Magnus Carlsen to play in Bazna Kings in Romania

Six-player double round robin on 14-24th June 2010

Magnus Carlsen has confirmed his participation in the 2010 Bazna Kings tournament. He will play in the strongest event in Romania together with Wang Yue, Boris Gelfand, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

The double round robin event is aspiring to become part of Grand Slam. The organizers of the event also managed Viswanathan Anand's visit to Romania last year.

Bazna 2008 / Bazna 2009

Message by Magnus Carlsen

Hi chess friends! It has been good to be back home for a while after the Amber tournament. The weather is fantastic in Norway at the moment and even though I enjoy skiing and spent Easter in the mountains, I am glad the spring has arrived. Chesswise the spring is not the busiest time of the year and my next tournament will be in Bazna, Romania, from June 14-24.

The Kings Tournament in Bazna is held for the second time. The 2009 tournament was the strongest ever in Romania, and it turned out to be a big success for the Rumanian chess community. The format is the same this year, it is a double round robin and my opponents are Wang Yue, Gelfand, Radjabov, Ponomariov and Nisipeanu. I'm looking forward to competing again and it will be exciting to visit Romania for the first time. From what I hear Bazna is a very charming village in the middle of the country. From August and throughout the year I expect to be quite busy but the schedule hasn't been firmed up yet.