Star line up in Gibraltar

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival (formerly known as the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival) takes place from Monday 24 January to Thursday 3 February 2011 at the Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar.

As at all eight previous congresses, the main event will be the Gibraltar Masters tournament, which attracts leading professional grandmasters from all over the world and is now established as one of the major open tournaments on the professional circuit. Once again the prize fund has been increased to an overall £126,000, with a mouth-watering £17,500 going to the Masters winner and £10,000 going to the highest placed woman player.

With rewards of this magnitude, it is hardly surprising that some of the biggest names in chess beat a path to Gibraltar. This year we have a true chess legend, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, taking part in the Masters. Vassily is currently ranked number nine in the world but even this high ranking doesn’t tell the full story of his prestige. He occupies a place of honour and popularity in chess comparable to the great Mikhail Tal and is acknowledged as one of the few players who could regularly rattle former world champion Garry Kasparov in one-to-one combat. Vassily will have some tough opposition as the 2010 Gibraltar winner Michael Adams will be back to defend his title. Michael’s Gibraltar success proved a welcome fillip for his career and he has since piled on the rating points and won the 2010 British Championship at a canter. More big names are being added to the list all the time. They include Paco Vallejo Pons, the top native-born Spanish player who ran Michael Adams so close in 2010. We have another former Gibraltar Masters winner in the evergreen Bulgarian star Kiril Georgiev and the very strong Romanian grandmaster Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. From the USA we have 2701-rated Alexander Onischuk and the brilliant prodigy Ray Robson. One instantly recognisable name in the line-up will be legendary world championship finalist Viktor Korchnoi. He’s not just guesting in Gibraltar but playing in the tournament, a couple of months short of his 80th birthday – his longevity as a chessplayer is truly remarkable.

With its incomparable women’s prize fund, Gibraltar has naturally become a mecca for the top women stars. The full list of invitees has yet to be confirmed but In 2011 we are hoping to have five of the top six women players on the world rating list. They are likely to include Humpy Koneru of India, whose peak rating has only been bettered by Judit Polgar amongst women players, and the rapidly improving Kosintseva sisters from Russia, as well as regular Gibraltar competitors such as former women’s world champion Antoaneta Stefanova, 2010 winner Natalia Zhukova, Pia Cramling, Nana Dzagnidze, Harika Dronavalli and Viktorija Cmilyte. More news of the women’s line-up very soon.

The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival also offers superlative opportunities for other professional and amateur players to compete for big prizes and watch the stars in action. Another two bands of rating prizes, totalling £6,000, have been added to the Masters event for players rated between 2000 and 2200. The Challengers and Amateurs also provide very generous prizes, with £2,000 for winners of the two Challengers tournaments and £1,000 for winners of each of the Amateur tournaments.

Commentary facilities at the Tradewise Gibraltar Festival will be better than ever, with former primary sponsors Gibtelecom continuing to put their considerable technological power at the tournament’s disposal and the Caleta Hotel providing a broadcasting suite tailor-made for the purpose. GM Stuart Conquest will be heading the commentary team as always. There will be a whole new raft of interactive features and video events, both for the onside spectators and our huge internet audience.