Details:
Gibraltar Post is issuing a set of stamps dedicated to the Gibraltar Chess festival 10th Anniversary.The Gibraltar International Chess
Festival, now one of the most prestigious open tournaments in the world,
began as a much smaller event in 2003. Its popularity has grown year on
year, and today well over 300 participants, players of all levels,
return to the Rock every January, many calling Gibraltar their favourite
event on the chess calendar. For eleven days the festival venue, the
Caleta Hotel, is transformed into a hive of chess activity.
In a separate development, the
first Gibraltar International Junior Chess Festival took place in
August, 2011. Children from the UK, Spain, and Gibraltar took part. Over
the past decade, thanks to a dedicated teaching programme, many
hundreds of children in Gibraltar have received chess tuition at school.
One young Gibraltarian, Stephen Whatley, has scored notable tournament
successes in the UK, while several other young local players show
similar promise, with more juniors keen to follow.
The games featured on the stamps have been specially chosen as
representing the best of the many thousands contested in Gibraltar over
the past decade. All the players shown are grandmasters. Two are women.
Pia Cramling (Sweden) has played in all ten Gibraltar festivals, while
Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine) won the top female award in 2010. Michael
Adams, Nigel Short (both England) and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) are all
former Gibraltar champions. Viktor Bologan (Moldova) and Fabiano
Caruana (Italy) are elite players with aggressive styles popular with
the public. Chess legend Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) fought two World
Championship matches with arch-rival Anatoly Karpov.(source-Stamp News)
No comments:
Post a Comment