Bilbao: chess outside, in a glass cube

The Grand Slam Final, scheduled for September 1-13 in Bilbao, Spain will embroider on the theme of the M-Tel Masters: the players will make their moves in a glass cube, placed somewhere in the city centre.

Thanks to a press release, the official name of the tournament became known today: I Grand Slam Final Chess Masters Bilbao. The impressive prize fund will be distributed as follows: 1st 150,000 Eur, 2nd 70,000 Eur, 3rd 60,000 Eur, 4th 50,000 Eur, 5th 40,000 Eur and 6th 30,000 Eur. And as we had been speculating about last week, the special feature of the tournament is indeed a glass cube:

The games will be played inside a glass cube at the city centre of Bilbao. The glass cube will be absolutely soundproofed and air-conditioned.

The big advantage of the “aquarium” in Sofia was the possibility to have the audience sitting just a few metres away from the players, without having to whisper. They could even leave their mobile phones swiched on!

Besides that, this audience was treated with daily commentary by titled players, among them Boris Spassky, as you may recall. In Bilbao, the commentary will be provided by Leontxo Garcia together with Susan Polgar, also right next to the cube.

But the big difference between Bilbao and Sofia is of course the location of the cube: in September, the players will be playing their games outside, visible for everyone on their way to work or walking their dog.

At the end of the M-Tel Masters, Silvio Danailov had mentioned a similar idea as a possibily for next year’s event, but the Spaniards will have the world premier.

Last week the definite field of participants was already confirmed by the organizers:

The Bilbao 2008 participants: Aronian, Anand, Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Topalov and Radjabov

Here’s a Bilbao promo video:

Previous reports on the Grand Slam:

• Radjabov completes field Bilbao
• Grand Slam Tournament announced
• Press conference Grand Slam Chess Association
• Grand Slam Chess Association established