Jan 27 - Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is back!
We are back! Unbelievably 2014 is already the 12th edition of the Gibraltar International Chess Festival sponsored by Tradewise.
The Tradewise Chess Festival 2014 is the biggest tournament yet with some 70 Grandmasters from all over the world.
The number of entries in the Amateur and Challenger events has also risen with a record high of around 130. Perhaps the most impressive figure is the number of different federations represented this year numbering 60.
The oldest competitor is George Ellison from England who is attending the festival for the first time. He is 81. Our youngest, Viviana Galván Cipriani, from Spain, is only 9.
There are players from Mongolia who have made the journey: our first ever participants from this nation. Six Chinese are taking part, including 14-year old Wei Yi, already ranked number ten in his country, as well as last year's top female, Zhao Xue.
The 2013 champion, Nikita Vitiugov, whose exceptionally cool nerves under pressure led Grandmaster commentator Simon Williams to dub him the 'Iceman', also returns to the Rock, as does Nigel Short, who so nearly won again last year.
Michael Adams, UK number one and world number 13, will have his own ideas about the destination of the £20,000 top prize, as will Vassily Ivanchuk, from the Ukraine, who holds the Gibraltar record score of 9/10, set in 2011.
Former Russian women's champion Natalia Pogonina, who has over 100,000 Twitter followers, makes her second visit. She tweeted favourably about Gibraltar recently.
As always the week will be jam packed with surprises always in a friendly, family atmosphere which has made the tournament unique in the world.
For all information, as well as live commentaries, Masterclasses, and interviews, the dedicated festival website, powered by Gibtelecom, is www.gibraltarchesscongress.com - well worth checking out on a daily basis.
The festival venue is the Caleta Hotel. The festival closes on Thursday, February 6th, with a banquet and prizegiving ceremony.
Photo attached: by Sophie Triay
