Zurich Chess Club
Press Release dated November 22, 2016
Kortchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge and Kortchnoi Open
Because GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had to cancel his participation in the Grandmaster Tournament in honor of the chess legend Viktor Kortchnoi for personal reasons, we have the pleasure to announce the participation of GM Boris Gelfand, who was a good and closed friend of Kortchnoi. From April 13th to April 17th 2017 the world elite of chess will meet again at the Kongresshaus Zurich and at the same time many chess friends from all over the world are expected in a Open Tournament. Spectators are welcome, the entrance is free.
Zurich Chess Club
Press Release October 27th 2015
Zurich Chess Challenge 2016: promotion of a new time control
From 12 to 15 February 2016 the world chess elite will arrive again in Zurich for the fifth edition of the Zurich Chess Challenge at the Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville.
The oldest chess club in the world and its honorable member Oleg Skvortsov suggest a most important innovation for the future of new classical chess with a new time control of 40 minutes per game with additional 10 seconds for each move. We think that in the future classical chess could pass to 1 hour control for each player. We have come to the conclusion that the game needs to become faster. We preserve the Zurich system of point control but for another format. There are 2 points for a
victory, 1 point for a draw in new classical chess and 1 point for a victory and 0.5 points for a draw in a blitz. All games of our tournament will be commented live and broadcast worldwide live via Internet on www.zurichcc.com.
Participants: Viswanathan Anand (India), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Alexei Shirov (Latvia).
Schedule: Friday, February 12th, 6 p.m. Opening Ceremony with a concert of the world renowned cellist Boris Andrianov (the first russian cellist to become a laureate at the 6th international Rostopovich competition in Paris). Also invited is the russian classical guitarist Dimitry Illarionov and one of the most bright violinists Alena Baeva. A blitz tournament (not counted) will then determine the colors distribution of the new classical games. Saturday, February 13th, 3 pm first round, 6 pm second round.
Sunday, February 14th, 3 pm third round, 6 pm. fourth round. Monday February 15th, 3 pm. fifth round, 6 pm. blitz tournament with inverted colors of the new classical games, 8 pm. Closing Ceremony. Spectators are welcome, entry free.
Sponsors: Zurich Chess Club (founded 1809, Savoy Chess Corner, “IGC International Gemological Laboratories” (this is a Russian institute providing gemological services, such as diamond grading reports, enhanced diamonds identification as well as certification of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry in the Russian Federation. IGC is the Russsian branch of GCI – a group of gemological laboratories worldwide).
Organisation: Zurich Chess Club