Reyes, Rubens and Callaghan

Some 300 people have this week travelled to Gibraltar for the2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival. As it enters its eighth edition there is little doubt it has become one of the capitals of chess in the world, and one of the major open tournaments. The Caleta Hotel will see the chess stars moving into position this afternoon for 10 days in the Rock’s biggest annual international event with a series of tournaments running simultaneously: the Masters, the Challengers and the Amateurs. This year the field is stronger than ever with most of the top names competing including current and former world champions. In total there are some 240 players, with some 40 Grand Masters.

Brian Callaghan

Brian Callaghan, organiser of the festival, believes this event from year one has also seen tremendous benefits for Gibraltar as a whole, which should be promoting more events of this nature based on what he describes as ‘Event-tourism’.

“Without any doubt, and we have grown into this position over the years. Gibraltar is a wonderful venue for ‘event-tourism’ and the tourist industry should move along the lines of developing more events so that people actually come to Gibraltar and enjoy Gibraltar as a by-product, of a special event that they are ‘coming to do’, whether, it is to play cricket, hockey, athletics backgammon, or chess. I believe we have wonderful facilities, and I feel we can make good use of those facilities, and as a by product people come and visit the shopping centre, go to the upper rock, and other tourist attractions.”

Peter Sidvler 2009 Winner.

Putting this into effect, the chess tournament has grown beyond anyone’s wildest expectations, and Mr Callghan recognises even beyond his own “wildest dreams”.

“My wildest dream was that we would build a reputation locally, and develop the tournament and Gibraltar into the place where chess players would want to come and play. This year we have 28 people from Norway for example, which is an enormous accolade for Gibraltar that individuals from a country such as Norway want to come and play here.

“We have over 40 countries represented. For the first time attracted the world champion, we have two other world champions, we have previous world champions, so we keep raising the bar. We are already a capital city of chess, we already operate and run the best open chess tournament in the world, and I think we can say very clearly that Gibraltar has been able to develop a reputation of being able to organise a world event of this nature, a place where people can enjoy themselves, and they want to come and do their own thing, and it could be chess or anything else. “

Alan Gravett from Gib again plays in the Challengers.

“ In that sense I feel we have developed enormous friends amongst the world friends. The reach of the tournament worldwide is enormous from Peru to Australia, and many journalists visit Gibraltar specifically for the tournament.

“We have done extremely well, we are the best open chess tournament, a capital city of chess, and this links in perfectly with our other major plusses of being a financial centre of integrity, expertise and skill, which clearly we are and I feel that chess fits in well with this package, and I am delighted that we have done so well with all the support with the people who make it happen. “

BROADCASTING TO THE WORLD

Chess team with Stuart Conquest and Gibtelecom Brandon Saccone.

But he is quite adamant that without the support of the lead sponsor Gibtelecom, and their CE Tim Bristow who is really enthusiast about chess generally, and without their expertise, the tournament would not have been able to develop as fast.

He says: “chess has grown as a result of the internet world wide and because now you can play on the internet. The broadcasting of this event over the internet of the first 10 boards creates enormous interest, and last year we had 54 million hits, which means 350,000 people with individual hits, all looking at Gibraltar.

“The technology base provided by our lead sponsor has made this possible and without that we would have been a little better than a regional tournament, but the reach, the ability and expertise that Gibtelecom has brought to this tournament has really raised the level. “

This year the tournament is developing a new way of analysing and broadcasting live games on the internet which goes on air today from 3pm.

“The future of developing any event like this on the world stage, and to get it on to the world stage one has to be able to get it onto the internet in a manner which is friendly to the customer and has a good visual experience,” he adds, “and that is what we are doing.”

The hotel has built a new broadcasting suite ‘the Archie Suite’ for this year, an investment of £100,000 in conjunction with engineers from Gibtelecom, which becomes operational today.

Around the Chess board

THE WOMENS GAME

General manager of the Caleta Hotel, Franco Ostuni, and Mr Callghan, visited the Hastings tournament in the early days, the oldest in the world which takes place in January, and felt they could do it better.

“We proved that point, and we noticed the few number of women players, and we felt we could give emphasis to that too, we are small and our only constraint in this event is size, and therefore tournaments of 600 and over were clearly beyond our scope, and had to look at niche areas within the chess, and the encouragement of women’s chess which they were also seeking at the same time, fitted in well.”

This meant that in this tournament the professional women players can earn somewhere in the region of £23,000 in prize money, which is substantial in women’s chess.

“The interest that the chess world is showing in the development of the women’s game is creeping up every day, it is developing, and there will be a major movement in making it more comparable with men’s chess. But it is a fact that not nearly so many women want to play chess, and that is also being worked on at school level throughout all chess communities.”

From the hotel point of view, the tournament brings new life in one of the dullest months in terms of occupancy numbers – for the next 11 days the hotel will revolve around the chess players because most of the clients in the hotel are here for the tournament.

Stephen Whatley is also playing.

 

HOTEL NUMBERS

Franco Ostouni, the hotel’s general manager, points out that the 11 days of chess produces in the hotel, the same number of room nights, the largest or leading tour operator produces for the whole year.

“ This is why developing events in Gibraltar is a way of attracting new business and a very good way of attracting tourists,” he says, pointing that this tournament also produces a spill of clients into the other local hotels.

