Participants Sofia 2008 made public
Yesterday the Mtel Masters' press officer sent us a press release in which the participants of the supertournament in Sofia (7-18 May) were made public. This year Veselin Topalov, Ivan Cheparinov, Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Bu Xiangzhi are not allowed to offer a draw in the Bulgarian capital. Note that this tournament is part of the first Grand Slam, just like Corus.Two Bulgarians to play at M-Tel Masters 2008The super chess tournament in Sofia is part of the Grand Slam circuit(Sofia, January 9, 2008) Two Bulgarians will fight for the title in the international super chess tournament M-Tel Masters 2008, that starts on May 7 in Sofia. The fans of the ancient game will be able to watch live the 19th World Champion Veselin Topalov (ELO 2780), Ivan Cheparinov (ELO 2713), quarter-finalist at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk 2007, Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, ELO 2735), winner of the World Rapid Cup in Odessa 2008, Levon Aronian (Armenia, ELO 2739), winner of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk 2005 and Olympic Champion from Turin 2006, Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, ELO 2751), World Champion in blitz chess from Moscow 2007 and Olympic Champion from Calvia 2004, and Xiangzhi Bu (China, ELO 2691), winner of the World Cup in blind chess from Bilbao 2007.M-Tel Masters is part of the Grand Slam circuit that starts on January 11 in Holland with the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The other competitions included are in Linares-Morelia and in Mexico City. The four winners will determine the winner of the Grand Slam at a final tournament in Bilbao in the end of the year.?¢‚Ǩ?æFor the first time two Bulgarians will play in a tournament of a high category, each of the six participants has a chance of winning the competition, shared the director of M-Tel Masters Silvio Danailov ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú I hope chess fans will see attractive games. The average ELO of the participants is 2734, the competition is FIDE XX category?جø¬??. The tournament will be held from May 7 till May 18, 2008 and his patron for the fourth year in a row will be the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov. The six players will play their games in the Central Military Club in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The regulation of the tournament includes 2 rounds with a 5-hour time control. This way each of the participants will play two games against each of the rest with exchanged colors. In case of a draw at the top there will be a tie break for determining the winner. Like in the previous three editions of M-Tel Masters the rule for the draws introduced in Sofia will be valid. According to it the players do not have the right to agree a draw. This can be decided only by the chef arbiter of the tournament.On May 6, a day before the official opening of the tournament the three times winner of M-Tel Masters Veselin Topalov will play a blindfold game with Jason Juett from USA. The 23-year-old mathematician won that prize by winning the game Play like Topalov, organized on the web site of the tournament www.mtelmasters.com in 2007.Related articles:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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