Geneva Masters Starts Wednesday

The first Geneva Chess Masters starts on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland. It's a brand new rapid tournament where three World Champions and a female chess legend will be playing, as well as three participants of the recently concluded Tal Memorial!

The first Geneva Chess Masters will take place from June 26th-30th, 2013 in the Pitoeff Theater in Geneva. The tournament will be held under the patronage of the City Council of Geneva and organized by the Geneva Chess Federation (Fédération Genevoise d’Echecs).

The players will be fighting each other in two four-player groups, in order to qualify for a knockout phase with semi-finals and eventually a Grand Final. The following eight players will appear on the stage of the Pitoeff Theater:

• Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), world number 4 in the live rankings, World Champion from 2000 to 2007 and conqueror of the great Garry Kasparov;
• Judit Polgar (Hungary), the greatest female player of all time, who has defeated nine male World Champions;
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), the newly crowned World Rapid Champion;
• Hikaru Nakamura (USA), world number 8 in the live rankings, legend of bullet chess;
• Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Women’s World Champion from 2008 to 2010;
• Etienne Bacrot (France), former World Champion U10 and U12, 6-times French champion and well-known member of the French Olympic team;
• Romain Edouard (France), former European Champion U16, well-known member of the French Olympic team;
• Yannick Pelletier, best Swiss player, 4-times Swiss Champion.

The players will be playing short matches; each match starts with two rapid games (25 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move). If the score is still equal, the match proceeds with two blitz games (4 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move). Finally, if necessary, an Armageddon blitz game is played (Black has one minute less but can afford a draw to qualify, whereas White must win).

The drawing of lots for the pairings will be performed during the Opening Ceremony on Tuesday, June 25th at 18:00pm CET (12:00 EDT, 09:00 PDT). The first round starts on Wednesday, June 26th at 15:30 CET (09:30 EDT, 06:30 PDT).

***Update: You can follow the action live here.***

The qualifying phase takes place from June 26th to 28th. The semi-finals are to be played on Saturday, June 29th and the final on Sunday, June 30th. All games will be transmitted live on the Internet and spectators will have the possibility to follow the games with French and English commentary.

At the same venue an open tournament will take place with an A group (9 rounds, >1800 Elo) and a B group (7 rounds,