Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess Tournament 2018
Entries are now being accepted for the 2018 edition of the Chess.com Isle of Man International Chess Tournament, to be held in Douglas from 20 to 28 October, yet again made possible by substantial sponsorship from the Scheinberg family, to whom the organisers are extremely grateful.
The Masters’ is expected to be the world’s strongest open tournament this year, with many elite players in a field of up to 174 players. In addition, there will be two subsidiary, FIDE rated tournaments aimed at club players, the Major and Minor. Entry forms and Terms & Conditions for all three sections are now available via the home page of our website.
The Masters will again be run as a 9 round Swiss, with a prize fund of £137,500, including £50,000 for first prize, £25,000 for second, £12,500 for third, and four-figure sums down to eleventh place. Women’s prizes total £15,750, including a first prize of £7,000.
So far, eight of the world’s top twelve players on the latest FIDE rating list have committed to playing in the tournament: ex-World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik (world number 4); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (5); Hikaru Nakamura (6); Wesley So (7); Ding Liren (8); Vice World Champion, Sergey Karjakin (9); ex-World Champion, Vishy Anand (11); and Levon Aronian (12). Other big names include Michael Adams and Nigel Short of England; Radek Wojtaszek of Poland; Alexei Shirov of Latvia; and Gata Kamsky of USA. We are also expecting a strong line-up of female players, including former Women’s World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.
The tournament will again be held in the prestigious Royal Hall of the Villa Marina, with the backing of the Isle of Man Department For Enterprise. We are also grateful to Manx Technology Group, once again providing invaluable IT support and equipment throughout the event.
Chess.com, the world’s leading online chess site, will again be streaming live coverage of the tournament over 9 days, with commentary from Grandmaster Daniel King and International Master Anna Rudolf, backed by a world-class chess media team.
Alas, there will be no random pairings in the first round of the Masters this year! After the stir we created in the chess world last year, FIDE effectively banned the practice, a very unimaginative and uninspiring decision in my view.
More news will follow over the coming weeks and months. Thank you for your interest in our tournament.
Alan Ormsby
(Director, IOM International Chess Limited)
18 April 2018
