Participate In Judit Polgar's Global Chess Festival This Saturday
GM Judit Polgar may have retired from competitive chess, but that doesn't mean she has lost her love of the game. Polgar is still heavily involved in chess and this Saturday (October 8) she will host the Global Chess Festival.
The Global Chess Festival is in the beautiful Buda Castle Garden Bazaar in Budapest, Hungary. If you are fortunate to be able to attend, you surely should, but even if you cannot, you can create your own event and register it via "Chess Connects Us" or simply register as a chess fan and follow the live coverage on Chess.com. Check out all of the people and events who are participating!
The festival is absolutely jam-packed (full program here), and we can't cover all of the events here. So we'll just cover three.
The Highlander Cup
The Highlander Cup, a rapid and blitz knockout event, features the former world champion (2004) Rustam Kasimdzhanov and world chess championship challenger Boris Gelfand. Some of the most talented Hungarian players will also fight for the Highlander Cup.
The Hungarian players will be two-time Olympiad silver medalist Zoltan Almasi, six-time Hungarian champion, Ferenc Berkes, GM Benjamin Gledura, women's European champion Hoang Thanh Trang and GMs Gabor Papp and Gergely Antal.
The format will be two 10-minute games with a five-second increment. If the games are split, there will be two blitz games (3+2). If those are tied, there will be one final armageddon game with five minutes for White and four minutes for Black. Black receives draw odds in the armageddon game.
The Highlander Cup has a $15,000 first prize (not bad for a single day!), and the winner also claims the Highlander Cup itself created by Herend Porcelain.
The matches will take place live on Chess.com/TV with commentary from GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Dejan Bojkov. Tune in at 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. Hungary time for the opening ceremonies, Highlander Cup, and Hungary vs U.S.A match, respectively.
The Chess.com Hungary vs U.S. Youth Match
Wait, what is the Hungary vs U.S.A. match you just mentioned? Good question!
Chess.com is sponsoring this online match between four talented youngsters from each country. Players will play from their home countries on Chess.com. The pairings:
U8: Nandor Marton Szabo (HUN) 1032 - Tanish Vora (USA) 1155
U10: Balazs Pasztor (HUN) 1799 - Abhimanyu Mishra (USA)
U12: Gellert Karácsonyi (HUN) 1978 - Nico Chasin (USA) 2072
U14: Judit Kovacs (HUN) 2042 - Robert Shlyakhtenko (USA) 2155
Chess.com is excited to further promote international, scholastic chess online! It's the way of the future 
Ask Polgar A Question
Not able to attend or watch, but extremely interested in what Judit Polgar has to say about chess? You can ask her a question that she may answer herself in the live coverage for the event.
- Register to connect at www.GlobalChessFestival.com.
- Once your registration is complete, it's time to write your question. First, click on the profile menu and select "question to Judit."
- Once you're at the "question to Judit" form, write your question and click "send."
Judit will be answering the most interesting questions during the Global Chess Festival live coverage on October 8.
Have fun writing your questions, and be sure to tune in to www.GlobalChessFestival.com to see if Judit chooses your question.
I'm the VP of Chess and Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2014, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
