The International Chess Federation is pleased to announce a new partnership with Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company. By this agreement, Kaspersky becomes an official sponsor of the Lindores Abbey Blitz, which will take place on 8th November in the historical Hanzas Perons venue in Riga, Latvia. The FIDE endorsed tournament will be held in honour of the 85th anniversary of the birth of the 8th World Chess Champion Mikhail Tal.
The line-up of the nine-round Swiss System tournament includes top players such as Levon Aronian (Armenia), Yu Yangyi (China), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), David Navara (the Czech Republic), as well as former FIDE World Chess Champion (2002-2004) Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), former world youth champions Jeffery Xiong (USA) and Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran), and others. Among female players, former Women's World Champion and this year's winner of the Women's Chess World Cup, Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) leads the field, joined by former Women's World Champions Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), as well as top women GMs Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia), Harika Dronavali (India), Valentina Gunina (Russia), Zhansaya Abdumalik (Kazakhstan), and others.
"FIDE is happy and proud to continue our long and fruitful partnership with Kaspersky. I am glad that this year the company is an official partner of the World Championship Match in Dubai and, no less important, the Lindores Abbey Blitz, which starts in Riga. Mikhail Tal, the eighth world chess champion and the "Magician from Riga", was known as a brilliant attacker and a creative genius. With each game that will be played in this Blitz tournament, we will commemorate and celebrate Tal's sharp, creative, and adventurous personality," said FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola.
"Kaspersky is happy to continue building the partnership with FIDE, being a cybersecurity partner for its World Chess Championship series since 2017. We're especially honoured to support the Lindores Abbey Blitz tournament in Riga, as we will be paying tribute to Mikhail Tal, the brilliant master of chess, whose creativity and strategic genius is a daily inspiration to many of us," said Konstantin Tarasenko, Regional Manager Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The Lindores Abbey Blitz is organised by "RTU Sports" with the support of the Latvian Chess Federation and FIDE.
The line-up of the tournament is comprised of the participants of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and additional wildcards invited by the organisers. The total number of players would not exceed 164. The time control of the tournament will be 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move, from move one.
The total prize fund for the event is 60,000 USD. This includes a 10,000 USD fund provided by FIDE for prizes intended for female players only.
Chess fans can keep up with the Lindores Abbey Blitz by watching the live broadcast of the event supplied by Chess.com.
Regulations for the FIDE Endorsed Tournament Lindores Abbey Blitz (pdf)
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