Karpov, Ponomariov and Gelfand to play in Odessa

Karpov, Ponomariov and Gelfand to play in Odessa
by GM Mikhail Golubev

The 4th PIVDENNY BANK CHESS CUP will take place in Odessa, Ukraine from 30 May – 2 June 2008. The prize fund is USD 35,000. As usual, some of the world’s most famous chess players will compete in this rapid chess tournament. So far, Anatoly Karpov (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) have all confirmed their participation.

This year, the number of contestants will be reduced from 10 to 8, and the time control will be somewhat shortened, but in exchange, the grandmasters will play not one but two games against each other.

The winners of the three previous tournaments were:

2005 GM Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine)
2006 GM Joel Lautier (France)
2007 GM Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)

The main organiser of the tournament is Bank Pivdenny (en.bank.com.ua), which is the largest bank in the southern part of Ukraine. Pivdenny also organised the 2007 and 2008 ACP World Rapid Chess Cups, which were won by Peter Leko (Hungary) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), respectively.

The 4th Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup will be covered at the Pivdenny chess site, worldcup.pivdenny.com.