microphone and interviews
participants of the 2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival
Video
produced
by Peter Doggers |
More here
29.1.13 - These are available for
Challengers A, 1-5, Challengers B, 1-5 and Masters, 1-9.
29.1.13
- See an entertaining one-hour video of Vassily's
Masterclass from Monday evening,
28 Jan.
29.1.13
- A match-up, on a giant chess set, between the
ladies team consisting of Jovanka Houska (England), Nana
Dzagnidze (Georgia), Zhao Xue (China), Valentina Gunina
(Russia), Tania Sachdev (India) and Viktorija Cmilyte
(Lithuania) versus the men: Gata Kamsky (USA), Gawain Jones
(England), Emil Sutovsky (Israel), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
(France), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) and Kiril Georgiev, as a
(fun!) part of the Gibraltar Chess Festival 2013.
For the first game both teams got 15 minutes on
the clock, but after the ladies successfully negotiated for a
"best of three" afterwards, two more games with 7 minutes each
were played.
Video
produced
by Peter Doggers |
More here
Rapports de tournois
supplémentaires sont disponibles auprès
de nos amis de
l'Europe Echecs.
Voir le rapport
complet ici.
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Eduardo Iturrizaga from Venezuela |
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John Saunders reports:
Yes, I'm messing with your brain again. In the film
there were three amigos. At the end of round
four of the Gibraltar Masters, played at the Caleta
Hotel, there were four young men, aged between 18
and 25, in the lead.
Chess is increasingly a young person's game. By
the end of play the four leaders with a 4/4 maximum score were
Eduardo Iturrizaga from Venezuela, Le Quang Liem of Vietnam,
Nikita Vitiugov of Russia and Dariusz Swiercz of Poland. The
group of seventeen players on 3½ included Vassily Ivanchuk and
Gata Kamsky who have recovered from their slow starts.
Read more ...
28.1.13
- Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo paid an
unofficial visit to the Tradewise Chess Festival on
Sunday afternoon. Relaxing in the lobby of the hotel
he played a game of chess and later congratulated 13
year old Stephen Whatley for having won his game of
the day.
Mr Picardo was then shown round the Gibraltar
Masters by tournament director Stuart Conquest where Round 6 was
being played. He later twittered a picture of himself and
Stephen which read: "Great day for Gib. Young Steve Whatley wins
his match at the Tradewise Open at the Caleta".
28.1.13 - Gibraltar’s Governor Sir Adrian Johns has always
been a great supporter of the Tradewise Chess Festival so it was
not surprising to see him back in the eleventh edition of the
tournament. He made the first move in the first round of the
Challengers and Amateurs tournaments.
Shown round the hall by director Stuart Conquest
and organiser Brian Callaghan, Sir Adrian got the chance to see
both the Amateurs and the Challengers as they made their first
moves. He welcomed everyone to this year’s festival and wished
them well.
Read
more ...
27.1.13 - A three match
blitz event raising £1000 for charity was held in the Bay
restaurant on Saturday evening. It was won 2-1 by the men in a
close contest. The first game was played at 15 minutes per team;
games two and three at 7 minutes. The clock stayed on the
arbiter's table, and had to be pressed by each player in turn.
The two teams: MEN: Kiril Georgiev, Liem Le
Quang, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Emil Sutovsky, Gawain Jones, Gata
Kamsky. WOMEN: Jovanka Houska, Nana Dzagnidze, Xue Zhao, Tania
Sachdev, Valentina Gunina, Viktorija Cmilyte.
See the games here.
Photos by
Zeljka Malobabic and
John Saunders.
Gibraltar’s Deputy Chief Minister and Gibtelecom
Chairman, Dr Joseph Garcia, visited the Tradewise Chess Festival
accompanied by the Chief Executive of Gibtelecom Tim Bristow
this week.
Players were in action in the fourth day of the
Masters tournament as they were shown round by director Stuart
Conquest. They also sat for a while in the broadcast studio from
where the games are analysed by Simon Williams and Irina Krush
from 3pm daily on the internet.
Gibtelecom has supported the chess festival and
organisers at the Caleta Hotel from its inception year having
jointly led the chess revolution developing
online live-streaming in a major way.
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Antoaneta Stefanova |
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John Saunders reports: Everyone
remembers those classic movies The Magnificent Eight and
Eight Samurai, don’t they? And those with a classical
education might recall Eight Against Thebes by the Greek
tragedian Aeschylus. No? Neither do I. The two films and the
Greek play had ‘seven’ (and not ‘eight’) in the title,
presumably because seven is some sort of magic number. ‘Eight’
appears to have no magical properties or fictional resonances.
I’m not sure why that is – perhaps someone can enlighten me.
When I saw that this year’s Gibraltar Masters
had precisely seven 2700+ players in the line-up, I was pleased
because it meant I would be able to deploy all manner of
analogies on this theme. It was a bit disappointing to hear that
an eighth 2700+ man had been added at
the last minute.
