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If you wish to combine your holiday and chess activity then Velden is the right place for you. In fact the holiday part was so right for me, that I decided not to play in the tournament but follow the games and prepare a pictorial report for you.
A little bit about the geographical orientation of Velden: the Carinthian town of Velden has 2000 inhabitants and 7000 within its suburbs. Carinthia (German: Kärnten) is one of Austira’s nine provinces, and its capital is Klagenfurt. It is a southern province and is chiefly famous for its mountains and lakes. The Karawanken and Carnian Alps making up the border between Italy and Slovenia.
Carnian Alps: south-west border with Italy
Carinthia’s next important town is Villach and of course Pörtschach for
its celebrity guests.
Apparently, Princess Diana and The Iron Lady (Margaret Thatcher) stayed at this hotel, which is in Pörtschach and 15 minutes away by ferry from Velden. You may be pleased to know that you can take as many ferry trips as you like and go to the lakeside for a swim free of charge with your Carinthia card, providing you stay for three or more nights at any hotel, pension or guest house in a Carinthian town.
Can you spot the ferry in this picture? No? Then let us zoom in closer...
The pleasures of a 72x zoom lens. Okay, it's on a Panasonic DMC-FZ8
Velden hosted two candidate matches in the past; in 1980 when Korchnoi beat Petrosian and in 1983 when Smyslov beat Hübner in a tie-break by the spin of a roulette wheel at Casino Velden.
The venue of the chess festival
The weather was not so promising when we arrived in Velden, but I knew that wherever I’d go the sunny weather should follow me (apart from London). While trying to find our lodgings we saw a huge crowd in the centre of the town, to be more precise in front of the Casino Velden. To our great surprise there was a sport’s car festival!
A Morgen
Aero 8, I believe
A Lambor genie? Well, genies can surely fly!
Pleased to make your acquaintance. Ferrari, I assume?
Well assumed!
A town of parks and fountains
Always a great attraction: the floating marble ball
How the Italians love chess – they name their cafés after their
favourite player!
Actually the nickname for Morozevich is "Moroz", which aptly means "frost" in Russian. The above café sold mainly ice-cream. All simply a coincidence.
The beautiful façade of another restaurant in Velden
Hotel Schloss Velden on the banks of Lake Wörthersee
The playing hall, where the International Carinthian Chess Festival was
staged
Now let’s focus on Velden’s brief chess news! The International Carinthian Chess Festival was held from June 24 to July 1st. The field of the main tournament was equipped with eight GMs, one WGM, ten IMs, two WIMs, ten FMs and one WFM. Austrian IM Markus Rager (Elo 2498) scored 6.5 points out of 7 and looked like a potential winner. But in round eight Slovenian GM Dusko Povasovic (Elo 2567) and Austiran IM Georg Danner (Elo 2421) caught up with him and at the end and all three scored 7.0/9.
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts. | |
| 1 | IM | Ragger Markus | 2498 | AUT | 7,0 |
| 2 | GM | Pavasovic Dusko | 2567 | SLO | 7,0 |
| 3 | IM | Danner Georg | 2421 | AUT | 7,0 |
| 4 | GM | Stanec Nikolaus | 2504 | AUT | 6,5 |
| 5 | GM | Ermenkov Evgenij | 2500 | PLE | 6,5 |
| 6 | GM | Jedynak Radoslaw | 2538 | POL | 6,5 |
| 7 | IM | Sebenik Matej | 2483 | SLO | 6,5 |
| 8 | IM | Szabolcsi Janos | 2351 | HUN | 6,5 |
| 9 | GM | Horvath Jozsef | 2539 | HUN | 6,5 |
| 10 | IM | Belouadah Saad | 2292 | ALG | 6,5 |
| 11 | GM | Buhmann Rainer | 2581 | GER | 6,0 |
| 12 | IM | Dziuba Marcin | 2525 | POL | 6,0 |
| 13 | FM | Praznik Niko | 2341 | SLO | 6,0 |
| 14 | IM | Henni Mohamed | 2302 | ALG | 6,0 |
| 15 | Kavcic Zan | 2249 | SLO | 6,0 | |
| 16 | FM | Praznik Anton | 2292 | SLO | 6,0 |
192 players took part in the tournament
I must say that I was disappointed not being able to take any picture of the winner Markus Rager as he drew his last four games so swiftly, while others had spent just about five minutes on their clock. And I didn’t even know what he looked like, so I could not track him down in the playing hall…
Second place: Slovenian GM Dusko Povasovic
Polish GM Radoslaw Jedynak (Elo 2538) and next to him Hungarian GM Jozsef
Horvath (2539)
WGM Anya Corke (Elo 2154) from Hong-Kong shared women’s 1st prize
The youngest competitor, nine-year-old Alexandra Kogler of Austria, playing
in group C
Doodling while waiting for my pizza!
And now enjoy some more scenic pictures from Velden…
A view from a ferry trip
Beautiful houses on the waterfront
Peninsula Maria-Wörth am Wörthersee
A family of swans on the lake
That's me, posing on the ferry
The full moon "hanging over the Velden" on June 30, 2007 (the DMC-FZ8 has excellent image
stabilisation)
The organisers told me that they were thinking of making this tournament an annual event, but it would be either in June or in September. If it is in June 2008 then see you all there!
About
the author Born on 02.09.77 in Yerevan, Armenia, Meri Grigoryan was taught chess by her father and only coach. She became:
