The 2008-09 Congress is taking place between December 28, 2008 through to January 5, 2009.
FM Steve Giddins reports on round 2 of the Hastings Masters
This year’s Official Programme for the Hastings Congress includes a list of all the past winners of the Premier/Masters, starting with the legendary Harry Nelson Pillsbury in 1895. Looking through the list, which includes almost all of the greats of 20th century chess, only three players have ever won the event in three successive years. Salo Flohr did it in 1931-33, a fact no chess writer ever mentions without also quoting his joke about believing he was supposed to win all three prizes one year, after he heard a lift attendant announce “First floor, second floor, third floor”. Some sixty years later, Flohr’s hat-trick was matched by Russian GM Evgeny Bareev, who triumphed in 1990-1992. The tournament’s triptych of hat-trick heroes is completed by Valery Neverov of the Ukraine, who has won the Hastings Masters, either outright or shared, in each of the last three years. He clearly has his sights set on eclipsing his two famous rivals, and establishing a fourth successive win, and yesterday he claimed his place on top board for today’s third round, after beating David Eggleston.
Here is the official website.
No longer a premiere event.
The last really strong Hastings Premier was 2002/3 won by Nielsen ahead of a whole host of very stromg GMs including Karjakin,Sashikiran,Harikrishna and McShane.In last place with 2/9 was GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky rated 2578!