Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Rich Arab Buys Linares

For three years, from 2006 to 2008, the Linares tournament was split between two venues - the traditional home in Linares, Spain and the Mexican city of Morelia. This year it's back to just the one venue for this so-called "Wimbledon of Chess". And, of course, it's in Spain.

However, from next year, it looks like we'll see this event being held once again in two separate cities - Linares, as usual, and somewhere in the United Arab Emirates. ChessDom first mentioned it here, but this news item in Monster & Critics seems to confirm the UAE plan as a definite go.

The thirty-one year old real estate magnate Sulaiman Al Fahim is the man responsible. He was quoted as saying, "From 2010, the tournament will be held in Spain and the UAE".

I wonder what Israeli GM Boris Gelfand thinks about all this. After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that we had this unfortunate incident.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

aronian and kasparov is jewish too (armenian mothers, jewish russian fathers). a few other top players are also jewish. this whole peer thing is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Fascism New and Improved! Now includes a socialistic front!

A simple boycott is in order. If an invited player says; "Yea, Gelfand is my friend, it's a shame he can't come".... Then we should turn our backs on that player.

Buying a world event to further a political agenda should be seen as just that.

If that is the course Linares will follow, then maybe we should say; "Linares used to be a great event, too bad it's over."

And move on...

Anonymous said...

I thought Linares had finally been cured of its "split personality"...(sigh)

Anonymous said...

"Rich Arab Supports Linares"