Miguel Najdorf Memorial
Zhigalko, Macieja, Hammer, and Aleksandrov top seeds

Miguel Najdorf International Chess Festival, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Miguel Najdorf, is scheduled to take place on 17-25th July at the Sports and Recreation Centre in Warsaw, Poland. It will consist of 3 open tournaments (groups A,B, and C) with the participation of 50 titled players. Top seeds are Sergei Zhigalko (Belarus), Bartłomiej Macieja (Poland), Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway), and Aleksej Alexandrov (Belarus), all above 2600 ELO.

The organizers of the event are Warsaw Chess Foundation, Municipality of the Warsaw Central District, Warsaw Sports and Recreation Centre, and “Polonia Warsaw” Chess Club. The tournaments will take place in the Warsaw Sports and Recreation Centre at ul.Polna 7a in Warsaw.

Miguel Najdorf (born Mendel (Mieczysław) Najdorf in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw, Poland, April 15, 1910 – died in Málaga, Spain, July 4, 1997) was a Polish-born Argentine chess grandmaster. The Najdorf Variation in the Sicilian Defense, one of the most popular openings in modern chess, is named after him. Najdorf also made contributions to the theory and praxis of other openings such as the King’s Indian Defense. Najdorf was also a well-respected chess journalist, who had a popular column in the Buenos Aires Clarín newspaper. Find more information after the participants list.

Top 20 seeds:

1 GM Zhigalko, Sergei BLR 2647 2
GM Macieja, Bartlomiej POL 2618
3 GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig NOR 2610
4 GM Aleksandrov, Aleksej BLR 2604 5
GM Radulski, Julian BUL 2593
6 GM Erdos, Viktor HUN 2589
7 GM Dziuba, Marcin POL 2576
8 GM Malakhatko, Vadim BEL 2569
9 GM Mis’ta, Aleksander POL 2562
10 GM Vysochin, Spartak UKR 2555
11 GM Petrov, Marijan BUL 2545
12 GM Olszewski, Michal POL 2543
13 GM Brodsky, Michail UKR 2537
14 GM Simonian, Hrair ARM 2521
15 GM Berczes, David HUN 2519
16 GM Jakubowski, Krzysztof POL 2506
17 IM Warakomski, Tomasz POL 2499
18 IM Bernasek, Jan CZE 2495
19 GM Socko, Monika POL 2485
20 GM Boros, Denes HUN 2479

More info here: http://previews.chessdom.com/2010/miguel-najdorf-memorial

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