CZECH COAL CARLSBAD CHESS TOURNAMENT 2007
Hundred years of chess tournaments
It has been exactly one hundred years since the first international chess tournament was held in the Czech countries. In 1907, the world chess top players gathered in Karlovy Vary and chess magazines in the whole world were singing their praises for months afterwards. For this anniversary, the civic association Prague Chess Society is organizing a grand master chess tournament called Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament 2007 in Karlovy Vary, where the chess elite will be present. The participation to this classical chess tournament will be the strongest in several decades compared to other competitions held in the Czech Republic.
From Friday September 7th to Saturday September 15th 2007, eight grand masters will challenge each other in the hotel Carlsbad Plaza. They were chosen carefully so that the tournament would host three players belonging to the current world top (rating over 2700 ELO points, GM Alexej Shirov, GM Ruslan Ponomarjov and GM Vladimir Akopjan), two players as chess legends (GM Viktor Korčnoj and GM Jan Timman) as well as the best chess player of Czech Republic (GM David Navara), the best chess player of Slovakia (GM Sergej Movsesjan) and the best Czech junior player (GM Viktor Láznička).
The tournament is held under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus. The main sponsor of the tournament is the society Czech Coal and its main partner is the society Eden Group. As a special guest of the tournament, the oldest living grand master has been invited, 96 year old Andre Lilienthal, who also used to play with the second world champion master Emanuel Lasker…
Among the other guests are for example Kirsan Iljumzinov (President of the international chess federation FIDE and the President of the Kalmuck Republic of the Russian Federation), Bessel Kok (President of Managing Board of Global Chess, ex-president of grand master´s association GMA and chief of Czech Telecom), Geoffrey Borg (General President of Global Chess and Vicepresident of FIDE) and GM Lajoą Portisch (one of the best world chess players of the 1970’s). The game will be commented live by the best chess player of Czechoslovakia in the second half of the twentieth century, the grand master Vlastimil Hort. The co-commentator will be the master and coach of the Czech representation Michal Konopka.
You can read a lot more information on the official website here.
Round 1 results:
Movsesian Sergei 1/2 Akopian Vladimir
Korchnoi Viktor 1/2 Timman Jan H
Ponomariov Ruslan 1/2 Navara David
Shirov Alexei 0 – 1 Laznicka Viktor
Shirov lost to who?
to Viktor Laznicka (ab. 2600), best Czech junior.