Gibraltar Open starts tomorrow!

The traditional Gibraltar Chess Congress has begun! The 13th 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.

2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has traditionally been one of the strongest Opens in the World, and even though it recently has had great competition for that title (Qatar especially comes to mind) it is clear that Gibraltar still carries the torch.

Simply look at this monstrous top-30 list before the tournament starts:

Veselin Topalov will be the top seeded player. With his excellent Olympic performance and overall good year he is currently sitting at exactly 2800... when was the last time you saw a 2800 player playing in an Open event? The answer: This is the first time in history that this happens. (Excluding, of course, rapid events).

Hikaru Nakamura is never a player that settles for second best. Him being the second seed in this event and no longer being the highest rated American player in the live rating list (Wesley So took that from him in Wijk aan Zee) he will surely be fueled up to destroy his competition and reclaim his position at the top of the American rankings.

The tournament doesn't get any easier after that: Peter Svidler, Nikita Vitiugov and Dmitry Jakovenko come up as players 3-5, all strong Russian 2730+ players.

Besides the sheer strength in rating, the tournament is full of talent from around the World. Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi and Hou Yifan will all be participating in the event, the first two carried their team towards Olympic Gold in Tromso while Hou Yifan will be looking to get her last few points that she needs to surpass Judit Polgar in rating.

Speaking of breaking rating barriers, Wei Yi (above) is only a few points away from becoming the youngest player to ever soar past 2700.

The tournament attracts many of the World's top female players, and it is not hard to see why, the prize fund for them is massive:

Women can also "double dip" in the sense that if they win one of the "normal" prizes and one of the "women" prizes they will receive both.

Besides Hou Yifan, some of the top females include Ju Wenjun, the Muzychuk sisters, Pia Cramling, Antoaneta Stefanova, Irina Krush... only to name a few.

The festival is not only known for its Open section, however. There are plenty of Challenger and Amateur sections, blitz events, and overall a great fun atmosphere for the players. We will let this year's anchor, Tania Sachdev, explain in greater detail:

The tournament will have live commentary that can be followed on the official website. This year's team will be the dynamic duo of IM Elisabeth Paehtz and GM Simon Williams.

Some of the events have already begun, but the Open section will start tomorrow

The first event was a simultaneous exhibition by...

WGM Jovanka Houska and IM Salome Melia

Salome Melia and the man that makes everything happen in Gibraltar: GM Stuart Conquest

Meanwhile Tania Sachdev is busy interviewing half of Gibraltar

The opening ceremony will be tonight. We will be bringing you a report of that glamorous event alongside tomorrow's first round. For now, we leave you with the the pairings for tomorrow:

Links Official tournament site The 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.