World Champion Magnus Carlsen celebrated his 23rd birthday with 68,000 people at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as he took a ceremonial kick-off in the La Liga match between Real Madrid and Valladolid.
Real Madrid CF President Florentino Pérez invited Carlsen to be the special guest of the match and presented him with a shirt and engraved watch as birthday gifts.
The Festival will consist of five events: Masters, Challengers Wk1 (U2250), Challengers Wk2 (U2250), Amateurs Wk1 (U1900) and Amateurs Wk2 (U1900). Last year winner was GM Nikita Vitiugov.
After letting the clock tick for nearly three days, Magnus Carlsen finally made his move.
Since becoming the World Champion on Friday, the 22-year old was virtually out of bounds for the media. Even the Norwegian media delegation was disappointed to note the reluctance of their National hero to share his thoughts with them.
Carlsen slept long hours, turned out for Team Carlsen in games of football and basketball against the Norwegian journalists but stayed away from interviews.
The three-time British Champion, GM Jonathan Rowson, steps up to play in the biggest tournament of his career after being given the wild card spot into ‘The Super Sixteen’ Grandmaster Rapid at the London Chess Classic, that runs 7-15 December at the Kensington Olympia.
Two spots remain to be filled for the Super Sixteen, and two players will win their way there from the FIDE Open at the Classic.
Ukraine is dominating the World Chess Team Championship in Antalya, Turkey. After four rounds Ivanchuk, Moiseenko, Korobov, Kryvoruchko, and Areshchenko have 8,0/8 match points, having defeated USA, China, Azerbaijan, and Germany.