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16th Chess Tournament
"CIUDAD DE LEON" 2003
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In a press conference at the Newspaper "Marca" in Madrid the organisers
of revealed plans for this year's "Ciudad de León" tournament.
In the presence of FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov and the world number
four player Veselin Topalov, Marcelino Sión Castro announced that this
year the 16th Ciudad de León would be held from June 5th to June 9th,
2003, in the city of León, Spain. But it would be an Active Chess tournament
and not a computer assisted event as in the past. In the previous five years
León had staged Advanced
Chess events, of which one was won by Kasparov, three by Anand and the
last by Vladimir Kramnik.
Ruslan Ponomariov, who at the press conference said he would never play Advanced
Chess with a computer. He also mentioned that he had not played well in Linares
because he had been distracted by FIDE negotiations regarding his upcoming
match with Garry Kasparov.
Veselin Topalov said the new Rapid Chess system was at least as valid as the
previous one. He said that the only thing that would be really odd for him was
to play against people with half his age (one of the participants, Karjakin,
is just 13).
The participants
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GM Veselin Topalov, Elo 2743, Bulgaria. The 4th
player in the last rating list, a very attractive player for the chess fans,
his aggressive and ultra sharp style is highly appreciated by the chess
enthusiasts. He defeated Kasparov several times and drew an advanced chess
match with him at the Ciudad de Leon tournament 1998. He is one of the local
heroes not only because he lives at the neighbour and also beautiful
city of Salamanca, specially thanks to his kindness and exquisite behaviour
at the board. |
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GM Ruslan Ponomariov, FIDE World Champion, Elo
2734, Ukraine. Ponomariov is the successor of Viswanathan Anand as World
Champion, with only 19 years old he is firmly established as one of the
top players of the world, and became the youngest ever World Champion after
defeating Vassily Ivanchuk at the final. This is his first attendance to
León. |
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GM Francisco Vallejo, Grandmaster, Elo 2629, Spain.
The most promising player of Spain, he is only 20, but he is already reaching
the highest levels of chess mastery. Our young Grand Master was World Champion
under 18 in 2000, and faced the strongest opposition at the most important
tournament of the world, Linares, in 2002 and 2003. He defended the first
board of the national team at the Olympiad of Slovenia 2002 proving he is
very near to the top. |
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GM Sergey Karjakin, Elo 2547, Ukraine. The youngest
Grand Maser of History, he was only 12 years when he broke the records previously
held by Bobby Fischer and Judith Polgar, he is a serious contender for the
title of World Champion in a not so far future. He is trainer of the World
Champion Ruslan Ponomariov, who describes Karjakin as a tactical chess
genius |
The venue will be, as usual, the building "Edificio de la Junta de Castilla
y León". The players will have 20 minutes for the game with 10 seconds
increase after each move. The schedule is as follows:
- Friday June 6th: First Semi final Topalov vs Karjakin
- Saturday June 7th: Second Semi final Ponomariov vs Vallejo
- Sunday June 8th: Final
Arbiter: Joaquín Espejo Maqueda.
Press chief: GM Zenón Franco Ocampos.
The official webs are: www.advancedchessleon.com
and www.elajedrezdelfuturo.com
