The Gibraltar Chess Festival – All You Need To Know
The Gibraltar Chess Festival, previously known as the Tradewise Chess Festival and the Gibtelecom Gibraltar Chess Festival, is one of the most important and awaited annual events in the world of professional chess. It is hosted in the beginning of every year and sees an ever-increasing number of international chess grandmasters duelling each other on the chess boards. The festival’s popularity has grown greatly, so much so that it has acquired somewhat of a legendary status. In this guide we are going to bring you up to speed on the topic of the Gibraltar Chess Festival, by going over the event’s history, the famous winners from previous years, the programme for the upcoming 2020 edition and a lot more.
Gibraltar Chess Tournament – History of the Event
To begin with, the Gibtelecom Gibraltar Chess Festival, as it was first named, started back in 2003 and has taken plae ever since. It is an eleven day long annual event that usually happens in the last days of January and the beginning of February. As a testimony to its scale and importance, 59 competitors took place in the very first edition, 24 of whom held the FIDE Grandmaster title, which is the highest award, beside a world championship, that a chess player can receive. It is therefore quite apparent that the chess festival in Gibraltar is one of the most prominent and anticipated competition in the world of professional chess.
The main event itself takes place at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar and lasts 5 days. It sees a huge number of world class chess grandmasters playing against each other for the title. Throughouth the years, players from more than 10 different nationalities have won the tournament. Vasilios Kotronias from Greece, Higher Short from England, Levon Aronian from Armenia, Kiril Georgiev from Bulgaria, Hikaru Nakamura from the USA are just a few examples of the many well-known players who have won the competition so far. In 2011 Tradewise Insurance Company became the main sponsor of the event and the name was changed to Tradewise Chess Festival. This was also the first of four consecutive years in which the festival won the Best Open Event award by the Association of Chess Professionals for its main event.
Since 2019, Tradewise are no longer sponsors, hence the name was once again changed to the Gibraltar International Chess Festival. In that year, 250 players took part in the Masters group alone, 14 of whom had an impressive Elo rating of over 2700! Amongst them were chess grandmasters like Yu Yangyi, Wesley So, David Navara, Akradij Naiditsch, Maxime Vachier, Levon Aronian and many more. Surprisingly, it wasn’t any of them that walked away with the title, but the Russian debutant Vladislav Artemiev. A large number of female players was also present, in part thanks to the large special prizes awarded to the best women in the tournament. All in all, 7 out of the top 10 female chess players on the planet took part at the 2019 edition of the festival.
2019 Gibraltar Chess Results and Famous Winners
As you would expect from such a well-organized tournament, which has received world-wide recognition, some pretty famous players have taken part throughout the years. Unfortunately, the list of all the participants from the past 17 years is way too long to include. Thus. We’ve decided to present you with the names of all the winners from 2003 until the latest edition that took place in January this year.
| Year | Name | Country of Origin |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Vasilios Kotronias | Greece |
| Nigel Short | United Kingdom | |
| 2004 | Nigel Short | United Kingdom |
| 2005 | Levon Aronian | Armenia |
| Zahar Efimenko | Ukraine | |
| Kiril Georgiev | Bulgaria | |
| Alexei Shirov | Spain | |
| Emil Sutovsky | Israel | |
| 2006 | Kiril Georgiev | Bulgaria |
| 2007 | Vladimir Akopian | Armenia |
| 2008 | Hikaru Nakamura | United States |
| 2009 | Peter Svidler | Russia |
| 2010 | Michael Adams | United Kingdom |
| 2011 | Vassily Ivanchuk | Ukraine |
| 2012 | Nigel Short | United Kingdom |
| 2013 | Nikita Vitiugov | Russia |
| 2014 | Ivan Cheparinov | Bulgaria |
| 2015 | Hikaru Nakamura | United States |
| 2016 | Hikaru Nakamura | United States |
| 2017 | Hikaru Nakamura | United States |
| 2018 | Levon Aronian | Armenia |
| 2019 | Vladislav Artemiev | Russia |
As you can see from the table above, the winners of the tournament, just like the festival itself, are truly multicultural. This is one of the greatest strengths of the event, as it is seen by both players and fans as a smaller world championship, which, however, is just as exciting. Another great feature is the fact that female chess players are really well represented at the Gibraltar Chess Festival. For example, eight of the ten best women in the world of professional chess were present and competing during the 2019 edition.
Gibraltar Chess Festival 2020 Edition – What to Expect?
Similarly, to previous years, the next instalment of the Gibraltar Chess Festival is going to feature 5 tournaments. The main event – the Masters will take place between Tuesday 21 January and Thursday 30 January. It is going to be open to all and will follow the well-recognized 10 round Swiss system. The other four competitions are the Challengers A and B and the Amateurs A and B. They will be open for participants with a FIDE rating of under 2250 and 1900 respectively and will be half as long. Other events that both participants and spectators should be looking forward to are the gala dinner and the Battle of the Sexes game.
The latter is an extremely funny and entertainment event that has become somewhat of a trademark of the festival. It is a game that features two teams, one made up of only male players and the other of only females. The players, of course, are some of the best chess grandmasters in the world. These two teams will be positioned on a boxing court which has a floor that looks like a giant chessboard. The two teams will then play a few games for time and the rule is that players have to go in a consecutive order. It is an extremely amusing event to watch and a must if you are planning on visiting the festival.
How to Follow the Event?
If you are planning on going to the Gibraltar Chess Festival in 2020 or following it on the Internet, our best advice is to familiarise yourselves with the comprehensive daily schedule on the festival’s website. Another key step to fill in your email address and full name on the main page in order to receive the most recent updates and news features from the tournaments. In case you decide on flying to The Rock and attending the festival, then on the webpage you will find some really useful information about accommodation. On the other hand, if you are not planning on going to Gibraltar, then you can follow the social network accounts of the festival on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and stay up to date at all times.
The Future of the Gibraltar Chess Festival
When it comes to the future of the Gibraltar Chess Festival, it is quite hard to come up with a clear prediction, as the organizers are posting schedules for only one year in advance. However, given the event’s striking success and its constantly increasing popularity, we believe that it will continue to take place for many more years to come. Moreover, studies conducted by AGON ltd, the company that has been set up to organize and promote the commercial events of the World Chess Championship competition cycle, show that chess has increased its popularity multiple times, in the last 40 years. For example, there were just under 2,000 FIDE rated players from the countries of China and India, while now there are over 85,000 of them. This is a staggering increase in the popularity of this ancient game and a certain sign that Gibraltar Chess Festival, just like the other world-class chess related events will continue to prosper in the years to come.