CZECH COAL CARLSBAD CHESS TOURNAMENT 2007
Hundred years of chess tournamentsIt has been exactly one hundred years since the first international chess tournament was held in the Czech countries. In 1907, the world chess top players gathered in Karlovy Vary and chess magazines in the whole world were singing their praises for months afterwards. For this anniversary, the civic association Prague Chess Society is organizing a grand master chess tournament called Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament 2007 in Karlovy Vary, where the chess elite will be present. The participation to this classical chess tournament will be the strongest in several decades compared to other competitions held in the Czech Republic.
From Friday September 7th to Saturday September 15th 2007, eight grand masters will challenge each other in the hotel Carlsbad Plaza. They were chosen carefully so that the tournament would host three players belonging to the current world top (rating over 2700 ELO points, GM Alexei Shirov, GM Ruslan Ponomariov and GM Vladimir Akopjan), two players as chess legends (GM Viktor Korchnoi and GM Jan Timman) as well as the best chess player of Czech Republic (GM David Navara), the best chess player of Slovakia (GM Sergej Movsesian) and the best Czech junior player (GM Viktor Láznička).
Standings after 5 rounds:
1-4. Navara, David g CZE 2656 3.0
1-4. Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2708 3.0
1-4. Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2706 3.0
1-4. Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2667 3.0
5-6. Laznicka, Viktor g CZE 2594 2.5
5-6. Timman, Jan H g NED 2560 2.5
7. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2735 2.0
8. Korchnoi, Viktor g SUI 2610 1.0
Official tournament site: http://www.nss.cz/web_site/carlsbad/en/index_en.php
Korchnoi is in bad shape.