Mikhail Tal Memorial 2008
The Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow will run from 18-28 August and features an incredibly strong field, including Vladimir Kramnik in his last serious outing before taking on Vishy Anand for the World Championship.
Every single player participating in the event is rated over 2700, giving an average rating of 2745! The full line up is:
| Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) | 2788 |
| Alexander Morozevich (RUS) | 2788 |
| Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) | 2781 |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyrov (AZE) | 2742 |
| Alexei Shirov (ESP) | 2741 |
| Peter Leko (HUN) | 2741 |
| Gata Kamsky (USA) | 2723 |
| Boris Gelfand (ISR) | 2720 |
| Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) | 2718 |
| Evgeny Alekseev (RUS) | 2708 |
Kramnik won the title last year, but may be reluctant to show his latest opening secrets so close to his showdown with Anand. Ivanchuk is always dangerous, Morozevich blows hot and cold, but really any of the field could win this round-robin tournament which has a total prize fund of 100,000 USD.
After the main event there is also a massive blitz tournament on 29-30 August. Mikhail Tal (pictured above, in characteristic pose) was a formidable blitz player, winning the World Blitz Championship in 1988 at the age of 52 - a full 28 years after beating Mikhail Botvinnik to become the 8th World Chess Champion.
Look out for coverage at Chess.com!
