Turkish Championship in historical Pendik

The Turkish Championship begins

2006 Turkish Chess Championship will begin in Pendik/Istanbul tomorrow by the sponsorship of Pendik Municipality. It will be a round robin tournament and has 14 participants. The championship is taking place in Pendik Town, which is on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.

Two strong GMs, Mikhail Gurevich and Suat Atalik, are playing in the tournament. There are also four IMs, one WGM and one FMs. The tournament is sponsored with 15.000 YTL (€10.000) by the Pendik Municipality.

Stars: GM Suat Atalik, WGM Ekaterina Atalik nee Polovnikova, GM Mikhail Gurevich

History of Pendik

Pantikape Pendik is undoubtedly one of the oldest sites of the area. Traces of dwellings going back to 5,000 BC have been found at this location. There are traces of Macedonian settlements from 4,000 years ago, a Roman settlement from 753 BC, amongst many others. In 1080, the town was taken over by the Seljuk Turks, and recaptured by the Byzantines in 1086. During the Byzantine era, the place was called "Pantikion" or "Pentikion". The oldest names known, however, are "Pantikapion" and "Pantikapeum".

Traditionally Pendik's population lived on farming and fishery, but today they are traditional Turkish working class, employed in regular industrial production companies. Pendik has many exclusive apartments with sea view along the coast. Its population is 390,000 and its mayor is Erol Kaya.

The view of Istanbul islands and Marmara sea

The famous Turkish cuisine, that will be offered to all players

Tournament hall has wonderful view of Istanbul island’s and Marmara sea. Matches will be broadcast live on the Turkish Chess Federation web site, where you can also watch the tournament hall by webcam.

Chief Arbiter and Turkish Chess Federation Board member Özgür Solakoğlu says that this tournament will be the strongest Turkish Chess Championship ever organized and it shows the fantastic development of Turkish Chess. The event starts on March 11th, 2006. The games will be played every day at 15:00h local time (13.00 GMT). It ends on March 25th.

The list of participants of the 2006 Turkish Chess Championship

• Official Web Site
• Live broadcast