Pearl Spring chess tournament
Encyclopedia
The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament (中国(南京)国际象棋超级大赛) is a double round robin chess tournament
Chess tournament
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.Today, the most recognized chess...

 event featuring six super-GM players that takes place in Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. The first edition in December 2008 was won by Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....

. According to ChessVibes website, Silvio Danailov
Silvio Danailov
Silvio Danailov is a Bulgarian International Master chessplayer and the manager of two former FIDE world chess champions, Veselin Topalov and Ruslan Ponomariov....

 - the manager and coach of Topalov - said the Pearl Spring tournament has been "guaranteed for five years and will enter in Grand Slam [in 2009]." The second and third tournaments in 2009 and 2010 were both won by Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...

 in remarkable fashion, in a showing that has been rated as one of the best performances in chess history.

Together with Corus Chess Tournament
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...

 in the Netherlands, Linares Chess Tournament
Linares chess tournament
The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...

 in Spain, M-Tel Masters
M-tel Masters
M-Tel Masters is an annual super-GM chess tournament held since 2005 in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the leading Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. According to the regulations, each of the six participants plays two games against every other, thus making it a...

 in Bulgaria, and Grand Slam Masters Final
Bilbao Chess Masters Final
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final is one of the most important annual chess tournaments thanks to the level of the participants and the prizes at stake. It is a double round robin tournament typically featuring the winners of the grand slam chess tournaments which are part of the Grand Slam Chess...

 in Spain, Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament has become one of the five Grand Slam Tournaments in the world. It is the first in Asia and the only one in China.

Venue

The tournament is named after the venue, the Mingfa Pearl Spring Hotel located in Pukou District
Pukou District
Pukou , Jiangsu, China a district in the City of Nanjing which lies northwest across the Yangtze River from downtown Nanjing.The district was formerly the southern terminus of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway; railcars had to be ferried across the river until it was bridged in 1968.-Geography:Pukou...

 of Nanjing.

Organization

The tournament is organized by the Municipal People's Government of Nanjing and Chess & Cards Administration Center of General Administration of Sport of China, and the People's Government of Pukou District, Nanjing, and Nanjing Administration of Sport
  • Tournament Director: Wang Yonghong
  • Chief arbiter: Casto Abundo
  • Arbiters
    International Arbiter
    In chess, International Arbiter is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter in important chess matches . The title was established in 1951....

    : Tang Jianming, Feng Zhe, Zhang Jilin
    Zhang Jilin
    Zhang Jilin is a Chinese chess Woman Grandmaster.Zhang Jilin plays for Shandong chess club in the China Chess League .She also has the titles of FIDE Arbiter and FIDE Trainer.-WGM title:...



The organization web site does not disclose the player invitation criteria or protocol. In each of the first three years, one participant was of Chinese nationality.

Sponsorship

The tournament is sponsored by Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Yangzi Evening News, and Mundell International University of Entrepreneurship. The total prize fund is €250,000 with a first prize of €80,000.

Support

The tournament has received support from FIDE, the European Chess Union
European Chess Union
The European Chess Union is an independent association for the interests of European chess. It is based in Lausanne Switzerland.-Member Federations:* Albania - Federates Shgiptare te Shahul* Andorra - Federació d'Escacs Valls d'Andorra...

 (ECU) and the Asian Chess Federation.

Guests

Guests invited to the opening ceremony included Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov is a Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician. He was the President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and he has been the President of FIDE , the world's pre-eminent international chess organization, since 1995...

, President of the World Chess Federation; Boris Kutin, President of ECU; Sheikh Sultan, President of ACU and Liang Zhirong, Secretary-General of FIDE, Xu Jialu
Xu Jialu
Xu Jialu is vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and head of the College of Chinese Language and Culture at Beijing Normal University-Life:Xu was born in Beijing, though his ancestral home is in Huai'an, Jiangsu....

, Vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Nobel Prize winner, Robert A. Mundell.

2008

10-22 December

The six players were Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....

 of Bulgaria (Elo rating 2791, ranked first in the world); Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine (Elo rating 2786, ranked third in the world); Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...

 of Armenia (Elo rating 2757, ranked seventh in the world); Sergei Movsesian
Sergei Movsesian
Sergei Movsesian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster who used to play for Slovakia, but as of late 2010, Movsesian announced that he plays for his home country of Armenia...

 of Slovakia (Elo rating 2732, ranked thirteenth in the world); Peter Svidler
Peter Svidler
Peter Veniaminovich Svidler is a Russian chess grandmaster.He is six-time Russian champion ....

 of Russia (Elo rating 2727, ranked seventeenth in the world); Bu Xiangzhi
Bu Xiangzhi
Bu Xiangzhi is a Chinese chess grandmaster. In 1999, he became China's 10th Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 10 months, 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating line, after Wang Yue...

 of China (Elo rating 2714, ranked twenty-sixth in the world). With at least an Elo rating average of 2751.6, it was a category 21 tournament making it the strongest chess tournament ever held in China.
Participant 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points
1 * * ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 7.0
2 ½ 0 * * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 5.5
3 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ 0 ½ 0 1 1 5.0
4 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 * * ½ ½ 0 1 4.5
5 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ * * ½ ½ 4.0
6 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 1 0 ½ ½ * * 4.0

2009

September 27 - October 9 (Category 21, 2764)

First tournament of the Grand Slam series 2009-2010.
Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points Tiebreak
Neustadtl score
The Neustadtl score is a scoring system often used to break ties in chess tournaments. It is named after Hermann Neustadtl, who proposed it in a letter published in Chess Monthly in 1882....

 
Performance
1 2772 * * 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 8.0 3002
2 2813 0 ½ * * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5.5 2789
3 2736 0 ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.5 2735
4 2757 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ ½ 0 4.0 20.00 2695
5 2762 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ 4.0 19.25 2694
6 2742 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * * 4.0 17.25 2698

2010

The 3rd edition of the tournament took place from October 19 to October 30; with at least an Elo rating average of 2766, it was a category 21 tournament.
Participant Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points Tiebreak
Neustadtl score
The Neustadtl score is a scoring system often used to break ties in chess tournaments. It is named after Hermann Neustadtl, who proposed it in a letter published in Chess Monthly in 1882....

 
Performance
1 2826 * * ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 7.0 2901
2 2800 ½ ½ * * 0 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 6.0 2829
3 2736 0 ½ 1 0 * * 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 5.0 2776
4 2719 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ * * ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.5 23.00 2740
5 2762 0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ * * ½ 1 4.5 19.50 2724
6 2732 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 * * 3.0 2698

See also

  • List of strong chess tournaments
  • Grand Slam Chess Association
    Grand Slam Chess Association
    The Grand Slam Chess Association is a series of annual chess tournaments. As of March 2011, active members of the Grand Slam Chess Association include:*Pearl Spring chess tournament, held in October in Nanjing, China...

  • Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting
    Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting
    The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany.Dortmund is an invite-only event, and only the strongest grandmasters are invited...

  • Association of Chess Professionals
    Association of Chess Professionals
    The Association of Chess Professionals is a not-for-profit organisation, the closest thing in existence to a trade union for professional chess players. According to Article 2 of its terms:-History:...

  • Chess around the world
    Chess around the world
    Chess is played all over the world and is organised in different chess federations. These are organised on a national, supranational and international level...

  • FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2009

External links

  • Official website
  • ChessBase
    ChessBase
    ChessBase GmbH is a German company that markets chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates a server for online chess. Set up in 1998, it maintains and sells massive databases, containing most historic games, that permit analysis that had not been possible prior to computing...

    Reports for 2008, 2009
  • Pictures of the Pearl Spring Chess Tournament
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