2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival
The 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival takes place from Monday 24 January to Thursday 3 February 2011.
Entry forms and brochures are now available here. See the left-hand menu for other details.
For results, reports and games of the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival, click here.
Vassily Ivanchuk Plays in Gibraltar in 2011
8 August 2011: The big news about the 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar 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 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!
John Saunders
This is becoming a major event.