– Good! I am coming!
With these words Alexei Shirov accepted to participate in Hasselbacken Chess Open, that will take place from April 30 through May 8, 2016 in Swedish capital Stockholm.
Stockholms Schacksällskap, one of the world’s oldest chess clubs, celebrates its 150 years jubilee with a grand tournament at the venerable Scandic Hotel Hasselbacken**** in the heart of The Royal Djurgården. The organizers provide hefty prize fund in total of 300 000 SEK (nearly 32,000 €), whereof 50 000 SEK (approximately 5,300 €) to the winner. More information here
Hasselbacken Chess Open official website/ Registration/ LIVE games with analysis
GM Alexei Shirov
Stockholms Schacksällskap thereby succeeded to get a true world star to the starting field April 30–May 8, 2016.
– It feels extremely nice to welcome Shirov to our tournament, and within Stockholms Schacksällskap we are of course proud to catch a 2700 player. When did that last happen in an Open in Sweden?, says Stefan Lindh, chairman of Stockholms Schacksällskap.
On www.2700chess.com, which follows every world star’s rating day by day, Alexei Shirov has 2702. It makes him number 42 in the world. On the FIDE list, which is updated more seldom, he has 2699 on the June list.
Shirov has for many years been part of the world top players. He became GM 1990 and won many tournaments in the 1990s, among others Biel 1991, Madrid 1997 and Monte Carlo 1998. The same year, 1998, he defeated Vladimir Kramnik in a challenge match and thereby grabbed the right to challenge Garry Kasparov in a World Championship match. Unfortunately the match fizzled out. In the year 2000 Shirov was close to winning FIDE’s World Championship tournament, but lost the final against Viswanathan Anand.
Shirov is still highly active in world chess, and he won two tournaments 2012, Riga and Bueños Aires. Perhaps his greatest tournament victory is from 2009, when he won the category 21 tournament M-tel Masters, a tournament where he among others defeated the World Champion of today, Magnus Carlsen. Shirov previously has been engaged in Stockholms Schacksällskap’s youth work. Among others he welcomed the Nordic woman champion Lisa Fredholm and the coach Luis Couso to Shirov’s Winter Cup a couple of years ago.
– Shirov has always been an inspiration source to us in Stockholms Schacksällskap, and it is very much thanks to Luis Couso that we have had this rewarding cooperation, which now continues in Hasselbacken Chess Open, Stefan Lindh says.
Hasselbacken venue
Contacts:
Press Officer Ingemar Falk: ingemar.falk@mail.com
Tel.: +46 73 644 63 05
Chairman Stefan Lindh: stefan.lindh@zengun.se
Tel.: +46 70 383 16 07
Arbiter Lars Dock: lars@dock.nu
Tel.: +46 70 777 77 50
Tournament email: info@hasselbackenchessopen.com