Anand, Carlsen meet again after World Chess Championship: Zurich Chess Challenge begins Jan 29

Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 — The strongest tournament in chess history to date begins Wednesday, January 29 at the Hotel Savoy. This is going to be the first chess tournament in the history of the game to claim a level of Category 23 with an amazing average rating of 2801!

Destiny is cruel and chess destiny can be crueler still: The newly-crowned World Chess Champion and his ‘victim’ Viswanathan Anand will meet again for the first time after the November 2013 World Chess Championship. This will be Magnus Carlsen‘s first tournament appearance after winning the world title. Anand has already played the London Chess Classic in December 2013 which Carlsen did not attend.

The chess greats – Anand and Carlsen – are to meet twice over the board in Zurich not counting the blitz event for deciding the pairings.

A blitz tournament will determine the color distribution on the first day (29 January). Five rounds of classical chess will then be played from Thursday to Monday (30 January to 3 February), followed by a rapid tournament with reversed colors on the last day (4 February).

We expect a ‘respectful’ draw between Anand and Carlsen in the classical game without any fodder for the hungry fans or salivating journalists. But, if Anand were to win he would make a point: That he did have the requisite weapons ready in November 2013 itself, but “read Carlsen wrong” as he has commented before. If Carlsen were to win… it’s going to be driving the nail back in with greater pain. Anand chess fans, keep fingers crossed.

The other players are the Armenian Levon Aronian (2), the American Hikaru Nakamura (3), the US-Italian Fabiano Caruana (6), as well as the Israeli Boris Gelfand (8).

This brilliant event, which will take place in the extraordinary familial environment of the ballroom of the Hotel Savoy, has already caught the attention throughout the world and led to the registration of many journalists and top-players, including Peter Leko, Jan Timman and Gennadi Sosonko.

Further, the Chinese women’s world-champion Hou Yifan will attend this unique occasion and will be playing a simultaneous exhibition with clocks against 6 top Swiss juniors on 1 February at 1 p.m. at the Zurich ‘Zunfthaus zur Saffran’.

The owner of IGC International Gemological Laboratories», Mr. Oleg Skvortsov, is the creator of this chess event. He not only loves chess, but also plays chess and supports chess events. Furthermore, Mr. Skvortsov knows many of the greatest chess players in the world personally and has played a lot of games with them.

A press release states, the Zurich Chess Club is very proud to be the organizer and host of this unique event and it would like to thank the main tournament sponsor and chess-enthusiast Oleg Skvortsov, whose generous contribution has allowed for this extraordinary event to take place!

All games will be commented by GM Yannick Pelletier and IM Werner Hug and broadcast live via the Internet.

Admission to the classical and rapid games is free, no previous registration is required. Due to limited room capacity, the Opening Ceremony and the blitz tournament are for official guests only.

Participants (Elo rating according to FRL of January 2014)

Magnus Carlsen (Norway, Elo 2872, Nr 1)Levon Aronian (Armenia, Elo 2812, Nr 2)Hikaru Nakamura (USA, Elo 2789, Nr 3)Fabiano Caruana (Italy, Elo 2782, Nr 6)Boris Gelfand (Israel, Elo 2777, Nr 8)Vishwanathan Anand (India, Elo 2773, Nr 9)

Schedule

Daily from 30 January to 4 February 2014.

The rounds start at 15.00 local time (CET), except for the last round, which begins at 13.00 CET.Spectators are welcome, entrance free.

Main sponsor

«IGC International Gemological Laboratories» is a Russian institute providing gemological services, such as diamond grading reports, enhanced diamonds identification, man-made/synthetic diamonds and imitation detection, as well as certification of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry in the Russian Federation. IGC is the Russian branch of «GCI» a group of gemological laboratories located worldwide.

Co-sponsors

Aspeco, SurJewel, Savoy Chess Corner, Zurich Chess Club (founded in 1809, the oldest chess club of the world)

Partners

Hotels Savoy Baur en Ville, Rössli and Seehof in Zurich

OrganizationZurich Chess Club