participants, pairings, and live games

A record 199 players from 36 countries, including 35 Grand Masters, arrive at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar today for the 7th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival which runs from 27th January through 5th February.

The strongest field ever assembled for an Open Swiss will compete for £100,000 sterling of prize money, with £15,000 going to the eventual winner.

Chessdom.com in association with Gibraltar Chess Festival 2009 and Mr. Sean Hewitt presents the live games from the 2009 edition of Gibtelecom chess tournament.

Official site: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com

Participants

The field is headed by Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan and Peter Svidler of Russia, both rated 2723 and amongst the worlds top 20 players.

Vugar is another star player from Baku and is currently performing well in the FIDE Grand Prix, having had an excellent Olympiad. Peter is the reigning Russian champion (a title he has now claimed on five occasions) and looks sure to challenge this year in Gibraltar, as does former US Champion and current Gibraltar Champion Hikaru Nakamura (2699). Hikaru is a regular visitor to the event and proved a popular winner in 2008 with his trademark aggressive style of play. He is sure to have the Kibitzer’s on the edge of their seats again this year, especially after his fine play winning the Cap D’Agde Rapidplay.

Sure to have a big say in the final reckoning are ex French Champions Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2696), ex Junior World Champion Pentala Harikrishna (2673) of India, Ivan Sokolov (2657) of The Netherlands and Ferenc Berkes (2651) of Hungary.

The Gibtelecom Chess Festival offers £19,000 of prizes exclusively for female players, and consequently the cream of women’s chess make this possibly the strongest Open tournament for women on the planet. The mouth watering line up includes Ex World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (2557) BUL, Pia Cramling (2548) SWE, Nana Dzagnidze (2518) GEO, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2500) SCO, Viktorija Cmilyte (2497) LTU, Zhu Chen 2496 of QAT, Anna Zatonskih (2462) USA, Irina Krush (2457) USA, Monika Socko (2449) POL, Tania Sachdev (2435) of IND , Jovanka Houska (2392) ENG and there can be no doubt that we are about to see 10 days of great fighting chess on the rock!

Pairings round 1

Quillan, Gary ENG – GM Gashimov, Vugar AZE

GM Svidler, Peter RUS – FM Van Eijk, Sander NED

FM Leniart, Arkadiusz POL – GM Nakamura, Hikaru USA

GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA – IM Kharous, Ernest RUS

FM Perez Ponsa, Federico ARG – GM Harikrishna, Pentala IND

GM Milov, Vadim SUI – IM Houska, Jovanka ENG

IM Welling, Gerard NED – GM Sokolov, Ivan NED

GM Berkes, Ferenc HUN – WGM Calzetta, Monica ESP

FM Nithander, Victor SWE – GM Roiz, Michael ISR

GM Beliavsky, Alexander G SLO – Carlhammar, Magnus SWE

IM Solomon, Kenny RSA – GM Avrukh, Boris ISR

GM Socko, Bartosz POL – IM Maryasin, Boris ISR

FM Miedema, Roi NED – GM Gurevich, Mikhail TUR

GM Akobian, Varuzhan USA – FM Klinova, Masha ISR

FM Forsaa, Espen NOR – GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar IND

GM Berg, Emanuel SWE – FM Ashton, Adam G ENG

FM Ripari, Marcelo ARG – GM Kotronias, Vasilios GRE

GM Golod, Vitali ISR – Rasch, Holger GER

FM Jessel, Stephen IRL – GM Andersson, Ulf SWE

GM Sandipan, Chanda IND – FM Thomassen, Joachim NOR

FM Armbrust, Florian GER – GM Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL

GM Cramling, Pia SWE – FM Fruebing, Stefan GER

Stebbings, Anthony J ENG – GM Lopez Martinez, Josep Manu ESP

GM Speelman, Jon S ENG – FM Csonka, Attila Istvan HUN

Bok, Benjamin NED – GM Del Rio De Angelis, Salvad ESP

IM Hammer, Jon Ludvig NOR – FM Sanchez, Louis FRA

Malmdin, Nils-Ake SWE – IM Gordon, Stephen J ENG

GM Pavlovic, Milos SRB – IM Peredy, Ferenc HUN

FM White, Michael J R ENG – GM Dzagnidze, Nana GEO

IM Papp, Gabor HUN – Chapman, Terry P D ENG

Tscharotschkin, Michael GER – GM Berczes, David HUN

GM Carlsson, Pontus SWE – Natalicchio Escalante, Nic ESP

FM Hartvig, Ove Weiss DEN – IM Szabo, Krisztian HUN

IM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan SCO – Spence, David J ENG

