Gibraltar: Another January tradition

17th Gibraltar Masters

On Tuesday, this year's Gibraltar International Chess Festival starts in Gibraltar, as always with an excellent cast. Nearly 250 players take part in the Masters, fourteen of whom have an Elo rating over 2700, including absolute world-class players such as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Yu Yangyi and Hikaru Nakamura. The tournament seems to grow stronger every year.

Another longstanding trend is the significant participation of women in the Open, as excellent special prizes for the best women in the field have been a regular feature since its inception. World Champion Ju Wenjun leads the ranks of the top female grandmasters. Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Goryachkina are all further candidates for the dedicated prize of GBP £15,000 (about EUR €17,000). The winner of the tournament gets £25,000 (around EUR €28,350).

In addition to the Masters, there are two groups of Challengers and two Amateurs tournaments are offered. 

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

IM Tania Sachdev previews the 2019 festival | Photo: John Saunders

Amid the opening festivities at the Caleta Hotel, Wesley So and Kateryna Lagno gave simultaneous exhibitions.

Simultaneous exhibition

Wesley So and Kateryna Lagno with Ryan Lane (son of IM Gary Lane) | Photo: John Saunders

Players starting rank (top 40)

...250 Players

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-results)