1) The 21st Magistral “Ciudad de León” will be held from May 30th to June 1st 2.008, the playing days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The venue will be the Salón de Actos de la Delegación Provincial de la Junta de Castilla y León.
2) 4 chess masters will play in the 21st edition of the Ciudad d Leon Chess Tournament, in the modality of active-chess, under the FIDE rules.
3) There will be 2 semi-finals, played on Friday and Saturday, and the 2 winners will play the final on Sunday 8th.
4) All games will be played with 20 minutes for the whole game, with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
The semi – finals and final will consist in 4 games each. In case of a final draw, there will be a tie-break in form of blitz games (5 minutes for each player)
5) There will be 2 top seeded, according to the Fide elo list, they will choose their rivals for the first semi-finals, on Thursday May 29th at the Conde Luna Hotel.
The Chief Arbiter will be, as usual, I.A. Joaquín Espejo Maqueda.
VISHY ANAND – World Champion. Top player in the Elo list – India.
World Champion in Mexico 2.007 (as well as in 2001), he won our tournament no less than 7 times; Anand is one of the best players in chess history.
VASSILY IVANCHUK – Ukraine
His chess style is full of originality and belongs to the chess elite since the late eighties.After a highly successful year he reached the second place in the Elo list of this year.
He will play for the first time in the Ciudad de Leon Chess tournament, but he is not his first visit to Leon, as he took part in the European Team Championship.
ALEXEY SHIROV – Spain
He recently returned to the Top – 10, and he is the Spanish number 1 since more a decade.
He is known as the “Leonardo da Vinci” of the chessboard thanks to his creative style full of brilliant ideas.
FRANCISCO VALLEJO PONS – Spain
He returns to Leon after becoming Spanish Champion in 2.006. He is the best Spanish native player and, following Shirov, he is a strong second board of the Spanish Team. He won the Pamplona tournament at the beginning of the year.
He has never reached to the Final in Leon; but this year he has a new opportunity to obtain this goal.
Official website: http://www.advancedchessleon.com/ingles/inicioI.htm
Why not men vs. women in advanced chess?