Chess Classic with Anand, Radjabov, Svidler, Aronian and Vaile

Chess Classic Mainz 2006 The event takes place from August 15 to 20 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. It includes matches and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like Anand, Aronian, Svidler, Radjabov, Kosteniuk and Pähtz participating.

View from last year's Classic, with the Open and two matches in progress

Schedule of events

Vishy Anand

Teimour Radjabov

• Grenkeleasing Rapid World Champioship
  This is the biggest attraction and has the world's number two (and rapid chess specialist) Vishy Anand, rated 2779, pitted against 19-year-old Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, rated 2728 and number 11 in the world rankings, in a rapid chess match over eight games. Format: eight Rapid Chess games (25 min/game + 10 sec/move increment). Schedule: two rounds a day from Thursday, August 17 to Sunday, August 20, with the rounds starting at 6:30 und 8:00 p.m. (5:30/7:00 p.m. London, 12.30/2:00 p.m. New York).

  
  Aronian vs Svidler in their Chess960 match in Mainz two years ago

• Clerical Medical Chess960 World Championship
  Here we have Peter Svidler of Russia playing Levon Aronian of Armenia in an eight-game Chess960 (Fischer Random) match. Svidler beat Peter Leko in a Chess960 match in 2003 and has defended his title in this discipline successfully since then. Aronian is currently the number three player in the world, Svidler is number five. Format: eight Chess960 games (25 min/game + 10 sec/move increment). Schedule: two rounds a day from Thursday, August 17 to Sunday, August 20, with the rounds starting at 6:30 und 8:00 p.m. The starting positions will be revealed about five minutes prior to the start of the games.

  
  Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Elisabeth Pähtz in a traditional rapid chess match in 2002

• Clerical Medical Chess960 World Championship for women, seniors and juniors
  These are eight-game Chess960 (Fischer Random) matches between Elisabeth Pähtz and Alexandra Kosteniuk (Women); Vastimil Hort and Lajos Portisch (Seniors) and Pentala Harikrishna and Arkadij Naiditsch (Juniors). Format: eight rounds, rate of play 20 min/game + 10 sec/move increment. Schedule: Tuesday, August 15 and Wednesday, August 16, with the rounds starting at 3:00, 4:15, 5:30 and 6:45 p.m.

• 5th FiNet Chess960 Open
  Rapid Chess960 Open, staged in the same hall as the GM matches. Format: eleven rounds, 20 min/game + 5 sec/move increment. Schedule: From 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 17 (registration, rounds 1-5) and Friday, August 18 (rounds 6-11, prize giving).

• 13th ORDIX Open
  Rapid Chess Open, staged in the same hall as the GM matches. Format: 20 min/game + 5 sec/move increment. Schedule: From 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 19 (registration, rounds 1-5) and Sunday, August 20 (rounds 6-11, prize giving).

One of the participants in the simultaneous exhibition is 26-year-old a rock singer Vaile, who is also a budding soap star (in the German series Marienhof). She will play against Levon Aronian, in the Chess960 start position 518, which is the one used in chess for over a millennium now. After the game Vaile will entertain visitors with an "unplugged gig".

• Simultaneous exhibitions
  Tuesday, August 15, 3:30 p.m.: 40 board simul given by Vishy Anand, and Wednesday, August 16, 3:30 p.m. simultaneous Chess960 exhibition on 20 boards (with 20 different starting positions) given by Levon Aronian.

• 2nd Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship
  This is a computer chess tournament in Chess960 (Fischer Random). Format: nine rounds, 25 min/game + 5 sec/move increment. Schedule: From 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 17 (rounds 1-5) and from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 18 (rounds 6-9).

• Exihition man vs machine matches
  Teimour Radjabov vs the chess program Shredder and Peter Svidler vs the Chess960 program Spike. The games will be played on Wednesday, August 15 from 10:30 a.m. to 13:30 p.m.

• Commentary
  Live commentary is by GMs Artur Jussupow, Eric Lobron, Vlastimil Hort, Rustem Dautov and Fabian Döttling.

Programme overview
Date	from	until	live games	Round	Time	View	Download
Clerical Medical Chess960 World Championships
15.08.2006	15:00	15:40	3	1.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
15.08.2006	16:15	16:55	3	2.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
15.08.2006	17:30	18:10	3	3.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
15.08.2006	18:45	19:25	3	4.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006	15:00	15:40	3	5.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006	16:15	16:55	3	6.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006	17:30	18:10	3	7.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006	18:45	19:25	3	8.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006			?	Tiebreak	5min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
Livingston Duelle Mensch-Maschine
16.08.2006	11:00	12:00	2	1.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
16.08.2006	12:30	13:30	2	2.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
Livingston Chess960 Computer-WM
17.08.2006	10:00	11:00	8	1.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	12:00	13:00	8	2.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	14:00	15:00	8	3.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	16:00	17:00	8	4.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	18:00	19:00	8	5.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	10:30	11:30	8	6.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	12:30	13:30	8	7.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	14:30	15:30	8	8.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	16:30	17:30	8	9.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
FiNet Open Chess960 WM-Qualifikation
17.08.2006	12:30	13:10	10	1.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	13:40	14:20	10	2.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	14:50	15:30	10	3.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	16:00	16:40	10	4.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	17:10	17:50	10	5.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	10:00	10:40	10	6.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	11:10	11:50	10	7.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	12:20	13:00	10	8.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	14:00	14:40	10	9.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	15:10	15:50	10	10.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	16:20	17:00	10	11.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship Clerical Medical Chess960 World Championship
17.08.2006	18:30	19:30	2	1.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
17.08.2006	20:00	21:00	2	2.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	18:30	19:30	2	3.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
18.08.2006	20:00	21:00	2	4.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	18:30	19:30	2	5.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	20:00	21:00	2	6.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	18:30	19:30	2	7.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	20:00	21:00	2	8.	25min+10sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006			?	Tiebreak	5min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
ORDIX Open
19.08.2006	12:30	13:10	10	1.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	13:40	14:20	10	2.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	14:50	15:30	10	3.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	16:00	16:40	10	4.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
19.08.2006	17:10	17:50	10	5.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	10:00	10:40	10	6.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	11:10	11:50	10	7.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	12:20	13:00	10	8.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	14:00	14:40	10	9.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	15:10	15:50	10	10.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN
20.08.2006	16:20	17:00	10	11.	20min+5sec	ONLINE	PGN

Links Official web site: in German and in English Course of events (PDF, German) Tournament plan 1 (PDF, English) Tournament plan 2 (PDF, English) Event details Registration Interview with Jens Beutel, Lord Mayor of Mainz Interview with Arkadij Naiditsch Mainz Chess Classic poster Chess Classic 2002, 2003 Chess Classic 2004 + the Carmen Kass story Chess Classic 2005