Kamsky Topalov announcement to come on May 12

news from FIDE and news from Mtel Masters 2008

The Kamsky - Topalov venue will be announced on the 12th of May, with 20 days delay. The information came in an official letter by Kirsan Ilymzhinov, without any additional explanation on the delay.

Dear Friends of chess,

The official announcement concerning the host country of the WCC semi-final match Kamsky-Topalov will be published and distributed by Monday 12 May 2008.

Both qualifying players will be expected to sign their undertakings by Tuesday 27 May 2008. As originally planned, the WCC semi-final match will take place between 26 November and 11 December 2008.

We are looking forward to a great match which will determine the challenger for the World Championship of 2009!

Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

Mtel Masters 2008 news

At the same time official news about the Mtel Masters 2008 started flying around. After the arrival of Topalov a week ago, today at 17:30 CET Levon Aronian has landed at Sofia airport with a flight from Wien. Tomorrow, the 6th of May, Radjabov comes at 8:50 CET from Wien. At the same time will land Ivan Cheparinov, but he will have another road and will come from Istanbul. Later the same day Ivanchuk will land from Warsaw at 12:45 CET and Bu Xiangzhi will come at 21:45 CET from Munich.

The games from the Mtel Masters have always been played at the Grand Hotel Sofia, a nice hotel right against the National Art Gallery. The 4th editon of the Mtel Masters changes the venue and the event will be in the Central Military Club. If you have been to the previous edition of Mtel Masters you surely will not get lost. The two buildings are about 300 meters aways from each other, both in the heart of Sofia and easily accessible from the Airport.

Among the invited players is Boris Spasski. He will be at the opening on May 7 and later will participate in a simul.