Recession Hits Major Chess Events

The economic downturn in many parts of the world has adversely affected some major tournaments expected to take place this year.

The Mainz Chess Classic in July normally lasts for a full week with a plethora of events, including Chess960 competitions and several open tournaments.

Due to the harsh financial climate, this year the festival will only last 3 days and feature one open event (the Grenke Rapid World Championship) and two simultaneous exhibitions.

On the plus side, the simuls are being given by Vishy Anand and Alexandra Kosteniuk, the current world champion and women's world champion.

Even worse news comes from Bulgaria, where rumours of MTel's demise have been confirmed by the organiser, Silvio Danailov (pictured). This recent addition to the super-tournament roster will be taking a break this year, hopefully to return in more prosperous times.

The cancellation of Mtel is partly due to the upcoming world championship match between Anand and Topalov, which has absorbed most of the available Bulgarian funds for chess this year.