Next year’s Linares may be played in UAE as well
Linares 2009 live games
The Linares 2009 chess tournament has been officially opened on the 18th of February. The ceremony took place in the Teatro Cervantes, more details of which will be revealed later today on Chessdom.com.
For now, here is the most interesting for the chess audience. The drawing of lots took place during the event and the pairings are already known. Vishwanathan Anand will begin against Teimour Radjabov. Magnus Carlsen will have black against Levon Aronian, Dominguez will be white against Grischuk, and Wang Yue will also have white against Ivanchuk.
As tomorrow is rest day in the match Topalov – Kamsky, there will be two live games commentariest on Chessdom.com – Anand – Radjabov and Aronian – Carlsen. The games will start at 16:00 CET.
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony of the XXVI Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares was led by the vice president of the Andalucia government, Gaspar Zarrías. Mr. Gaspar Zarrias underlined that the tournament is the current face of the city in front of the world.
Juan Fernandez revealed that during the tournament plans for a Grand Slam constitution will be made. He hinted the tournament can become the center of a mind sports competition event, not revealing if the one he is talking to is the World Mind Sports Games.
During the ceremony the audience could enjoy local dances and a promotional video of Linares, but no one expected the following news.
Breaking news by Chessdom.com
Chessdom.com brings you the breaking news of the day, there is a possibility next year’s Linares to be played in two different countries as well. The previous editions were shared with the Spanish city of Morelia. This time interest has been shown by the United Arab Emirates chess federation. Negotiations are going on at this moment, but it is very probable that Spain and UAE share the tournament next year.
The President of the chess federation of UAE, Sulaiman al-Fahim, is expected to arrive in Linares on Friday. Juan Fernández commented, “The negotiations are very advanced, however, we are not sure if the host city will be Abu Dhabi or Dubai.
Sulaiman al-Fahim
Dr. Sulaiman al-Fahim is the president of the UAE Chess Association. He is CEO of Hydra Propertiesand is often reffered to as the Abu Dhabi version of Donald Trump. On September 1st 2008 the Abu Dhabi United Group, of which Al-Fahim is a part, completed the potential take over of Premier League football team Manchester City. Within hours of the take over deal being finalized, ADUG financed the purchase of Robinho for a British transfer record of £32.5 million. He has also said that he wants to bring in players such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Javier Mascherano, John Terry, Philip Lahm, Fabio Cannavaro, Kaká. Also Francesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Gianluigi Buffon, Cristiano Ronaldo, and David Villa are said to be targets for the Manchester club. To these targets now we can add the Linares chess tournament.
More updates to come
Stay tuned for more details, photos will appear as well in the Linares photo album.
