Chess Classic Mainz 2008
The annual festival of chess in Mainz - the "Chess Classic Mainz" - starts on 28 July and runs until 3 August in this historic German city.
There are so many fascinating competitions being held that it truly an embarrassment of riches for any chess fan. The main event is the Rapid World Chess Championships, with a line up that is truly mouth-watering:
- Vishy Anand - World Champion and highest ranked player in the World.
- Magnus Carlsen - Officially ranked 6th in the World, but now ranked 2nd on the unofficial live rating list, and widely tipped as a future world champion.
- Alexander Morozevich - ranked 2nd on the official ratings, the mercurial Russian is an unpredictable genius.
- Judit Polgar - the best female player in history.
Alongside this event is the Women's Chess 960 Rapid World Championship, also with an impressive line-up of familar faces pictured below (clockwise from top left: Alexandra Kosteniuk, Victorija Cmilyte, Kateryna Lahno and Natalia Zhukova).
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Still want more? Is computer chess more to your taste than the human talent on display? Fear not, the Chess960 Computer World Championship is also taking place in Mainz with the very best silicon 'brains' battling it out in this popular chess variant - Rybka, Deep Shredder, Naum and Deep Sjeng.
There is also an 11-round rapid Chess960 Open event for carbon-based lifeforms to show that they can play a bit as well - and another 11-round rapid Open for regular chess - and similar tournaments for the under-14 age group. Phew! All games are played at the rapid time control of 20 minutes/game plus 5 seconds/move.
Don't miss this outstanding festival of chess. Look out for updates at Chess.com!
