Official website: http://www.ajedrezenvillarrobledo.es/
Villarrobledo chess 2009
Grishchuk, Shirov, Ponomariov and Bacrot top seeds
30 GMs are going to compete in what is pointing to be the strongest Ajedrez Villarrobledo rapid chess championship. The 2009 edition is featuring five players from the 2700 club – Alexander Grischuk, Alexei Shirov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot, and Ni Hua. Besides them, there ten players withing 100 ELO distance, including Arkadij Naiditsch, Daniel Friedman, Alexander Moiseenko, Vladislav Tkachiev, and Vadim Milov.
The event gets even more exciting than that with the participation of the legend Ljubomir Ljubojevic and the young women super star Yifan Hou. The Chinese talent is expected to give a simul right before the start of the competition.
Special attention should be paid to the local talents GM San Segundo, Im David Larino, and GM Vazquez.
The tournament will be a rapid Swiss event, taking place in Villarrobledo, Albacete, Spain. The dates are 25-26 July, 2009. As usual, the special prize for the winner will be from the sponsors weighting as much as the player. At the photo above, last year Topalov received kegs of wine weighting as much as him. Rounds will be played all day long. Games will be live at the official website, expect frequent updates on Chessdom.com.
Ponomariov wins Villarrobledo 2007
Topalov wins Villarrobledo 2008
Participants
1 GM Grischuk Alexander RUS 2733
2 GM Shirov Alexei ESP 2707
3 GM Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2727
4 GM Bacrot Etienne FRA 2721
5 GM Ni Hua CHN 2701
6 GM Naiditsch Arkadij GER 2697
7 GM Moiseenko Alexander UKR 2675
8 GM Fridman Daniel GER 2665
9 GM Milov Vadim SUI 2659 10 GM Tkachiev Vladislav FRA 2650
11 GM Granda Zuniga Julio E PER 2631
12 GM Khenkin Igor GER 2634
13 GM Potkin Vladimir RUS 2619
14 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2584
15 GM Vazquez Igarza Renier ESP 2570
Here is more info.
Grischuk is King!