26.1.13 - Gata gave a
Masterclass on Friday night followed by Jovana. Fascinating to
see. Watch them both here.
25.1.13 -
Held on Thursday night, teams of four, with names such as
"Chinese Dragon", "Four Queens", Swiss Attack and "Weapons of
mass destruction" played six rounds of quickplay games (5
minutes plus 2 seconds increment per person). Needless to say,
it was great fun!
Video
produced
by Peter Doggers |
More here
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Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) |
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John Saunders reports:
Early rounds of big opens rarely produce major
surprises, as the top half of the draw tends to
murder the bottom half in cold blood. But this
year’s Gibraltar Masters produced a couple of shocks
in the first round as the two highest rated
competitors, former Gibraltar winner Vassily
Ivanchuk and world championship runner-up Gata
Kamsky, were held to surprise draws by amateur
players in the first round as the players got down
to business at the Caleta Hotel.
In the second round there was a
bigger shock as three times Gibraltar winner Nigel
Short succumbed to 40-year-old Spanish IM Ismael
Teran Alvarez, who is ranked only
72nd in the
Masters line-up.
25.1.13 -
Many more added today -
Blitz Fours and Rounds 3 and 4. Many more to follow at the
Festival continues.
23.1.13 - American IM and WGM Anna Zatonskih gave a very
enjoyable and informative Masterclass on Wednesday evening to an
appreciative audience both online and at the Caleta Hotel.
Watch it
all as it happened.
23.1.13 - Tourism Minister Neil Costa hosted a special
dinner at the Mons Calpe Suite at the top of the Rock of
Gibraltar on Tuesday evening on the first day of the Gibraltar
Masters Tradewise Chess Festival for the visiting Grand Masters
and sponsors of the tournament ... [Read
more]
21.1.13 - The 2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival was
opened on 21 January by The Hon. Steven Linares, Minister for
Sport, Culture, Heritage & Youth, and the draw for first round
colours made by Jessica Baldochino, Miss Gibraltar 2012.
Tournament director GM Stuart Conquest presided.
The picture shows Stuart Conquest, James
Humphreys, of the principal sponsor Tradewise, Brian Callaghan,
of the Caleta Hotel, Jessica Baldochino and the Hon. Steven
Linares.
Many more photos here.
20.1.13 - Monday 21 January sees the start of the
Gibraltar festival with round 1 for the Challengers A and
Amateurs A, starting at 09.45 CET (04.45 EST).
His
Excellency Sir Adrian Johns, Governor of Gibraltar, has
agreed to visit the Festival on the opening day to make the
ceremonial opening moves in the Challenger and Amateur
competitions.
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GM Viktorija Cmilyte |
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GM Dronavalli Harika |
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19.1.13 - The 2013 Tradewise Chess Festival was launched
on its 11-day voyage when two of our top female
participants, Grandmasters Viktorija Cmilyte amd Harika
Dronavalli, offered two simultaneous displays for early
arrivals.
The simuls began around 8pm in
the main restaurant. The
games provided an ideal warm-up for Amateur and Challenger
participants, whose events began the following morning.
Viktorija (2515) and Harika (2514) were
not to be too hard on their opponents!
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David Navara (CZE) 2710 |
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14.1.13 - We are delighted to announce that another top
player, GM David Navara, has joined the stellar Masters line-up.
The 2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival
starts on Sunday 20 January at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar
with simultaneous displays at 2000 hours (CET). The opening
ceremony is at 2030 hours (CET) on Monday 21 January. Play in
the main event, the 11th Gibraltar Masters, begins at 1500 hours
(CET) on Tuesday 22 January.
The leading competitors this year are Vasily
Ivanchuk (2758), Gata Kamsky (2740), Michael Adams (2725),
Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2723), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2711), David
Navara (2710), Alexei Shirov (2708), Le Quang Liem (2705) and
last year's winner Nigel Short (2696).
A strong women's contingent is headed by Anna
Muzychuk (2582), Nana Dzagnidze (2555), Zhao Xue (2554), Marie
Sebag (2530), Pia Cramling (2518), 2012 Women's World
Championship runner-up Antoaneta Stefanova (2506), Viktorija
Cmilyte (2515), Harika Dronavalli (2514) and Ju Wenjun (2505).
Full press release by
John Saunders
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Sir Adrian Johns, Governor of Gibraltar
with Tournament Organiser Brian Callaghan. |
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30.12.12 - The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is not
limited to the 10-round Masters tournament - there are also four
5-round morning events.
It therefore gives us special pleasure to
announce that
His
Excellency
Sir Adrian Johns, Governor of Gibraltar, has
agreed to visit the Festival on the opening day, Monday 21st
January, to attend the start of the first week Challenger and
Amateur competitions, and to make the ceremonial opening move of
the 2013 Festival.
Sir Adrian has attended the Festival before, but
this will be the first occasion that his visit coincides with
the opening day. We could not have wished for a better way to
begin an eleven day celebration of chess!
