ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2023

Wizard from Riga comes to Prague

[25.05.2023 00:00:00] - Grandmaster Alexey Shirov will be the main guest of the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2023 chess festival from 9 to 11 June in the Grégr Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. He will play an eight-game rapid chess match with the Czech number two, Grandmaster Thai Dai Van Nguyen, as well as a simul against 25 opponents. If you also want to try to play in the simul against Grandmaster Shirov (on Sunday 11 June at 2 pm), you can sign up by email (prazska.sachova@gmail.com), the price is 1990 CZK.

David Navara, the best Czech chess player, will be commentating on the duel of the grandmasters in the Municipal House. It will be a reminiscence of the first Prague match between the Czech national team member and a world-class player, which is organized annually by the Prague Chess Society. In 2004, at the Kampa Stará zbrojnice hotel, it was the Latvian-Spanish chess player Alexej Širov who defeated the Czech number one David Navara.



Grandmaster Shirov defeated Grandmaster Navara in the 2004 Prague match at the Kampa Stará zbrojnice Hotel. This year he will face Thai Dai Van Nguyen in the Municipal House.

Alexey Shirov (50 years old) won the World Under-16 Championship and was the World Under-20 Vice-Champion. He won many international tournaments (Biel 1991, Madrid 1997, Monte Carlo 1998, Merida 2000, Tallinn 2004 and 2005, Sofia 2009...). In 1998, he was ranked the 4th in the world on the rating list, which led him to play a candidate match with Vladimir Kramnik for the right to challenge Garry Kasparov for the world championship. Shirov won the candidate match, but never played Kasparov for the chess throne, as the required financial backing could not be secured. Vladimir Kramnik eventually played a world championship match with Kasparov, defeating the world chess legend and becoming the fourteenth world champion in history. Alexei Shirov pointed out that Kramnik did not qualify for the title match and that FIDE should therefore not have recognized his result.

In addition to the grandmaster match, the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2023 festival also attracts spectators to chess lectures, the launch of new chess books, and an exhibition of chess-themed paintings. Tickets (price 120 CZK / day) can be booked by email (prazska.sachova@gmail.com).

| Pavel Matocha | visits(509x)