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And then there was Mtel already

7 May 2008 12:45 PM | Last modified: 14:10

Baku 2008 isn’t over yet and the third Grand Slam tournament of 2008 already starts: the Mtel Masters. Cheparinov and Radjabov fly from Baku to Sofia and face Aronian, Topalov, Ivanchuk, and Bu Xiangzhi. First round tomorrow.

The Mtel Masters 2008, a six-player double round-robin, takes place May 7 till May 18, 2008 in the Central Military Club in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Players are Veselin Topalov, Ivan Cheparinov, Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Bu Xiangzhi. ChessVibes will bring daily coverage of the tournament, and during the second half from Sofia!

Round 1: May 08, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 2: May 09, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 3: May 10, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 4: May 11, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 5: May 12, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)

Rest Day: May 13

Round 6: May 14, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 7: May 15, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 8: May 16, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 9: May 17, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)
Round 10: May 18, 15.00 EEST (13.00 CET)

Tie breaks: May 18, 19.00 EEST (17.00 CET)

The M-Tel Masters is part of the Grand Slam circuit that started on with the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The other competitions included are in Morelia-Linares and in Mexico City. The four winners will determine the winner of the Grand Slam at a final tournament in Bilbao in September.

Like in the previous three editions of M-Tel Masters, the rule for the draws introduced in Sofia will be valid. According to it the players do not have the right to agree a draw. This can be decided only by the chief arbiter of the tournament. In case of a draw at the top there will be a tie-break for determining the winner.

Special guest of the tournament is the legendary Boris Spassky. He will arrive on May 13th and will give commentary to the games of the last five rounds. On May 16 he will give a simultaneous exhibition against 16 Bulgarian journalists.

Yesterday three-times winner of the M-Tel Masters Veselin Topalov played a blindfold game with Jason Juett from the USA. The 23-year-old mathematician had won that prize by winning the game Play like Topalov, organized on the website of the tournament in 2007.

The players had 30 minutes each and unlike his opponent, the Bulgarian GM couldn’t see the board. The game ended in a draw and here’s footage by Europe-Echecs:

According to the ChessVibes poll that’s been running for a while, Aronian is the favorite for tournament victory:

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Written by peter | Filed under Coverstory, Tournaments 

Comments

15 Responses to “And then there was Mtel already”

  1. Horst on 7 May 2008 14:10 PM

    Where I can find the Live-games from M-Tel tournament ?
    There are no link from the homepage. Or do I miss something.

    Regards Horst

  2. peter on 7 May 2008 14:10 PM

    Let’s wait until tomorrow. ;-)

  3. Carl on 7 May 2008 16:43 PM

    Hi
    I dont get it, did topalov played all the game with his eyes covered all the time????
    I remember that there was another blindfold tournament lately between some good players, but they made moves by the computer, so it means that they didnt have any pieces on the board, only squars till the last move????
    How is that possible???
    Or they can see the board time to time???
    best regards

  4. pete on 7 May 2008 19:04 PM

    it is possible :), most of the GMs can play blindfolded chess

  5. arkansaw on 8 May 2008 1:21 AM

    really hope cheparinov can do better….he and radjabov practically have no rest between the two events

  6. GrossMeister Dries on 8 May 2008 1:42 AM

    Bu will be underestimated en finally will win Mtel 2008.

    By the way, are there some rules about visiting toilets and other highly suspicious themes? :P

  7. Lajos Arpad on 8 May 2008 4:59 AM

    They should sh*t on the stage to avoid any accusations if Topalov is not winning.

  8. Xtra on 8 May 2008 9:19 AM

    sofia rules
    §2.3 A player may visit the bathroom as many times as he/she likes during the game, but must be accompanied by an arbiter upon every visit after the 6th visit.

    no I just made that up. hehe

  9. Elkhan on 8 May 2008 11:54 AM

    It states that Mtel is a part of Grand Slam Circuit. I thought the recent tournament in Baku was also part of this cycle…can someone please clarify?

    Thanks!

  10. peter on 8 May 2008 15:33 PM

    No, Baku was part of the Grand Prix Series. Not related to the Grand Slam.

  11. Eiae on 8 May 2008 15:37 PM

    Live relay still not working for me. Just me or is it a Grand Scam?

  12. Tom on 8 May 2008 18:11 PM

    I can’t find a live feed that works either…. Probably good news as far as getting my work done goes, though.

  13. Jochem on 8 May 2008 18:16 PM

    Nope me neither, FICS has the moves though.

    Results:

    Aronian - Topalov 0-1
    Radjabov - Ivanchuk 0-1

    and Cheparinov seems to be winning with white against Bu

  14. Dimitar Panayotov on 8 May 2008 19:30 PM

    it seems there are some problems its working but somehow too slow and i needed to install the last java plugin to work but its working not very well unfortunately

  15. Did24 on 8 May 2008 21:27 PM

    Mistake in the wabsite tournament link

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