More Great Chess Tournaments Cancelled

The difficult economic conditions being faced by many individuals and businesses around the world is slowly gnawing away at the sponsorship of some great chess tournaments.

The latest festival to bite the dust is the Mainz Chess Classic, which will not take place in 2011 after more than a decade of successful tournaments.

Other tournaments NOT taking place this year are M-Tel in Bulgaria, and the "Youth v Experience" tournament in the Netherlands.

We also know that this year's Amber tournament will be the last, and with the future of even the great Linares unclear, these are painful times for chess super-tournaments.