Gibraltar Chess Festival 10th season starts from 24th Jan to 2nd Feb

It began as a small event but its fame grew steadily, and today it has become an internationally popular chess festival which attracts hundreds of player, many with top rankings. This year there are over fifty GMs, eleven of them rated above 2700 Elo. At the opening there was some special news of philatelists. In round one the top seeds all won their games.

Gibraltar Chess Festival is taking place from Tuesday, 24th January to Thursday, 2nd February 2012 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The occasion, which is open to all, is the tenth in the series held on the Rock, the second to be support by Tradewise Insurance. The rate of play: 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all enduring moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start.

The festival can be followed online thanks to the scientific back-up of Gibtelecom, Gibraltar’s main telecommunications provider, whose loyal support over ten years has been essential to the festival’s development and success.

The Gibraltar International Chess Festival began as a much smaller event in 2003. Its reputation has grown year on year, and today well over 300 participants, players of all levels, return to the Rock every January, many calling Gibraltar their favourite event on the chess calendar. For eleven days the festival venue is changed into a hive of chess activity. Arriving here from all corners of the world, players can be sure that old friendships will be renewed, and – win or lose – new ones made.

At the opening reception on Monday night Gibraltar Culture and Sports Minister Steven Linares welcomed all the players and thanked them for coming to the Rock to play in the tournament. Tournament director, Stuart Conquest, addressed the familiar faces in the gathering in the main hall by opening with well wishes for a winning competition from the current World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. It was then up to Miss Gibraltar 2011, Michelle Gillingwater Pedersen, to draw the pairings for the opening top six games.

No.	Title	Name	Rtg	Result	Title	Name	Rtg	No.
1	GM	Svidler Peter	2749	1-0	IM	Houska Jovanka	2414	75
73	IM	Molina Roberto Junio Brito	2415	0-1	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2747	2
3	GM	Adams Michael	2724	1-0	GM	Zhukova Natalia	2426	70
69	IM	Aloma Vidal Robert	2431	0-1	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2717	4
5	GM	Le Quang Liem	2714	1-0	IM	Karim Ismael	2405	79
74	IM	Astaneh Lopez Alex	2414	0-1	GM	Polgar Judit	2710	6
7	GM	Shirov Alexei	2710	½-½	IM	Lyrberg Patrik	2435	68
71	GM	Bellon Lopez Juan Manuel	2422	0-1	GM	Laznicka Viktor	2704	8
9	GM	Sutovsky Emil	2703	0-1	IM	Hanley Craig A	2421	72
76	IM	Lund Silas	2414	0-1	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2700	10
11	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2700	1-0	IM	Quillan Gary	2409	77
78	IM	Getz Nicolai	2408	0-1	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2699	12
13	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2683	1-0	IM	Nezad Husein Aziz	2402	80
81	IM	Alvarez Marquez Johann	2398	0-1	GM	Bologan Viktor	2680	14
15	GM	Short Nigel D	2677	1-0	IM	Melia Salome	2398	82
83	IM	Bosboom Manuel	2394	0-1	GM	Fridman Daniel	2660	16
17	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2652	0-1	FM	Kuipers Stefan	2391	84

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