Gibtelecom Chess Festival

2010 Gibtelecom Festival: Round 5 Report

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:54:46 +0100

The leadership was whittled down from ten to two players as the top five boards fought for supremacy.

After another hard-fought round, the front-runners are now Mickey Adams of England and Jan Gustafsson. Both profited from early slips by their Indian opponents (Humpy Koneru and GN Gopal respectively) to win in some comfort.

Leaders with 4½/5: Michael Adams (ENG) and Jan Gustafsson (GER)

The new women's leaders are last year's top women's prize winner Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia and Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine. Read the Round 5 Report.

The new women's leaders are last year's top women's prize winner Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia and Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine. Read the Round 5 Report.

2010 Gibtelecom Festival: Round 4 Report

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:51:16 +0100

John Saunders reports: There was some great round four action here at the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival - and we'll come to that presently - but the show was stolen by a legend of chess, Boris Spassky.

Around 1½ hours into the round, Boris strolled into the commentary room to watch the play with GM Stuart Conquest and his audience (both physical and virtual, of course). Stuart invited him to sit beside him and chat "for a few minutes". This turned into nearly three hours!

Within a few minutes we had the camera on Boris and it didn't leave him for the full duration of his stay in the commentary room. And the really, really good news, readers, is that you can enjoy every minute of this video as, thanks to some great new facilities provided by Gibtelecom, it has been stored for posterity and can be watched online right here. Watch live streaming video from gibraltarchess at livestream.com/gibraltarchess Now back to yesterday's action... all the leaders drew so we have ten players in the top score group: Bacrot, Adams, Fressinet, Fridman, Gustafsson, Sandipan, Koneru, Edouard, Felgaer, Gopal 3½/4. Full report here. By the way, we now have a Facebook group for the tournament. Look for "8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival"

2010 Gibtelecom Festival: Round 3 Report

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:50:28 +0100

John Saunders reports: There are three leaders after round three of the Gibtelecom Masters: Michael Adams (England), Laurent Fressinet (France) and Jan Gustafsson (Germany). It was another exciting round with plenty of decisive games. Ivan Cheparinov was held to a draw by a 2093-rated player The most eye-catching game was Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria versus Victor Havik of Norway. The rating difference was nearly 600 points but the 31-year-old Norwegian was not intimidated. At the end of the game he played a beautiful queen sacrifice to secure the draw.

2010 Gibtelecom Festival: Opening Ceremony

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:23:10 +0100

25 January 2010 John Saunders reports: The opening ceremony of the 8th Gibraltar Chess Festival took place in the Caleta Hotel on 25 January 2010.

GM Stuart Conquest was master of ceremonies and introduced the special guests, The Honourable Edwin Joseph Reyes - Minister for Culture, and Maxine de la Rosa - "First Princess of Gibraltar for 2009".

The two guests were invited to help make the draw for the top three rated players, plus the top three rated women players.

After the ceremony, the players and guests - who, like last year, included former world champion Boris Spassky, could enjoy their buffet dinner.

You too can enjoy the flavour of the opening ceremony via some fantastic photos taken by Zeljka Malobabic of Monroi (Zeljka has very kindly allowed these to be downloaded and used by the press). Later in the evening, the round one pairings became available. The action starts on 26 January 2010, with the Challengers and Amateurs events beginning at 10:00hrs (09:00 UK time) and the Masters at 15:00hrs (14:00 UK time). Follow the live action here at the official site: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2010/live/index.html

2010 Gibtelecom Festival

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:59:29 +0000

With Kasparov and Carlsen in Marrakech by Alice Mascarenhas, Gibraltar Chronicle As the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival opens next week, Brian Callaghan, organizer of the Gibtelecom Chess Festival met up with two of the most famous world chess players in Marrakech, Morocco, this past week, former World Chess Champion Russian Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian grandmaster and chess prodigy currently ranked number one in the world. These two world chess stars being together provided an opportunity to brief them on the development of chess in Gibraltar. In the picture with Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov are representatives from the local tournament sponsors; Tim Bristow, Gibtelecom, James Humphreys, Tradewise, and Pepe Canilla, Canillas. The next Gibraltar Gibtelecom International Chess Festival starts on Tuesday 26th January for 10 days and will see some 40 countries presented with some of the world’s leading chess players, including Etienne Bacrot from France, Sergei Movsesian Czech Republic, leading Spanish player Francisco Vallejo Pons, Gata Kamsky from the USA, with the British challenge led by Michael Adams. The current top women world players include World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, and the highest rated woman player Humpy Koneru. The Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar again plays host to the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival which offers a friendly gathering to this series of tournaments which run simultaneously: the Masters, the Challengers and the Amateurs. The Festival is now the leading tournament of its type in the world, with a prize fund of over £100,000 and is sponsored by the Gibraltar Government Sports and Leisure Authority, Gibtelecom, Anglo Hispano Co. Ltd., Bentley Property Services Ltd., Canillas, Casais, Gibmaroc Ltd., Deloitte, Gibro Group, Isolas, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, Party Gaming, Saccone & Speed, The Caleta Hotel and Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd. © 2010 Gibraltar Chronicle, Alice Mascarenhas

