If you are planning to visit Mexico and you are a chess fan at heart, the month of November might be the best time for you. The largest festival, including the two top rated players in the world, multiple open events, simuls, chess-dance-and-music programs, lectures, conferences, and much more, is to be played in Mexico City.
The second edition of the Grand Fiesta UNAM, the tournament that amazed the world back in 2010, is going to take place again this year. From 21st to the 25th of November one of the largest chess festivals in the world is going to be held in Mexico.
Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Lazaro Bruzon, and Manuel Leon Hoyos will participate in the headliner event included in the festival – the Torneo Cuadrangular. The players will also give a blindfold simul and participate in multiple other parallel events of the festival (more details about it later today at the Spanish version of Chessdom).
Magnus Carlsen vs The World
On Saturday 24th of November, the world number one Magnus Carlsen will play against the team of “The World”. The game will be played from the Sala Magna Nezahualcoyotl of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) starting at 12:00 local time.
The tournament will be a variant of vote chess. Three GMs will be suggesting what they consider to be the best moves in the game, while the audience will choose between them in a given time frame.
Magnus will play on two boards, one of them against 2000 players in the Sala Magna Nezahualcoyotl, while on the other against thousands of internet spectators.
Poster of the Carlsen vs The World (click on image for full size view)
Open tournaments
The festival Segunda Gran Fiesta UNAM is going to have multiple open tournaments. A main event will be open for everyone , while there are separate events for U2000, U1800, U1600, and unrated. Besides, three tournaments are setup especially for children, the groups being U15, U12, and U9.
All tournaments are valid for FIDE and national rating. Section I (open for all) will be 9 rounds Swiss event, while the others are 7 rounds. The children sections are 6 rounds Swiss each.
The total prize fund is 575,000$ mnx (close to $ 50 000 USD).
It is important to note that the maximum number of players accepted at this moment is 1500 people, signup is possible via http://ajedrezunam.mx/registro
Accommodation
The festival Segunda Gran Fiesta UNAM provides a preferential list of hotels starting for as low as $50 USD/night accommodation.
Download hotel offer 1 / Download hotel offer 2
Signup via the official website http://ajedrezunam.mx/
Telephones: + (52)-(55) 5680 4113 + (52)-(55) 5680 4128 + (52)-(55) 5680 4109
Discounted hotel offer, click on image for full size view
Discounted hotel offer, click on image for full size view
