Pages

▼

Monday, October 17, 2011

The chess train chugs out - are you on it?

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,


This is going to be one charming chess event. A full train of chess players - 64 actually! A tournament, a journey and lots of tourism peppered with some awesome chess. Chessvibes has got a fantastic report with loads of beautiful photos.

The train goes from Prague to Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Krakow and back to Prague - it is arguably the most unique ever, and currently under way. The organiser is from the Czech Republic - Pavel Matocha. 





The trip goes to five beautiful Central-European cities; the chess is rapid (25 minutes on the clock for each person, no increment). The train start from Prague on Friday, October 14th at 10 am and on the way to Vienna the first 3 rounds of the tournament were played. In the afternoon and evening the players, accompanying persons, organizers and sponsors could enjoy the Austrian capital, and stayed there in a hotel. On Saturday morning the train continued to Budapest, and on Sunday morning everyone, including the author of this report, travelled further to Bratislava! Tomorrow the train is heading to Krakow and from there it goes back to Prague on Tuesday.

The rapid tournament will last fifteen rounds, with four rounds during the last two trips. Exactly 64 players participate, including the legendary Czech grandmaster Vlastimil Hort (who beat yours truly in the fourth round). The top seed, however, is Robert Cvek, who is a member of the Czech Olympiad team. Also five IMs play - the full list can be found here.







From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Also see her personal blog at
at

19 comments:

  1. Amrit Puri Knights Chess Club New DelhiOctober 17, 2011 at 2:20 AM

    Wow. What a cool tournament. Just perfect for a chess holiday. I wish I were there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sainath, ColomboOctober 17, 2011 at 2:25 AM

    Fantastic event. Too good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DerrickOctober 17, 2011 at 2:33 AM

    That is a great event for attention to chess and fun for chess players. Thanks for sharing this news. I like when chess is combined with tourism. I like the event with Alexandra Kosteniuk and Deysi Cori in Machchu Pichu some time back. That was also really good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ST, Pune, IndiaOctober 17, 2011 at 2:38 AM

    We don't have trains with that kinda space or we should also implement it. What a fun event.

    ReplyDelete
  5. StarOctober 17, 2011 at 2:46 AM

    Awesome event. Did they have refreshments also. What fun.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brenda Kroll, BerlinOctober 17, 2011 at 2:48 AM

    I hope more such great events are held around the world. One in Berlin too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 2:55 AM

    Why they didn't have a full one round fide rated event for 10 days. They should think about that. Lots of people would love to take part.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alexis Cochran, New ZealandOctober 17, 2011 at 2:57 AM

    I think a full-fledged fide rating tournament might not work on a train. After all you would like to focus on chess totally in that kinda tournament and you would neither enjoy the tourism neither the chess. This time control is perfect for the train. I congratulate Mr Pavel for dreaming up this event. We need more such organisers for chess.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 2:57 AM

    Why was no chess beauty invited?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Saira Fernandes, MadridOctober 17, 2011 at 2:58 AM

    I think I like the event. Nice. I would have loved to take a family trip on this with my husband and two sons. All chess fanatics. I love trains. I love chess. Always did.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 3:02 AM

    http://praguechess.cz/

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 3:03 AM

    In English http://www.praguechess.cz/index.php?langue_zmena=en

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnastasiaOctober 17, 2011 at 3:10 AM

    I want to be in Prague. Sob, sob, sob.

    ReplyDelete
  14. MiguelOctober 17, 2011 at 3:20 AM

    Que fantastico

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jiu Lin, BeijingOctober 17, 2011 at 3:27 AM

    Looking forward to the videos Chess Queen.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sanjay Gupta, New DelhiOctober 17, 2011 at 9:32 AM

    Great fun concept. Loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Antonio, GuadalajaraOctober 17, 2011 at 9:34 AM

    Fun.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Henry Chippendale, ParisOctober 17, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    Is the whole train only of chess players? 64 - a train has more capacity than that so they probably put in special units just for the chess event. This is really a great concept.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mahipat, DhakaOctober 18, 2011 at 1:40 AM

    This is really one jazz chess event. I am impressed.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.