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Anyone looking for history and cultural activity will also be attracted to the Canary islands, which Herodotus called the Garden of Hesperides, Homer the Elysian Fields and Pliny the Fortunate isles. And although Cararias, unlike mainland Spain, did not stand under Moorish influence, the islands have become a modern-day hotbed for chess.
The First Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival combines the historical chess background of the Canary Islands with the modern communications technology of Internet Chess ("en Red" means "on the web"). Players from all over the world can compete for a prize fund of US $5,600 = €4.800 – or just to enjoy being part of the global chess community.
The Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival will be held from Monday May 3rd until Sunday May 9th, 2004 on the Playchess.com server, in the special Canarias en Red tournament rooms.
To play in this tournament you can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download a free trial client. |
Five qualifiers will be held from Monday May 3rd to Friday May 7th at 20:00h server time (=CET, GMT +2). You do not need to book a place in advance, simply go to the tournament room at the specified time and click "Join". It is possible to play in more than one qualifier.
The qualifiers are open to players who have the rank of pawn or higher. The qualifiers will be 13 round Swiss tournaments with a rate of play of three minutes for each side plus one second increment per move. In case of ties the Buchholz points decide which players will proceed to the finals.
The top eight players in each qualifier can play in the final on Sunday, May 9th. In addition the two best Spanish players will qualify. Note that these players must have proper names, addresses and a Spanish flag in their personal data sheet (press F2 on the server). They must also be logged in through a Spanish IP. There will also be some qualifiers from tournaments which are being staged for players from the Canary Islands.
The final will be held on Sunday, May 9, at 12:00h server time (=CET, GMT +2). This is the time for registering, not the start of the games.
The first part of the final will be a 13 round Swiss tournament with a rate of play of three minutes for each side plus one second increment per move. The top eight scorers (Buchholz tiebreaks) proceed to the play-off finals. This consists of four game knockout matches, with the same rate of play (3 + 1).
The winner takes the first prize of US $1,575 = €1,350.
| Winner | € 1,350.00 |
| Second | € 700.00 |
| Two semi-finalists | € 450.00 each |
| Four quarter-finalists | € 250.00 each |
| Places 9, 12, 17, 23, 27, 33 | € 50.00 each |
| Best Spaniard | € 200.00 |
| Second best Spaniard | € 75.00 |
| Best Canary Island player | € 200.00 |
| Second best Canary player | € 75.00 |
The Canary Islands are Spain's tropical paradise, synonymous with holidays for hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists who pack the islands' resorts all year round. Colonized and populated by Spaniards, they lie 1,150km off the coast of Africa. They are politically and administratively Spanish and yet culturally and geographically they have very much their own personality.
The Canaries today consist of seven islands, Tenerife being the largest (2,057 sq km, population 750,000). Within the entire archipelago there is a variety so extreme that it is easiest to refer to it as a mini-continent. The isles share an eternal spring climate but they differ dramatically amongst each other. Exploring the Canaries you move from sub-tropical vegetation to volcanic semi-deserts, from verdant cliffs and gorges to sand dunes by the sea shore.