“What you have to consider is, that if the hotel did not have this chess event, we would have between 120 and 150 clients, who clearly are staying elsewhere because we are full. It does not matter really where the business is going, because it is clear that if one of the leading hotels locally has a conference for three days, it is inevitable that all others will benefit from such an event indirectly, and take a share of the market because some other hotel is full.”

Feddy Poggio returns this year to play in the Amateurs.

SUPPORT FOR CHESS

Meanwhile Brian Callaghan knows the festival continues to grow in stature and popularity. As it becomes more recognised around the world as one of the top five leading tournaments in the world, the pressure too keeps mounting, and that is why it is developing its secretariat team. But in all this the sponsors are paramount. The main sponsor Gibtelecom has invested over £350,000 over the past eight years.

He says: “In the early days we pushed it out to some friends who were very supportive, as was the government, and nobody at that stage believed that we would be able to get to where we are. The sponsorship base, the largest and most sustained private sector led sponsorship of any kind locally, ever, has meant the success or failure of this festival, and the Gibraltar government have climbed with us and joined with that private sponsorship lead. The private sponsors provide about two or three times the funds that the Gibraltar government provide, which are substantial, and the Gibraltar government individually is the largest single sponsor, and without that support the tournament would not be able to continue.”

Chess generally has developed right across the community too. It has inspired many youngsters to take up the game, and today 13 local schools have set up chess clubs, including Bayside and Westside.

“It is in this area where chess in Gibraltar has developed the most. It was the underlying factor from the start and the festival supported that because all the sponsorship money that went into it also supported coaching teams to visited Gibraltar four times a year to teach in our schools. We now send children to the UK, international events throughout the year and it is growing and it could not be better,” he adds.

International arena , Mr Callghan continues to be ambitious, and hopes that in the future, Gibraltar can host the woman’s world championship and other major world events, which has the focus of the world press.

WHO TO LOOK OUT FOR

Players in the 2010 event include Etienne Bacrot from France, Sergei Movsesian from Slovakia and Francisco Vallejo Pons, Spain’s top Spanish Grand Master participating in the tournament for the very first time. The current Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, the world number two woman player Humpy Koneru from India, and the world number three, Hou Yifan from China, are all in Gibraltar. Humpy Koneru from India a possible contender for the overall first prize too. A year or so ago she became only the second woman player in chess history to reach a rating of 2600, putting her in the company of the legendary Judit Polgar. Gata Kamsky one of the greatest chess prodigies of all time, will also be playing in the 2010 Gibtelecom Masters, he is only 35 years of age. The British challenge is led by Michael Adams. He is a past World number 4 and reached the final of the World Championship. But it is not all about high ratings. Jorge Cori Tello and his sister Deysi Cori Tello won the World Under-14 and World Girls Under-16 Championships quite recently. They are from Peru, the first time players have come here from that country. Aryan Tori (1932 Norway) is at 10 the youngest competitor. Dimitrij Mahon (1780 Czech Republic) is the Czech Over 80 Champion.

Admission is free to spectators and there is commentary in the afternoon by English grandmaster Stuart Conquest. You can find further details on www.gibraltarchesscongress.com

PLAYING IN GIBRALTAR

by Stewart Reuben, Tournament Director

Stewart Rubens playing with young players.

 

The physical sports with which chess can be best compared are those like tennis or snooker. They are one on one contests. The five tournaments at the Festival will see all the players play one game per day for the whole period, that is 10 days and there will be about 200 throughout the Masters. How is this possible?

If it were a knockout then 100 people would be going home after just one game. If it were a round robin, that would require 199 games. Instead the Swiss system is used. In the first round the players are paired together. After that the players are paired together who have the same score. Thus player A wins his first game and loses his second; player B loses his first game and wins his second; player C draws both his games. All three are then treated identically in round 3. There is another rule that two players can play each other only once. Since it is an advantage to have the white pieces, an attempt is made to ensure everybody finishes with 5 whites and 5 blacks. The system relies on the fact that about 20% of chess games at this level are drawn. In the Gibtelecom Masters it is most unlikely that there will be more than one player with 6/6. In a knockout it would require 8 rounds to achieve the same effect.

Players come from all over the world to play in Gibraltar. Only perhaps a few professionals would be happy to pack their bags after just one day. The Swiss System is much friendlier towards non-professional players and is more efficient.

WHY PLAYERS CHOOSE GIBRALTAR?

*The Gibtelecom Masters is highly prestigious. If you do well here, it will improve your status in the chess community. The career of the very well-known English player, Nigel Short was somewhat in the doldrums. Then he won the tournament here and his results improved elsewhere.

*Players can get title results here which contribute towards his/her goal of becoming, in descending order a Grandmaster, Woman Grandmaster, International Master or Woman International Master. Women can aspire to all four titles. Other players can hope to improve their Ratings and still others to get their first Rating. This is the first rung on the ladder to international success.

*In no other sport is it quite likely that you will meet a player of much higher status than yourself. The bar at the Caleta hotel pulsates in the evening to the sound of players discussing their games. Anybody can join in, irrespective of their playing strength, age or gender. Chess is truly democratic.

*But the real attraction for most of the players is none of the above 4. Chess is an enjoyable game to play in order to pit your wits against your opponent with no possibility of luck entering into the equation. Oh - and the weather in Gibraltar is much better at this time of year than most other places and it is a tourist destination.