ACP Golden Classic starts today

The ACP Golden Classic International Chess Tournament is being held in Bergamo, Italy, from 12 to 20 July 2014. The tournament is organized by Asd Caissa Italia and Società Scacchistica Bergamo and is the main event for 2014 in the agenda of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP). The field includes several among the world's top players, who are going to battle it out in a seven round robin tournament staged in the landmark Auditorium, right at the heart of the city of Bergamo.

Bergamo is a city in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Milan.
The foothills of the Alps begin immediately north of the town.

The town has two centres: the Città alta (upper city) is a hilltop medieval town surrounded by 17th-century defensive walls. It is connected to the Città bassa (lower city) by funicular/cable car, roads, and foot-paths.

Bergamo Una storia che racconterai2 – video impressions of Bergamo

Participants

All participants, one of which has not been announced yet, are GMs. Emil Sutovsky is also the President of the ACP; Sabino Brunello and Daniele Vocaturo are numbers two and three in the Italian ranking. The first edition of the ACP Golden Classics is won by Vassily Ivanchuk in Amsterdam 2012.

The players and officials before the start of the event

The tournament is a seven player round robin. The rate of play is 150 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next 16 moves, followed by 15 minutes to finish the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move in the last period.

The ACP Golden Classic tournament is bringing back the long forgotten tradition of adjourned games. If a game is not finished at the end of the first playing session (five hours), the arbiter will ask the player whose turn it is to move to adjourn the game and ‘seal’ his move. This does not apply to the last round.

Tie Breaks: 1. Result between tied players (two players only); 2. Koya System; 3. Sonneborn-Berger.

Schedule

Playing venue

The venue is the Auditorium di Piazza della Libertà on Via Norberto Duzioni in Bergamo

The auditorium is spacious and has ample seating

Preparations under way to convert this theatre into a chess tournament venue

Other events

In addition, the International Open “Città di Bergamo” will take place from 18th to 20th July, offering amateurs the chance to challenge some very well-known players from the international scene, such as former world junior champion GM Kiril Georgiev from Bulgaria and Serbian GM Ivan Ivanisevic, together with 23-year-old Italian champion GM Danyyil Dvirnyy and 22-year-old GM Axel Rombaldoni.

Good news: photos from the ACP Golden Classic will be provided by official photographer Lennart Ootes, which leads us to expect not just exciting chess but a visual feast from Bergamo.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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.