The Easter holidays are a festive season for German chess fans. This year is no exception, with the GRENKE Chess Classic 2017 being held from 15th to 22nd April.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who won the last GRENKE Chess Classic in 2015, will again be competing, ready to defend his title.
His strongest competitors are top ten players Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian. Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch will once again be joining the race for tournament victory. Naiditsch, competing for Azerbaijan, stood up brilliantly to the World Champion two years ago. In a legendary final he fought against Carlsen in a tiebreak for the title, which the Norwegian only claimed in a final Armageddon game.
Grenke Chess Classic 2017 will be live on Chessdom and you can also follow it live on your mobile via the Chess Arena phone application.
Magnus Carlsen
The organizers of the GRENKE Chess Classic 2017 are also pleased to announce the participation of Hou Yifan, the strongest female chess player in the world. Yifan is one of eight players in a line-up complemented by German national players Matthias Blübaum and Georg Meier.
For the 19-year-old Blübaum it is his first time participating in a grandmaster tournament of this category and will be a great challenge. He qualified for this year’s Chess Classic by winning the GRENKE Chess Open 2016.
The following eight grandmasters will be competing against each other in a round-robin tournament at the GRENKE Chess Classic 2017 (Elo ratings according to the list of 1st March 2017):
Magnus Carlsen, World Champion, Elo: 2838, Norway
Fabiano Caruana, Number 3 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2817, USA
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Number 5 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2803, France
Levon Aronian, Number 9 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2774, Armenia
Arkadij Naiditsch, Number 41 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2702, Azerbaijan
Hou Yifan, Number 110 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2649, China
Matthias Blübaum, Number 148 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2632, Germany
Georg Meier, Number 154 on the world ranking list, Elo: 2630, Germany
GRENKE Chess Classic 2017 Schedule:
15th to 17th April 2017: rounds 1 to 3 held at the Schwarzwaldhalle Karlsruhe (running parallel to the afternoon round of the Open)
18th April 2017: rest day and move to Baden-Baden
19th to 22nd April 2017: rounds 4 to 7 held at the Event Akademie Baden-Baden
