Apr 21 - Tradewise Gibraltar Festival Voted World’s Best Chess Event
Gibraltar's high reputation on the international chess circuit received a further boost this week with the news that the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) has voted the 2014 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival the best chess event of the year.
Over a thousand chess players, journalists, and organisers were eligible to vote in four categories - Round Robin, Open, Official and Rapid/Blitz - and then pick an overall winner. Although the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has now won Best Open for four years running, this is the first time that it has been voted overall winner and is considered the best chess tournament in the world.
Tradewise Gibraltar won against very strong competition. Second place went to the World Championship match (Magnus Carlsen v Vishy Anand), held in Sochi, Russia, while third best was judged to be the Qatar Masters, Doha. In fourth place came the Sinquefield Cup, St Louis, Missouri, and fifth position was awarded to the Golden Classic tournament in Bergamo, Italy.
The organisers of the festival are currently preparing their next major event, one which this year celebrates its fifth edition, the 2015 Gibraltar Junior International Chess Festival. The festival dates are August 20-25, and it is expected that more than a hundred young players, including many local children, will take part. In the light of the rapid progress being made by many of Gibraltar's junior players, this festival provides a valuable opportunity for further development of home talent at international level.
Next year's Tradewise festival will take place from January 25th to February 4th, 2016. Five times World Champion Vishy Anand, in what will be his first visit to the Rock, has confirmed his participation, while France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who nearly won the Tradewise Masters two years ago, is the second elite player to have so far signed up. The prize money, which this year totalled a record £175,000, will again be increased for 2016.
Thanks to generous and loyal support from Sponsors and Government, Gibraltar continues to set the pace in international chess. This year once again the support of Gibtelecom was key in ensuring coverage of the festival reached as wide an audience as possible, with total web activity, taken from the beginning to the end of the competition, measured at over 1.3 million visits.
In a general climate of fast-changing social media, and with an eye on how to push out the boundaries of future chess broadcasting, this year Gibtelecom and Tradewise took the innovative step of launching a daily video news show, 'The Day's Play', which not only promoted the festival but also put Gibraltar itself firmly in the spotlight.
Organisers say that being voted best in the world by ACP members is proof that for many of the most important and influential members of the global chess community, the Rock is leading the way.
James Humphreys, Chairman of Tradewise, is not in any doubt: "We always knew it was a world class act, now it's official!"
Pic: Tradewise Chairman James Humphreys makes the first move for World No. 4, Veselin Topalov, who was the top seeded player at the 13th edition of the Tradewise Chess Festival. Pic: Sophie Triay.
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