Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 – The strongest tournament in chess history to date

On Wednesday, 29 of January 2014, the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will commence at the Hotel Savoy. With six participants it is the first tournament in the history of chess to reach category 23 with an amazing average rating of 2801!

The star of the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will be the newly crowned world-champion Magnus Carlsen. During his first tournament appearance since winning the world title last November, the 23-year old Norwegian will compete against his predecessor and former world-champion, Viswanathan Anand of India (number 9 in the world-ranking), the Armenian Levon Aronian (2), the American Hikaru Nakamura (3), the US-Italian Fabiano Caruana (6), as well as the Israeli Boris Gelfand (8).

This brilliant event, which will take place in the extraordinary familial environment of the ballroom of the Hotel Savoy, has already caught the attention and led to the registration of many journalists and top-players from throughout the world, including Peter Leko, Jan Timman and Gennadi Sosonko. Further, the Chinese women's world-champion Hou Yifan will attend this unique occasion and will be playing a simultaneous exhibition with clocks against 6 top Swiss juniors on 1 February at 1 p.m. at the Zurich «Zunfthaus zur Saffran».

For the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014», a blitz tournament will determine the color distribution on the first day. Five rounds of classical chess will then be played from Thursday to Monday (30 January to 3 February), followed by a rapid tournament with reversed colors on the last day (4 February). A won game in the classical tournament counts two points, draws one point. Wins in the rapid tournament count one point and draws half a point. All games will be commented live by GM Yannick Pelletier and IM Werner Hug and broadcast world-wide live via Internet on www.zurich-cc.com. Admission to the classical and rapid games of this formidable event is free and no previous registration of spectators is required!

The «Zurich Chess Club» was founded in 1809 and is the oldest active chess club of the world. With the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» it will continue its long-standing tradition of hosting top-level tournaments, which have included such memorable events as the «Candidate's Tournament 1953», the simul and rapid tournament of all living world-champions at at the Zurich main train station 2009, the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2012» with Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik as well as the «Zurich Chess Challenge 2013» with the four grand masters Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand.

The «Zurich Chess Club» is very proud to be the organizer and host of this unique event. Further, it would like to thank the main tournament sponsor and chess-enthusiast Oleg Skvortsov from the «International Gemological Laboratories» of Moscow, Russia, whose generous contribution has allowed for this extraordinary happening! We look forward to welcoming all our friends from throughout the chess world either at the Hotel Savoy or live via the Internet!

The «Zurich Chess Challenge 2014» will be the first encounter between India’s Viswanathan Anand and Norway’s Magnus Carlsen after their forthcoming world championship match in Chennai. From Wednesday, 29 January to Tuesday, 4 February 2014, they will compete in the 3rd Zurich Chess Challenge along with four other great chess stars Levon Aronian (Arm), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (It) and Boris Gelfand (Isr). With an average of 2794 Elo points (according to the September 13 rating list) this is going to be the strongest tournament in chess history.
The main sponsor is Oleg Skvortsov of the «International Gemological Laboratories», Moscow, with the Zurich Chess Club acting as organizer.

The owner of «IGC International Gemological Laboratories», Mr. Oleg Skvortsov, is the creator of this chess event. He not only loves chess, but also plays chess and supports several chess players. Furthermore, Mr. Skvortsov knows many of the greatest chess players in the world personally and has played a lot of games with them.

The first Zurich Chess Challenge in 2012 was a match between Kramnik and Aronian. The second event in 2013 was a double-round robin with Kramnik, Anand, Caruana and Gelfand.

For the 2014 edition, a blitz tournament will determine the color distribution. A round-robin tournament of five rounds with a classical time control is then followed by a rapid tournament with colors reversed on the last day of play. A won game in the classical tournament counts 2 points, a draw 1 point. Wins in the rapid tournament count 1 point and draws half a point.

All games will be commented by Yannick Pelletier and Werner Hug and broadcast live via Internet.