2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival

[John Saunders]

The 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival takes place at the Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar, from Monday 24 January to Thursday 3 February 2011. The new primary sponsors, Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd, have enabled the prize fund to be increased to £126,000, with £17,500 going to the winner of the Gibraltar Masters, £10,000 to the top woman scorer and two extra rating prizes (of £2,000 and £1,000) being awarded to each of two further rating bands (2000-2099 and under 2000) in the Masters. The tournament will still be powered by previous primary sponsors Gibtelecom, but please note the name change as given in bold above.

The website for the 2011 tournament has now been launched at http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com

Tournament brochures and entry forms may be downloaded from the website in PDF and Word formats (brochure in PDF format: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... ochure.pdf and entry form in Word RTF format http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... ryform.rtf). The website also has full details of the travel and hotel arrangements for next year and contact details for getting in touch with the organisers and hotels.

Printed brochures of the 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival are also available from various sources, including the ECF.

There is also a new junior international congress being run in Gibraltar in 2011 (which is additionally to the usual junior competition which takes place on the weekend of 5-6 February immediately after the main chess festival). It is called the Gibraltar Junior International Chess Festival and runs from 19-22 August 2011 (six rounds) at the Caleta Hotel. There is a PDF download of the junior brochure at the Tradewise Gibraltar chess website (http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... junior.pdf).

[Matthew Peat]

Just checked out the list of entrants..........Ivanchuk wow!

Better start saving up the pennies.

[John Saunders]

Well done, Matthew - you scooped me!...

Vassily Ivanchuk Plays in Gibraltar in 2011

8 August 2011: The big news about the 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival line-up is that Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine will play. Ivanchuk, currently the world no.12, is one of the great characters of world chess and his presence adds prestige to the event.

Ivanchuk is one of three 2700+ rated players who have confirmed their participation in the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters. The others are Mickey Adams of England and Alexander Onischuk of USA. Mickey Adams returns as the reigning Gibraltar Masters winner. His Gibraltarian success was the start of a big upswing in form, culminating in his runaway triumph at the recent British Championship. American grandmaster Alexander Onischuk is rated 2701 and is coming to Gibraltar partly to act as coach to one of the most exciting young American players to emerge in recent years, Ray Robson. Robson will only be 16 when he sits down to play in Gibraltar but he secured the norms he needed for his GM title before turning 15.

Even though there are still five months to go before the tournament, the women's line-up already looks extremely strong. Heading the women's contingent is women's world no.2 Humpy Koneru of India is the top women's seed, with the strong Russian sisters Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva as her closest rivals in terms of rating. The two Russians have enjoyed the coaching services of Garry Kasparov's legendary former coach Yuri Dokhoian in recent years, so they will take some beating. Also in the line-up will be the 2010 and 2009 Gibtelecom Women's winners, Natalia Zhukova and Nana Dzagnidze respectively, plus Viktorija Cmilyte, European Women's Champion Pia Cramling and Ukrainian Olympiad gold medallist Inna Gaponenko.

The list of leading entrants can be found here. There will be more big names on the list in due course. Watch this space!

[kevin brown]

The entry list and events look very impressive. I was wondering about how many players double-up their playing commitment by entering the Masters AND the Challengers events? 20 games over 11 days is not a schedule I've done before - has anyone on the forum done this? it sounds appealing in a challenging sort of way but maybe it is only recommended for those with the boundless energies of youth? cheers,

[John Saunders]

A lot of people play both the Masters and the two Challengers events in Gibraltar.

You can check out the 2010 results here: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... index.html

I haven't done the arithmetic (being rather busy at the moment) but perhaps someone else can work out how many players play both morning and afternoon events.

[John Saunders]

As well as Ivanchuk, Mickey Adams will be back to try and make it two successive titles. The latest to confirm is Viktor Korchnoi. Not yet confirmed but we're expecting five of the top six rated women players - Judit Polgar doesn't play opens but if all goes well you can probably expect to see Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru and the two Kosintseva sisters, plus the regulars such as Stefanova, Cramling, Cmilyte, etc. Again, no promises, but we usually have legendary guests making private visits: Spassky has been in attendance the last two years and Magnus Carlsen came to be with his Norwegian mates for the last couple of days in 2010.

[Alex Holowczak]

The entry list and events look very impressive. I was wondering about how many players double-up their playing commitment by entering the Masters AND the Challengers events? 20 games over 11 days is not a schedule I've done before - has anyone on the forum done this? it sounds appealing in a challenging sort of way but maybe it is only recommended for those with the boundless energies of youth? cheers,

Several juniors play in the junior section + Major Open/Championship at the British Championship. That schedule means they play 17 games in 11 days. So it can be done...

[kevin brown]

A lot of people play both the Masters and the two Challengers events in Gibraltar.

You can check out the 2010 results here: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... index.html

I haven't done the arithmetic (being rather busy at the moment) but perhaps someone else can work out how many players play both morning and afternoon events.

Many thanks for the reply, John and also to Alex for his reply and additional info too. I had started to look at the previous results but my laborious and no doubt inefficient search method didn't locate many and was painfully slow so I gave up! I'll have another go though. I guess I was wondering if there was an acknowledged wisdom amongst Festival-goers that playing in both Masters and Challengers was 'only for the youthful' but that seems not to be the case! Thanks again,

cheers

[Sean Hewitt]

There is definitely a good number of non-youthful players who do play both. Certainly, most of the top finishers in the Challengers will play the Masters too - and they are not all kids either (except the Norwegians of course!).

[kevin brown]

There is definitely a good number of non-youthful players who do play both. Certainly, most of the top finishers in the Challengers will play the Masters too - and they are not all kids either (except the Norwegians of course!).

Thanks Sean, playing in both certainly now sounds a viable option for this non-youthful, non-Norwegian!
cheers,

[John Saunders]

The line-up for the 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is getting stronger by the minute...

The latest big name to join up is Nigel Short. This is great news for the tournament in more ways than one as, besides being a great player (current rating 2690), Nigel always gives very good value in the commentary room after games! The women's list is particularly strong with five of the top six women players in the world. Here are the 2500+ rated players.

• Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2754 M
  Adams, Michael GM ENG 2728 M
  Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2697 M
  Short, Nigel GM ENG 2690 M
  Onischuk, Alexander GM USA 2688 M
  Georgiev, Kiril GM BUL 2685 M
  Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2683 M
  Feller, Sebastien GM FRA 2649 M
  Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2645 M
  Iordachescu, Viorel GM MDA 2632 M
  Koneru, Humpy GM IND 2593 M
  Hou Yifan GM CHN 2578 M
  Kosintseva, Tatiana GM RUS 2573 M
  Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav GM RUS 2571 M
  Kacheishvili, Giorgi GM GEO 2568 M
  Kosintseva, Nadezhda IM RUS 2565 M
  Stefanova, Antoaneta GM BUL 2551 M
  Korchnoi, Viktor GM SUI 2548 M
  Robson, Ray GM USA 2539 M
  Dzagnidze, Nana GM GEO 2534 M
  Speelman, Jon GM ENG 2524 M
  Harika, Dronavalli IM IND 2515 M
  Cmilyte, Viktorija GM LTU 2513 M
  Cabrera, Alexis GM ESP 2512 M
  Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2509 M

"M" stands for "playing in the Masters" by the way. Ignore it...

[John Saunders]

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival website was updated today with more names of the 'rank and file' competitors (if they don't mind me referring to them as that!).

Click on the link below to see the complete list of competitors to date:

http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... whois.html

Here are the 2500+ rated competitors.
(I'm hearing whispers of another 2700+ rated player taking part but cannot divulge the name yet)

Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2764 M
Adams, Michael GM ENG 2723 M
Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2698 M
Sasikiran, Krishnan GM IND 2688 M
Onischuk, Alexander GM USA 2683 M
Short, Nigel GM ENG 2680 M
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2678 M
Nielsen, Peter Heine GM DEN 2670 M
Georgiev, Kiril GM BUL 2669 M
Feller, Sebastien GM FRA 2657 M
Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2645 M
Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2636 M
Iordachescu, Viorel GM MDA 2632 M
Akobian, Varuzhan GM USA 2618 M
Gopal, GN GM IND 2609 M
Koneru, Humpy GM IND 2600 M
Hou Yifan GM CHN 2591 M
Felgaer, Ruben GM ARG 2591 M
Kosintseva, Tatiana GM RUS 2581 M
Kosintseva, Nadezhda IM RUS 2576 M
Kacheishvili, Giorgi GM GEO 2575 M
Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav GM RUS 2571 M
Dzagnidze, Nana GM GEO 2551 M
Korchnoi, Viktor GM SUI 2548 M
Stefanova, Antoaneta GM BUL 2548 M
Robson, Ray GM USA 2539 M
Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2526 M
Harika, Dronavalli IM IND 2525 M
Speelman, Jon GM ENG 2524 M
Cabrera, Alexis GM ESP 2518 M
Cmilyte, Viktorija GM LTU 2514 M

[robert rough]

The entry list and events look very impressive. I was wondering about how many players double-up their playing commitment by entering the Masters AND the Challengers events? 20 games over 11 days is not a schedule I've done before - has anyone on the forum done this? it sounds appealing in a challenging sort of way but maybe it is only recommended for those with the boundless energies of youth? cheers,

Several juniors play in the junior section + Major Open/Championship at the British Championship. That schedule means they play 17 games in 11 days. So it can be done...

I am playing both Challenger events in the mornings and Masters in the afternoon, I did the same last year, very tiring as I am no junior , however, I really enjoyed the games.

[John Saunders]

The list of players was updated today at the website: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... whois.html

You can now keep track of Gibraltar chess happenings via Facebook and Twitter.

Big Names

Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2764 M
Adams, Michael GM ENG 2723 M
Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2698 M
Sasikiran, Krishnan GM IND 2688 M
Bologan, Viktor GM MDA 2686 M
Onischuk, Alexander GM USA 2683 M
Short, Nigel GM ENG 2680 M
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2678 M
Moiseenko, Alexander GM RUS 2670 M
Georgiev, Kiril GM BUL 2669 M

Top Women Players

Hou Yifan GM CHN 2591 w M
Kosintseva, Tatiana GM RUS 2581 w M
Kosintseva, Nadezhda IM RUS 2576 w M
Dzagnidze, Nana GM GEO 2551 w M
Stefanova, Antoaneta GM BUL 2548 w M
Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2526 w M
Harika, Dronavalli IM IND 2525 w M
Cmilyte, Viktorija GM LTU 2514 w M
Krush, Irina IM USA 2495 w M
Zatonskih, Anna IM USA 2478 w M
Zhu Chen GM QAT 2477 w M
Pogonina, Natalia WGM RUS 2472 w M
Gaponenko, Inna IM UKR 2469 w M
Shen Yang WGM CHN 2461 w M
Melia, Salome IM GEO 2449 w M
Zhukova, Natalia GM UKR 2447 w M
Javakhishvili, Lela IM GEO 2438 w M
Houska, Jovanka IM ENG 2421 w M

[Phil Neatherway]

The tournament will be an interesting test of Short's bouncebackability!