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Calvià
I Chess Festival
de Ajedrez 2004
November 1st – 9th 2004 |
Calvià is not satisfied with hosting a Chess
Olympiad, it is continuing with an ambitious tournament calendar which includes
the First Chess Festival de Ajedrez 2004, which is currently under way. 122
players from 34 different countries have collected in Calvià –
from Estonia, Netherlands, Indonesia, Argentina, Chile, Philippines, Urugauy,
Paraguay, Spain, England, Germany, Croatia, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Costa Rica, Serbia
and Montenegro, Israel, Sweden, Austria, Bangladesh, France, Colombia, Poiland,
Azerbaijan, Morocco, Italy, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Iraq, Mexico, Venezuela,
Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. "If these people meet anywhere in
the world," the tournament bulletin says, "they can only communicate
with signs. But in front of the chessboard they are able to experience together
the exciting adventure of exploring the mysterious byways of the Grünfeld
or the Sicilian, to deeply understand the plans of the opponent, expressed through
the movement of an arm and the change of position of a piece on the imaginary
battlefield." The bulletin also quotes a memorable thought of Siegbert
Tarrasch:
"I feel some pity for those who pass through life without discovering
the beauties of chess. Because chess, like music, like love, has the virtue
to make people happy."

The festival is being held in one of the buildings of the Polideportivo de
Magaluf, a giant sports complex, where we can see tennis and basketball being
played.

Tennis at night in the Polideportivo de Magaluf

The main section in the playing hall

Top seed Sergey Tiviakov (right) of the Netherlands in round five

GM Zenon Franco Ocampos of Paraguay, who won his first three games

Young English talent David Howell (13) is working on his Elo to claim his IM
title

Another Brit, Stuart Conquest, who also started with a clean score

A special section for the blind, with pegged chess sets and audio clocks.
Links
Sepcial report: pictures from the island

The island of Mallorca, with the district of Calvià

The bay of Magaluf, where the main hotels and venue of the Olympiad were
located

The hotel rooms in the players' hotel

Flamenco display in the evening

The beach front directly next to the Sol Antillas/Barbados hotels

Snorkeling in the crystal-clear 21°C waters in the early days of November!

4000-foot high mountains, which lunatic tourists will spend five hours scaling

The view from the top of a 4000-foot mountain

Peacocks in the Reserva (natural reserve) Mallorca on the Puig de Galatzó

A well-fed, relaxed and contented bear, looking very much like
a GM in the hotel lounge after a 1-0 game, dinner and a few drinks.

A friendly young free-flying mouse buzzard named Eva
Pono's pictures
The following pictures were taken by budding photographer (and FIDE ex
world champion) Ruslan Ponomariov, who is the proud owner of a Nikon Coolpix
4500. Ruslan has learnt how to press the shutter release button and, economically,
nothing else. Here are his fledgeling photographic attempts.

A nice picture of the hotel by the bay in Magaluf (Calvià)

A grandmaster friend making aquaintance with The Waves

The swimming pool of the hotel, as seen by the Coolpix 4500

A little photoshopping ages the picture to the nostalgic style Ruslan prefers

The photographer catches himself (arrow) in a mirrored wall

We did say "budding photographer", didn't we? Full bloom still to
come...

We look forward to receiving lot of interesting pictures
by Ruslan from all over the world.
Links