Super GM
Tournament
in Sofia
World's top
six players
clash in the M-Tel Masters
May
11 to 22, 2005
in the Grand Hotel Sofia, Bulgaria
|
|
A new tournament is on the horizon, one that is set to challenge the supremacy
of Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Dortmund. The M-Tel Masters Super Tournament is
part of the ten-year anniversary of the Bulgarian mobile phone company Mobiltel,
and is set to take place every year.
For the inaugural event, from May 11 to 22 this year, the participants will
be six top GMs, who will play a double round robin at classical time controls.
The players are:
| Viswanathan Anand |
India |
2786 |
2 |
| Veselin Topalov |
Bulgaria |
2757 |
3 |
| Vladimir Kramnik |
Russia |
2754 |
4 |
| Michael Adams |
England |
2741 |
7 |
| Judit Polgar |
Hungary |
2728 |
9 |
| Ruslan Ponomariov |
Ukraine |
2700 |
16 |
The last column shows their world ranking (Judit Polgar was not on the FIDE
world ranking list due to a one-year maternity leave from the game). The tournament
reaches the 20th category according to FIDE and, with an Elo average of 2744
will be the strongest this year world-wide. An overall winner of the tournament
will be found by tie-break if there is a draw at the top.
Silvio Danailov, one of the main organisers of the M-Tel event
The event is being staged by “Mobiltel” and “Kaissa Chess
Management”, an agency run by GM Silvio Danailov, manager of Bulgaria's
top GM Veselin Topalov. It will be staged in the five-star Grand
Hotel, located in the middle of Sofia, in walking distance of the National
Theatre, Art Gallery, Concert Hall, Opera House and all the famous landmarks
of the capitol of Bulgaria.
On the rest day Veselin Topalov will give a simultaneous exhibition for chess
fans at the garden in front of the National Theater, on ten marble chess tables
set up by Mobiltel for the garden. this is the second big chess event sponsored
by Mobiltel. In February last year the mobile operator organized a TV
exhibition match between the rapid chess World Champion Viswanathan Anand
and Veselin Topalov.
No draws allowed!
There is something very special about this Super-Tournament in Sofia. In many
events with top players there tend to be a large number of draws. In order
to avoid this situation the Bulgarian organisers have simply decided to ban
draws from their tournament – more specifically, to eliminate draw offers.
This is how it works:
- A draw by mutual agreement between the players is forbidden.
- No player is permitted to speak to his opponent or offer him a draw
- A player can claim the draw only in case of perpetual check, threefold
repetition and if the position is a theoretical draw.
- The draw offer is made to the arbiter, who is the only person who can decide
the outcome of the game.
- The arbiter will be advised by a strong Grandmaster.
The chief arbiter of the event is Joaquin Espejo (Spain), deputy arbiters
are Boris Postovski (USA) and Panaqiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). The GM advisor
is Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Georgia), FIDE Vice President.
Links