2010 Gibtelecom Masters: A Knight at the Opera

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:03:07 +0000

6 January 2010 John Saunders reports: I've just posted a list of the most recent entrants to the tournament (among them the Greek GM Stelios Halkias). Unfortunately, we have also lost a few prospective participants. Sadly, ex-women's world champion Zhu Chen and her husband Mohamad Al-Modiahki won't be coming after all due to a family illness. Three Russian GMs, Vitiugov, Romanov and Andreikin, have run into off-board time trouble - their visa applications have not been processed in time for them to appear. But the most intriguing withdrawal is Simen Agdestein's . He had a most original reason for not being in Gibraltar. We can reveal here for the first time that he's going to be taking part in an opera! Is there no end to the talents of the Norwegian grandmaster? It is well known that he was a soccer international and that he took part in Dancing with the Stars (see photo, right) on Norwegian TV. But is he now an all-singing, all-dancing grandmaster? Well, very nearly. Here is Simen himself on his off-board career after Dancing with the Stars: "I must admit it was enormous fun taking part in that program and very inspirational. Afterwards I started on amateur theatricals and also became interested in singing and such things. But I’m not going to sing [in the opera], just play a very minor role in the background." The opera is Richard Wagner's Tannhauser and it is being performed at the Norwegian Opera in Oslo. As usual, Simen believes in starting at the top. Next stop Bayreuth?

2010 Gibtelecom Masters: More Big Stars!

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:48:54 +0000

John Saunders reports: More big names have joined the field for the 2010 Gibtelecom Masters, which starts on 26 January and runs until 4 February. The January 2010 ratings have now been published and we know that our number one rated player is Etienne Bacrot (FRA 2713g), closely followed by Sergei Movsesian (SVK 2708g) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP 2705g). Other star names are Michael Adams (ENG 2694g) and Gata Kamsky (USA 2693g). The women's field has suddenly become stronger than ever. As well as world number two woman player Humpy Koneru (IND 2614g), we have the current Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS 2523g). Alexandra isn't the only world champion - we have the sensational brother and sister duo from Peru, Jorge and Deysi Cori Tello - Jorge is the world under-14 champion and on the brink of becoming a GM aged 14 - and Deysi is the world girls under-16 champion. Read all about these players and the rest of the phenomenal field here.

2010 Gibtelecom Masters: A New Star Joins the Competition

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:51:19 +0000

22 December 2009 John Saunders reports: We have a new star in the competition - Etienne Bacrot (FRA, 2700g) is in the line-up! At the moment he is number three in the rankings but when the January 2010 FIDE List is published, he could jump to number one as his prospective new rating is 2713. Etienne, of course, is one of the most remarkable prodigies in chess history, becoming a GM when he was only two months past his 14th birthday. He is also a six-times winner of the French Championship.

2010 Gibtelecom Masters: Who is the Favourite?

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:58:00 +0000

21 December 2009 John Saunders reports: Several players are vying for the honour of being favourite at the 2010 Gibtelecom Masters. On current ratings, the favourites are Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, rated 2718, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, rated 2711, Michael Adams of England, rated 2698, Gata Kamsky of the USA, rated 2695 and Nikita Vitiugov of Russia, rated 2694. But, in a few days time, the ranking order may change as FIDE issue the January 2010 rating list. I've had a sneak preview of the leading names at the FIDE Website and it looks like ratings are changing thus: Movsesian 2708, Vallejo Pons 2704.6, Adams 2694.4, Kamsky 2692.6, Vitiugov 2692.4... so it looks like no change, in fact. We won't know until the New Year, of course. One player moving up is Laurent Fressinet, who is on course for 2669.6. Amongst the women, Humpy Koneru is set to go up to 2613.6 making her the highest rated woman player who has ever played at Gibraltar.

2010 Gibtelecom Masters: Chess Journalist Leontxo Garcia Visits Gibraltar

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:40:36 +0000

3 December 2009 Top chess journalist Leontxo Garcia says Gibraltar is fast becoming one of the world’s chess capitals. He was in Gibraltar, giving his support to the Gibtelecom Chess Festival in early December 2009.

Gibtelecom/Times Chess Competition 2009/10

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:38:24 +0000

1 December 2009 The organisers of the Gibtelecom Chess Festival are offering Times (UK) readers two FREE five-day trips, including a double room in the Caleta Hotel during the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival. These are for the two best games submitted by readers by email to keenechess@aol.com by 19 December 2009. Each winner of two will be entitled to five nights free accommodation during the event at the Caleta Hotel.

Gibtelecom Chess Festival: What's New

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:11:50 +0000

06 December 2009: Another batch of names have been posted on the website today: Masters (2350+ ratings), Masters (below 2350), Challengers, Amateurs.