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Welcome to Sunway Chess Festival 2016

by Atul Dahale - 23/09/2016

You would like to play in Europe in December, but the cold weather is not your cup of tea. Do not worry! Sitges, Spain is the perfect place to be! The third Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2016 will be held from the 16th to 23rd December 2016. It offers you a beautiful tournament venue, a total amount of 19,700 Euros in prizes and a pleasant atmosphere to play against strong opposition thereby scoring your IM and GM norms. An Invitation.

16.12.2016 – 23.12.2016 / SUNWAY SITGES

The third edition of the Sunway Sitges International chess festival 2016 will be held in beautiful town of Sitges, which is located about 35 kms southwest of Barcelona, Spain, from 16th to the 23rd of December, 2016.

The Sunway Playa Golf Hotel & Spa Sitges is the venue of this festival. As you can see the hotel is located at a seashore and it has a great sea view. It will surely be a nice place to play your tournament.

You can see players in action, spacious hall, country flags, top boards having refreshing sea view and live games display 

In this Festival Two competition groups will be established:

  • Group A: open to all players with a FIDE valid license. Valid for ELO FCE, FIDE and FEDA, and to obtain international norms.
  • Group B: open to players with FIDE’s ELO below 2000 points (and FCE’s ELO below 2100 points) and who have not surpassed 2100 FIDE’s ELO points (or 2200 FCE’s ELO points) in the last 5 years. Valid for ELO FCE, FIDE and FEDA. Playing in this group is optional: all players can enroll in Group A if they wish.

Sunway Festival’s group A has already attracted 17 grandmasters, seven International Masters and five Fide Masters from 15 different countries with an average rating of 2344. 

 

Top 10 participants:

Complete list of players can be found here

Pride of India, grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan (2658), is the top seed of the tournament.  He has many tournament victories to his credit and he will be the man to beat in Sitges. (picture by Amruta Mokal)

The famous Peruvian GM Granda Zuniga Julio(2648) who has participated in last edition will be present this year also (picture by Alina l'Ami)

Edouard Romian the joint French national Champion [2012] will be the third seed. He has won the Al Ain classic in 2012 and the Dubai Open in 2014. (Picture by Amruta Mokal)

 

There are seven 2600+ players who have confirmed their participation in this festival.

 

  • System Of Play : Swiss System 9 rounds.
  • Time Control: 90 minutes for first 40 moves + 30 min for rest of the game, with increment of 30 seconds from first move.
  • Prize Fund
  • Open – Group A prizes
  • Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival 2016 has a total of €19,700 in prizes, of which €10,350 belong to Group A as follows:

2.000 € + Trophy

 

300 €

1.200 € + Trophy

 

250 €

800 € + Trophy

 

10º

200 €

700 €

 

11º a 15º

150 €

550 €

 

16º a 20º

100 €

400 €

 

21º a 25º

75 €

350 €

 

26º a 30º

50 €

  • FIDE’s ELO:
 

2300 – 2449

2150 – 2299

2000 – 2149

1700 – 1999

200 €

150 €

125 €

100 €

150 €

100 €

80 €

75 €

100 €

90 €

60 €

50 €

80 €

70 €

50 €

40 €

60 €

50 €

40 €

30 €

Schedule

– Thursday 15-12-2016:
6 p.m.: Start of the Open Tournament players registration in the Hotel Sunway Playa Golf & Spa hall. You can also confirm your application to the tournament by email up to 72 hours in advance, so showing up in the hotel is not necessary.

 

– Friday 16-12-2016:
2 pm: Closure of the players registration to the Open Tournament.
4.30 pm .: First round of the Open Tournament.

 

– Saturday 17-12-2016:
9:30 am .: Second round of the Open Tournament.
4.30 pm .: Third round of the Open Tournament.
10 pm .: Closure of the registration for the simultaneous games session of 18-12-2016.

 

– Sunday 18-12-2016:
10 am .: Simultaneous games session against GMI.
4.30 pm .: Fourth round of the Open Tournament.
5 pm .: Closure of registrations for the Blitz Tournament of 18-12-2016.
11 pm .: Blitz Tournament.

 

– Monday 19-12-2016:
12 pm .: Conference by GMI.
4.30 pm .: Fifth round of the Torneo Open.
10 pm .: Closure of registrations for the simultaneous games session of 20-12-2016.

 

– Tuesday, 20-12-2016:
10 pm .: Simultaneous games session against GMI.
4.30 pm .: Sixth round of the Open Tournament.

 

– Wednesday 21-12-2016:
11 am .: Not defined yet.
4.30 pm .: Seventh round of the Open Tournament.
4.30 pm .: Closure of registrations for the Blitz Tournament of 18-12-2016.
11 pm .: Night Blitz Tournament.

 

– Thursday 22-12-2016:
11 am .: Not defined yet.
4.30 pm .: Eighth round of the Open Tournament.
10.30 pm .: Conference by GMI.

 

– Friday 23-12-2016:
11 am .: Not defined yet.
4 pm .: Ninth and final round of the Open Tournament.
10 pm .: Prize-giving and closing ceremony.

