Ten Champions in Zurich this weekend

This weekend ten world famous chess champions are playing at the jubilee festivities of the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Legends of the past 50 years are joining in simultaneous exhibitions and a rapid tournament at Zurich Main Station. Videos by Europe-Echecs (including an interview with Kasparov).

Today, 200 amateurs are playing against eight champions who have left indelible marks on chess in the past 50 years: Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Viktor Kortchnoi, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov. Each of them are playing against 25 amateurs, 200 games altogether, one for every year of the club's history. The event began at 2 p.m. and are expected to finish around 6.30 p.m.

Tomorrow another group of eight champions -- Viswanathan Anand, Werner Hug, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Khalifman, Vladimir Kramnik, Judit Polgar, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov -- will play against one another in an attractive rapid chess format. Judit Polgar is the strongest female chess player ever. The event begins at 11.00 am, each of the seven rounds begins on the hour. Ranking announcements and prize awards are expected to take place around 6 p.m.

Matthias Deutschmann, the renowned German cabaret artist and the voice of the "Fritz" chess software, will guide through the events on site. Both the simultaneous exhibition and the rapid tournament are open to visitors without charge. Enthusiasts can also watch all the excitement of both tournaments live on the Internet at www.sgzurich2009-live.ch.

Grandmasters Klaus Bischoff, Vlastimil Hort, Lothar Vogt and for some hours also World Champion Boris Spassky will be commenting online on the games. Credit Suisse has organized autograph sessions on both days of the event. At around 4 p.m. some of the chess legends will be available for about an hour to sign autographs.

The Europe-Echecs team is in Zurich to make videos, which, as always, are share with other media. Below is the playlist with the first two videos (more will be added):



Two interesting quotes from the interviews: Viswanathan Anand confirmed his participation in not only the Tal Memorial this year (this we already knew) but also the 2010 Corus Chess Tournament, and Anatoly Karpov revealed that his upcoming match against Kasparov in Valencia will be part of a series of probably four matches (all rapid & blitz) remembering all matches they played in the 80s and 90s, and they will probably be held in the same cities: Moscow, Paris and New York.