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):
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.