Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The traditional Gibraltar Chess Congress has begun! The 12th edition of this event is under way, but the main attraction - the Masters Section, will begin tomorrow. The Masters section entries are closed and the pairings are ready for the tournament to begin.
The tournament boasts a truckload of grandmasters, including 26 over 2600 and 9 over 2700! The winner of last year's edition, Nikita Vitiugov, returns to defend his title. He has very stiff competition including Adams, Vachier-Lagrave, Ivanchuk, Eljanov and many others, not to mention the second place finisher of last year's edition, Short who always seems to do well in this tournament.
What attracts these players to an open event? Well, besides the wonderful conditions provided in the tournament, including great weather, excellent organization and a high quality playing site, there are of course the prizes:
| Open to all | Prizes for best relative rating achievement | |||
| 1st Prize | £20,000 | Rating Band | 1st Prize | 2nd Prize |
| 2nd Prize | £14,000 | 2550-2649 | £3,000 | £2,000 |
| 3rd Prize | £12,000 | 2450-2549 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 4th Prize | £10,000 | 2350-2449 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 5th Prize | £6,000 | 2250-2349 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 6th Prize | £4,000 | 2150-2249 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 7th Prize | £3,000 | 2050-2149 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 8th Prize | £2,500 | Under 2050 | £2,000 | £1,000 |
| 9th Prize | £2,000 | A player may not win more than
one complete prize from this table. |
||
| 10th Prize | £1,000 | |||
| 11th Prize | £1,000 | |||
| 12th Prize | £1,000 | |||
How often do you find a under 2650 rating prize?
Gibraltar also attracts many of the top female players of the world. Famously the current World Women's Champion, Hou Yifan, scored a performance well over 2800 and finished second in the tournament two years ago. This year Zhao Xue, Muzychuk, Khotenashvili, Cramling, Cmilyte, Hoang Thanh Trang and many other top women are participating.
Zhao Xue and Muzychuk just finished their participation in the Challenger's section of Wijk Aan Zee, the Chinese with a less than successful event and the Slovenian with a solid fourth position. How will they do in the open format?
The women's prizes are very impressive as well:
| Open to all Women | |
| 1st Prize | £15,000 |
| 2nd Prize | £10,000 |
| 3rd Prize | £5,000 |
| 4th Prize | £3,500 |
| 5th Prize | £2,500 |
| 6th Prize | £2,000 |
| 7th Prize< | £1,500 |
| 8th Prize | £1,000 |
| 9th Prize | £600 |
| 10th Prize | £400 |
Pia Cramling and Bellon Lopez are one of the strongest chess marriages: both hold the GM title!
Their daughter participated in the Sachdev simultaneous exhibition
ex-World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (left) and the top Venezuelan
female Sarai Sanchez are two of the Masters section competitors
The official website will have live coverage of the tournament and will have commentary by the duo of GM Simon Williams and GM Irina Krush
The event doesn't only attract the top players in the world, it is also a festival to celebrate chess at all levels. The Amateur tournaments are already on their way with people from all over the world participating.
Irene Nicolas Zapata is the top u-18 female from Spain and is competing in the Amateurs
Maisa Nejanky (left) plays for far away Argentina!
To inaugurate the event a simultaneous exhibition was held for some of the players.
People lined up to play...
Stuart Conquest (left) is the tournament and festival organizer. Nothing would work without him.
Simen Agdestein showing off his skills in the exhibition...
he was joined by Indian super-star Tania Sachdev
the grandmasters in action!
both Cramling and Sachdev will be competing for the top female prize in the Masters
Finally we leave you with the incredibly tough first round for the top boards:
The tournament is so tough that board 100 features a grandmaster!
Follow the games live on the official website or on www.playchess.com
LinksThe games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
|
