Grand Prix in Zug(!) Starts Today (Thursday)
Zug, Switzerland: How's that for a place name for a chess tournament? Starting later today (or tomorrow still, for some of you) is a 12-player FIDE Grand Prix event, and it's a very good one. Not only is it strong, which it must be by the nature of the Grand Prix tournaments, it is also loaded with interesting, fighting players. Here are the pairings for round 1, which will begin at 14:00 local time (=8:00 a.m. ET):
- Alexander Morozevich (2758) - Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2709)
- Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2766) - Ruslan Ponomariov (2733)
- Fabiano Caruana (2772) - Teimour Radjabov (2793)
- Sergey Karjakin (2786) - Hikaru Nakamura (2767)
- Anish Giri (2727) - Veselin Topalov (2771)
- Peter Leko (2744) - Gata Kamsky (2741)
It's quite the field: everyone is over 2700, there are three former FIDE world champions (Kasimdzhanov, Ponomariov and Topalov) and two others who "only" lost in world championship finals (Leko and Kamsky), a host of prodigies with good chances to challenge for the highest title in years to come, and if Mamedyarov and especially Morozevich are too old to be shoehorned into the latter category, they are still thrilling and creative players whose participation will add to the event's interest.
I don't know how much energy I'll have to blog the tournament, but I'll certainly be watching. And maybe by the end of the event, on April 30, I'll really be back into the swing of things.
Reader Comments (3)
Quite frankly, I can't see anything wrong with Zug. Granted, it's not London or Paris, but to me it sounds infinitely better than Middle-of-nowhere, Siberia, where factors like who's best adapted to freezing temperatures have a little more influence on the course of things than they should have (i.e. than naught) and the only reason it's there seems to be because Martians have commanded so to a certain chess executive of doubtful sanity.
[DM: Unless I really wrote poorly last night (always possible under present circumstances!) you're misunderstanding me. I wasn't addressing the place but the place name - "Zug" - the idea being its connection to chess words like "zugzwang" and "zwischenzug". I know nothing about the town or city itself, but Switzerland is in general a prosperous and attractive country that's easier for non-Siberians to reach, so like you I see no reason to complain about the location.]
From the Wikipedia entry for Zug:
"The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish."
Twelve strong players will be fishing for wins!
I don't think Kajetan was criticizing your choice of opening line (no pun intended). He's just commenting on the European locale as better than the Siberian venues.