Today the opening ceremony and drawing of lots of the Kings Tournament in Romania took place. Tomorrow we'll have Gelfand-Wang Yue, Nisipeanu-Radjabov and Carlsen-Ponomariov. Your editor-in-chief writes this brief, first report in Bazna, from where I'll provide daily videos throughout the event.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes off tomorrow with the first round. Against it's a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Again it's organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society "Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters.

Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna (where everyone is staying) after the rest day, because they fear the daily, half-an-hour ride to Medias might prove too uncomfortable. It's been pretty hot here the last few days, with temperatures way above 30 degrees Celcius (I was quite shocked when I left the airplaine in Sibiu) which isn't normal for this area.

The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. This is one reason why Gelfand loved to return to Bazna, as it is his favourite time control. I shook hands with him and all other five players in the hotel restaurant tonight, and everybody is in a good mood. They're already talking about a possible football match between the players and the journalists on the first rest day! Soccer fan Carlsen was wearing the outfit of the Norwegian national team and is surely watching lots of FIFA World Cup here when not preparing...

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won't see ultra-short draws in this tournament - no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website and thus having the opportunity to bring on-the-spot reports. I had to miss the drawing of lots, but chief arbiter Faik Gasanov handed me a piece of paper with the full pairings, which I give below:

Links

• Official website