CM Dunn, Andrew ENG – GM Hauchard, Arnaud FRA

IM Cmilyte, Viktorija LTU – Pantaleoni, Claudio ITA

Daoudi, Kamal MAR – IM Al Sayed, Mohamad N. QAT

IM Trent, Lawrence ENG – Kandic, Milan SRB

Kvisla, Johannes Luangtep NOR – IM Nemeth, Miklos HUN

IM Kiik, Kalle EST – Bravetti, Antonio ITA

De Groote, Ewoud NED – IM Zatonskih, Anna USA

IM Bruno, Fabio ITA – Van Den Bersselaar, Jeroen NED

Getz, Nicolai NOR – IM Krush, Irina USA

GM Socko, Monika POL – CM Walton, Alan J ENG

Van Heirzeele, Daniel BEL – IM D`Costa, Lorin A R ENG

GM Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel ESP – IM Kozlov, Oleg RUS

Hagesaether, Arne NOR – IM Devereaux, Maxim L ENG

IM Sachdev, Tania IND – Lovik, Lasse Ostebo NOR

Salem, Ihab PLE – FM Hommeles, Theo NED

IM Karim, Ismael MAR – Heinis, Vincent FRA

Tate, Alan SCO – IM Nezad, Husein Aziz QAT

Vea, Odin Blikra NOR – Suez-Panama, Gilles FRA

Brown, Thomas WLS – Steffenello, Leonard BRA

Byron, Alan M ENG – Dasaolu, Adeoye ENG

Campbell, Ian ENG – Gavriel, Tryfon C ENG

Perez Aleman, Pedro Tomas ESP – Pettersen, Joar Gullestad NOR

Cafolla, Peter IRL – Whitehead, David J ENG

IM Erdelyi, Tamas HUN – Spanton, Tim R ENG

Zanetti, Bruno SUI – Samuelsson, Sven-Gunnar SWE

Drenth, Jean Paul NED – Hickman, John E ENG

Demac, Elias NOR – Green, Andrew D SCO

Machin Arbelo, Pedro Alexi ESP – Madland, Kristoffer NOR

Helin, Mikael SWE – Almond, Richard J ENG

Arnott, Jonathan W ENG – Benson, Oisin P. IRL

Webster, Richard J ENG – Haugstad, Espen NOR

Hagen, Anders Gjerdrum NOR – Haug, Marianne Wold NOR

Brown, David ENG – Ogada-Osir, Ibrahim Okinyi AUS

Obers, Frits NED – Skage, Oystein Aagedal NOR

Loberg, Jo Kristian NOR – Mundaca Alvarez, Juan Carl CHI

Aerni, Andi SUI – De Lillo, Michele ITA

Mozelius, Peter SWE – Ercan, Mehmet Fahri TUR

Fox, Anthony IRL – Escofet Llongueras, Joan ESP

Carlsen, Ellen Oen NOR – Horton-Kitchlew, Andrew ENG

Collier, David O ENG – Ribon Calabia, Mariano ESP

Szabo, Gabor HUN – Fryer, David W ENG

Compton, Alistair NZL – Aagedal, Geir Ole NOR

Matto, Manuel ENG – Perman, Torvald FIN

Dimitrijevic, Dragan ITA – Pieri, Enzo ITA

Yarur Elsaca, Daniel CHI – Fairbairn, Stephen CAN

Lyons, Brendan IRL – Kuenitz, Klaus GER

Chidi, Lovinia Sylvia GER – Lumsdon, Andrew SUI

Pali, Gabor HUN – Bishop, Geoffrey L ENG

Kouchak, Jason FRA – Gandrud, Vegar Koi NOR

Obiamiwe, Paul NGR – Salomon, Johan NOR

Viera Falcon, Cristo ESP – Linqvist, Grels FIN

WIM Tsifanskaya, Ludmila A ISR – Beltran Medina, Jorge MEX

Petrovic, Marko SLO – Bates, Caspar J ENG

Linda, Rangarajan IND – Gonzalez Amaya, Millan ESP

Valhondo Morales, Ruben ESP – CM Osuna Vega, Enrique ESP

Garcia Lechugo, Francisco ESP – Flores Chico, Jorge ESP

Pollo Mancilla, Ricardo ESP – Vinas Guerrero, Carlos A. ESP

Maalla, Abdessadek MAR – El Bakkali, Kamal MAR

Hamer, Martyn ENG – Wahlberg, Jockum SWE