Mtel Masters 2009, Dates and Lineup Announced!

Topalov, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Wang, Dominguez and Shirov are invited to play

The fifth international chess superturnament M-Tel Masters will be held from 12th to 23rd May in Sofia, Bulgaria. Six top Grandmasters will play double round robin event in a special glass aquarium to be built on the square in front of the National Theater "Ivan Vazov".

The participants in this year's edition are:

- Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 19th World Chess Champion and current World Championship finalist
- Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the best young chess-player in recent years and current № 3 in the world
- Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), the winner of the last year's M-Tel Masters
- Wang Yue (China), the best chess-player of China
- Lenier Dominguez (Cuba), the strongest player in the Latin America and 2008 world blitz champion
- Alexey Shirov (Spain), Finalist of the 2007 World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk

Average rating of the six players is 2753, which makes the Sofia tournament to be 21st category FIDE. M-Tel Masters is part of the global Grand Slam circuit, together with other three strongest tournaments in the world - Corus in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands), Linares (Spain) and Nanjing (China). Winner in Sofia acquires the right to play in the final tournament of the Grand Slam, which will be held later this year in Bilbao, Spain.

Traditionally, Patron of the tournament will be President of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov.