Second edition of Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour to be held in June 2017, with Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Vassily Ivanchuk and Baadur Jobava.
Leuven, Belgium – 22 May 2017 – After the success of the first edition held in 2016, the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour chess tournament will again take place in the historical City Hall of Leuven from Wednesday 28th June to Sunday 2nd July.
The best chess players in the world will compete, including reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), former World Champions Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Viswanathan Anand (India), and the 2016 GCT winner Wesley So (USA).
The tournament forms part of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour, a series of 5 global chess events organized in some of the leading cities in the world. The prize money for the 2017 tournament in Leuven totals US$ 150.000.
The players will compete in both Rapid and Blitz chess during the 5-day event with each player taking part in a total of 27 individual games. Both formats are much faster than the classical chess often seen in traditional chess tournaments. Rapid games typically last less than one hour while Blitz chess is even faster with both players having less than 5 minutes each to complete all their moves.
Chess fans can enjoy the experience of seeing the greatest players competing live in Leuven or they can watch the games on streaming broadcasts, complete with grandmaster commentary. In 2016, more than 1,500 chess fans attended the event in person while the online broadcast reached more than 300,000 chess enthusiasts.
This year’s event will see well known British GM Nigel Short hosting the live commentary at the tournament venue. He will be joined by GM Maurice Ashley from the USA with the pair also featuring as part of the live broadcast production. A separate Spanish commentary stream will also be broadcast this year to cater for the rapidly increasing Spanish chess audience.
The 2017 event will further be boosted by with the addition of a travelling exhibition from the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) in St Louis, USA. This exhibition will be installed in the City Hall of Leuven for the full 5-day duration of the tournament and will feature legendary items from chess history from the WCHOF collection. Art and artifacts that will be on display include Yoko Ono’s Play it by Trust (2002), the Hamilton-Russell Cup, and Bobby Fischer’s copy of Weltgeschichte des Schachs Lieferung 27, Boris Spassky:355 Partien (also known as the “red book”), featuring handwritten notes from Fischer’s preparations for the 1972 World Chess Championship.
Spectators who wish to attend the tournament in person are required can register for tickets via the official tournament site at http://grandchesstour.org/YourNextMove.
Registration will open on Wednesday May 24th, at 8 PM CET and tickets will be allocated on a first come basis. The tournament venue can accommodate approximately 300 spectators per day so chess fans are encouraged to apply as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
For more information and for registrations, visit http://grandchesstour.org/YourNextMove
