Any chance of us mere mortals playing the Big guns?
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i dont know what you mean by top but i have played a few fide masters
The best idea would be to find out when and where one of these "big guns" is giving a simultaneous exhibition, and try to participate in that. I seem to recall reading that Boris Spassky gave one in England recently (I'll try to find a link for you).
Edit: here are some links. News article about the simul: http://www.chess.com/news/spassky-plays-8000-mile-live-chess
And a chess.com member who played against Spassky in the event! http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/boris-spassky-v-christopher-smith
The chances of playing one of the top pros in chess are slim to none, unless you play one in an exhibition. Most of them only play in closed invitational events against other very strong players. Ivanchuk is one of the few that does still play in big Open tournaments.......maybe if you enetered such an event you might get a shot at him? 
I think you'll find that was in Wales
sstteevveenn wrote: I think you'll find that was in Wales
My bad. Didn't pay close enough attention.
(Americans already get enough bad press for not knowing their geography. I'm usually good at it personally, so I hate making mistakes like that! In my defence, when I said "England" originally, I was writing that from memory without the article in front of me.)
lol, I did wonder if you knew about Wales. Glad to see you don't think it's a region in England.
when you 'ear da word wales, you may think of the da fish wif da biggest dick in da ocean, BUT tis also the name of a country, dat is only twoo hundred miles from engalnd ~~ Ali G (british comedian)
(yes i realize that it borders England and thats why its funny.)
wale's well?? is that a pub or something?
The world open might be your best bet if you want to play some grandmasters.
Being an average standard player, i'm not amazing but not rubbish either. But is there any chess tournament in the world where us mere mortals have the opportunity to play the world elite i.e. Kramnik, Annand, Carlsen Etc? I think it would be really interesting because on my database I came across a match where Capablanca lost to an unknown Asian player and I think it would be brilliant if any of there world elite could get beaten by a "Unknown". Plus have any of you out there ever played some of the worlds top players?