Faaborg Midt Cup
The strongest Nordic players play blindfold chess at the Castle of Hvedholm on Funen, Denmark
16 year old Magnus Carlsen from Norway and the strongest Danish player, Peter Heine Nielsen, are the best Nordic chess players at present, and they are both competing in Faaborg-Midtfyn Cup, one of the strongest blindfold tournaments ever in chess.
The event is played February 2-4 at the wonderful, medieval looking Castle of Hvedholm close to the picturesque town of Faaborg, and the field is completed by the highest rated Swedish player, Emanuel Berg, and IM Steffen Pedersen, who is himself living in Funen. He may consider himself a modern knight trying his luck in duels with the favourites, and as he has two GM-norms and several tournament victories, and he has written 14 books on opening theory, he may well be a tough opponent.
With software, kindly provided by the Dutch firm Alldata, the event will be transmitted live via the internet at the address:
http://www.dsu.dk/faaborg-midtfyn-cup/
… where you will find the entire program, starting Friday afternoon at 2.30 p.m., with play Saturday from 10 a.m. – around 10 p.m. and finishing with finals Sunday from 9.30 a.m. to approximately 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday there will be a double round robin. On Sunday there will be finals for lst and 3rd place.
The players will fight for 30,000 DKK in prize money of which the winner will receive 10,000 DKK.
The event is a follow-up to last years Fibertex Cup in Aalborg:
http://www.dsu.dk/fibertex/index2.htm
that was won by Peter Heine Nielsen who defeated Magnus Carlsen in the decisive game.
Play will take place in the Mirror Room, and CGM Jørn Sloth, former world champion of correspondance chess, will comment on the games in the knightshall of the castle that has kept its traditional appearance at the same time as being modernized to a top modern conference centre.
Faaborg-Midtfyn Cup is another of those Funen chess events that during the latest decades has attracted the world’s attention. Others have been the match Bent Larsen – Curt Hansen, Politiken Cup featuring the Polgar sisters, the match Gary Kasparov – Curt Hansen in the knightshall of Valdemar’s Castle, Rehau-555 Cup in Kerteminde in which Shirov won one of his first great tournament victories, and SIS-MH Cup in which Anand played three strong Scandinavian GMs at Kongebrogården in Middelfart.
Further information:
Svend Novrup or + 45 65 323183