 

Along with the group A tournament there is Group B tournament which is for the players Below 2000 rated. Its prize fund is also attractive.

Open – Group B prizes

Out of the total prize fund, €7,230 belong to Group B as follows:

General ranking:

1.200 € + Trophy

 

200 €

1.000 € + Trophy

 

150 €

600 € + Trophy

 

10º

125 €

400 €

 

11º a 15º

100 €

350 €

 

16º a 20º

75 €

300 €

 

21º a 25º

50 €

250 €

 

 26º a 30º

 30 €

FIDE’s ELO:

 

1800 – 1949

1700-1799

<1700

200 €

150 €

100 €

150 €

100 €

80 €

100 €

90 €

60 €

80 €

70 €

50 €

60 €

50 €

40 €

As you can see in the schedule there are simultaneous games arranged during the festival. The rules for these games are as follows: 

Rules for simultaneous games sessions

Limitation of players: Games will be played up to 25 boards for each participating International Grandmaster.

 

Registration:

The registration fee is free for players staying at the official hotel (*). For other players, the registration fee is 10 €.

Registration for simultaneous games will be open only to players staying at the official hotel (*) until 10 p.m. of the previous day, and will be confirmed by order of request until the maximum number of players is reached. If positions are still available, those players not staying at the hotel will be able to register from 10 pm of the day before the games take place, until half an hour before the start of those games, or to the limit of available boards.

Preference will be given at registration at the second session of simultaneous games to those players staying at the official hotel (*), who desired to participate in the games on the 14th, but could not do it because the limit of boards available was reached.

(*) A player will be considered to be staying at the official hotel if he or she spends a minimum of 8 nights throughout the Festival at Sunway Playa Golf Hotel & Spa Sitges. 

 

  • NIGHT BLITZ

Those players who love to play shorter time controls have a great opportunity in this festival as there are two Night Blitz tournaments. The total ten prizes will be distributed and Champion will get 100 Euros plus trophy as an award.

 

  • Accommodation 

Organisers are really happy to give best deals if you choose to stay in official Hotel (Hotel Sunway Playa Golf & Spa, 4 stars). Moreover if you are staying in Official hotel there won’t be any registration fees for you.

 

More Details about Hotel

The Sunway Playa Golf & Spa Hotel is home to Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival. Located on the seafront of Sitges (40 km. South of Barcelona), it is a beachfront hotel next to the golf club, in the residential area of Sitges.

 

The hotel has 2 swimming pools (one heated), a gym, terraces, jacuzzi, two beachfront restaurants – the only ones on the promenade of Sitges with a direct view of the Mediterranean -, convention center, parking and indoor garage, and a small supermarket for the customers. It also has a spa and a beauty center equipped with massage parlours, nsaunas and a Turkish bath with spectacular views, etc. Of course, the hotel has multiple rooms where the games will be held during the chess festival.

 

All apartments and rooms have air conditioning, satellite television, telephone and free Internet (ADSL + WiFi), allowing the guest to relax and feel at home during their stay in Sitges. All rooms and most apartments in the hotel have a great view of the sea and of Sitges golf club.

 

Spacious Double Bed Hotel room, with beautiful see view!
Family Apartment

The room rates are available on official website.

You can contact organisers for best deals and other information.

  • Enrollment , registration and accommodation contact:

 

Only players with a valid federative license will be able to participate in any of the Festival’s tournaments. Players can register for tournaments through any of the following:

  1. a) Filling the form.
    b) By sending an email to info@sunwaychessfestival.com.
    c) By calling (+34) 93 811 34 10.
    d) By sending a fax to (+34) 93 894 14 64.

 

Mr.Francesc Gonzalez (Right) is the efficient Organiser of Sunway Chess Festival 2016.

Attractions in Sitges and Barcelona 

I have played in Sitges in the last week of July 2016 and I really loved this place and the people over there. The organisers were also very helpful and warm. You can find more about Sitges in my last tournament report.

The famous parish church of Sant Bartomeu I Santa Tecla

Gaudi’s most famous structure in Barcelona: Sagrada Familia. 

In previous edition of Sunway Sitges GM Marc Narciso Dublan was the champion, GM Granda Zuniga Julio was the runner-up and GM Fernando Peralta was third

So are you ready to join this chess festival in December. It's your chance to not only win good prizes but also play a tournament in a beautiful scenic location with the possibilities of scoring IM and GM norms. Hope to see you soon in Sitges!

 

Official Tournament website

 

Adjoining tournament

If you want to club this Sunway Festival with some other tournament in Spain then there is one International open tournament in Benidorm, Alicante, Spain.

The XV Festival International de Ajedrez –Benidorm 2016 will be held from1st December to 11th December 2016.

You can find more details of this tournament on their official website or Facebook page

About the Author

Atul Dahale is one of the first Internationally FIDE rated players from Parbhani, Maharashtra. He loves the game of chess and enjoys the fact that he can travel to different places, meet people and make new friends thanks to the game. He is a successful coach currently based in Pune, Maharashtra. You can contact him on atuldahale64@gmail.com.


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