BREAKING NEWS:China can host a Grand Slam chess tournament in 2010
The city of Seattle, USA will join The Grand Slam next year in 2009
One of the founders of the Grand Slam Chess Association and Director of the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters Silvio Danailov would like to see China hosting a Grand Slam tournament in the near future, most likely in 2010.
“The Grand Slam has already 3 tournaments in Europe and one in Latin America – Mexico City. From next year – 2009, USA will join the Grand Slam with a super tournament in Seattle with prize fund of USD 750 000. I think it would be perfect if the 6th tournament takes place in Asia, especially in China”, Danailov said.
China is not only becoming an economic power but also a chess power and the number of the fans of this sport is increasing quickly in that country. This is very noticeable as Chinese media are presently paying a lot of attention to M-Tel Masters 2008 that is currently taking place in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The tournament’s official web site http://www.mtelmasters.com/ has a complete version in Chinese, which happens for the first time in the history of super chess tournaments. This way chess fans in China can read news and interviews about the competition in their own language, follow the games live and also the performance of the Chinese player Bu Xiangzhi that is participating in this year’s edition of the traditional tournament.
Sponsors might be attracted not only by the Chinese market, but also by the publicity they can get from the international coverage that a high-class tournament receives from the foreign media.
Conversations with local partners have already started and are expected to continue in the near future, looking for China to become host of a Grand Slam Chess Association tournament.
For further information: Dimitar Naydenov, 00359887462873, press@mtelmasters.com
How come the USCF website doesn’t talk about this news? I don’t get it. Is the USCF interested in promoting chess at all?
Concerning China, especially, this is really history in the making. Bravo Danailov and I am so excited about a Grand Slam in USA!
Best wishes
A. Weiler
Show me the money!
May be it is the same $750,000
which were send from Kamsky-Topalov match in Lviv, Ukrain :-))
Really it is a pity that USA could not run FIDE Grand Prix Event, even in 2009; it could be the great chance to Nakamura to join the World elite, look as home boy Gashimov just played in Baku; for him it was really breaking through
I think a Grand slam in USA with that kind of price is just unfair to the players in US that play in a US championship with practically not prize money whatsoever, if it had not been for Berry there would not be US championship at all, now they are going to do a US $750,000 Grand slam infront of his face to pay all these european players. I am sorry, but I don’t think it is fair to US chess players
The USCF pissed off Erik Andersson after he invested millions of dollars in US chess. So now Mr. Andersson will put his money with the Bulgarians and FIDE. Well done USCF!
Anon 11:16am
Why is it unfair? The players had an option to play in the US Champs that a private sponsor put up and they chose not to.
They do nothing to make themselves more marketable. 90% of the players at that level are prima donna’s that are worthless to sponsors as spokes people, etc.
Perhaps the players should also change their personalities in order to make themselves more marketable, instead of excuses being made for them.
People like Joel Benjamin, with his ego-maniacial personality, or Burger King boy Nakamura who thinks the world owes him something. Why haven’t they gone to companies for marketing / promotional deals – it’s because THEY DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO OFFER – THEY SUCK IN THIS PERSPECTIVE WHICH IS ALL THAT SPONSORS CARE FOR.
maybe you are right 11:35, I notice how at chessfm at the ICC they still insist on playing classical music intro and on the breaks when they very well know that the majority of viewers are people who would rather be listening to something else, maybe US players like Benjamin insist on portraiting themselve as hyper classy guys when they should be trying to come closer to the expectators instead. that may be one of the reason why they are pissing sponsors off (if you are a stuck up GM who thinks is above everything and everybody screw you kind of thing)
I have to take off my hat to Fischer in that respect, Fischer still visited the Marshall chess club and play chess fans there even after he had become several times US champion
Danailov is tha man. He leads the Chess in the right direction for its development. High profile tournaments, with large sponsors and prizes. Make the chess a professional sport and you will soon see many young people dreaming of making a career out of it as professional chess players. I am very surprised that the richest country in the world is so behind in chess at the moment though. You have the money. What’s the problem with chess in the USA?
Unfortunatelly the Grand Prix and Grand Slam will/are colide/ing. It’s too much and each player will have to decide in which series he is going to participate. Grand prix is a part of WCC cycle and Grand Slam has a bigger prize fund (or so it seems). Either way we won’t see the best players competing against each other because some will chose Grand Slam and others Grand Prix.
Look forward so learning how Seattle got on the Grand Slam list of events. Noting else on the Internet yet that I could find other than Susan’s post.
Probably USCF does not know anything about the event. Hopefully the Washington Chess Federation can be involved. Lots of known chess people helped with the US Championships held in Seattle but a lot of new folks helped also.
Seattle is a crappy site for any sort of major chess event. It’s a miserable city and has one of the highest suicide rates in the country.
If AF4C is involved they will soon learn that dealing with Danilov is like dealing with the devil himself.