The Pro-Biz Cup, now in its third year, gives you the opportunity of a lifetime: to team up with one of your chess heroes. To be held on Monday 14 December from 10am to 4pm at the Hilton London Olympia and broadcast live on the internet, this unique event will be a fitting conclusion to the 7th London Chess Classic.
The Pro-Biz Cup sees leading business minds team up with the world’s best grandmasters for a fun rapid knock-out tournament. All money raised by this event goes to the Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) charity.
The auction for this unique event will be held on Ebay. It begins at 8pm on the 20th November and ends at 8pm on the 30th November, two weeks prior to the Pro-Biz Cup. The winning bidders will also get a seat at the London Chess Classic closing dinner, which will be held at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand.
This year’s edition of this event will be bigger and better than ever before, as for the first time you can bid to team up with the World Champion and highest ranked player of all time, Magnus Carlsen. Few have had the privilege of playing against Magnus. Fewer still have played WITH Magnus.
The other nine top-flight players you and your business can team up with are former World Champion Vishy Anand, World No. 2 Veselin Topalov, World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk, America’s two top players,Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, Dutch Wunderkind Anish Giri, French prodigy Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Armenian virtuoso Levon Aronian and England’s No. 1 Michael Adams.
What is more, winning bidders not only get the chance to play with the grandmasters – you will meet your partner prior to the first game and have pictures taken by the event’s official photographer. Then there will be time for a team chat, where views can be exchanged, openings discussed and strategies agreed on.
Just like last year, the format is a rapid chess knock-out tournament, where the amateurs and grandmasters make alternate moves. At stake is the chance to win the third Pro-Biz Cup, which is currently held by Rajko Vujatovic (Bank of America) and Anish Giri.
You can find more information on the Pro-Biz Cup on the dedicated website. You can also read John Saunders’ report from last year’s event and watch a video from the 2013 Pro-Biz Cup. Finally, don’t miss out on the following interesting video of Sir Clive Woodward, the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning coach, who teamed up with Gawain Jones in the 2014 Pro-Biz Cup.
Fiona Steil-Antoni
Press Officer
Email: press@londonchessclassic.com
Website: www.londonchessclassic.com
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