Netanya International Chess Festival 2019, one of the most important chess competitions in Israel, will take place from 23rd June – 2nd July 2019 in the VIP main hall of the Netanya Football stadium,
The festival consists of two main events: Masters tournament and Netanya Open tournament. Netanya Masters tournament will be played in 9 rounds, Robin round system, with the participation of world top players and Israeli top players, all rated 2600+.
The competitors of Natanya Masters are: GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 2739), GM Peter Svidler (RUS, 2735), GM Daniil Dubov (RUS, 2690), GM Maxim Rodshtein (ISR, 2689), GM Luke McShane (ENG, 2686), GM Tamir Nabaty (ISR, 2683), GM Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2676), GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR, 2661), GM Evgeny Postny (ISR, 2612) and GM Ilya Smirin (ISR, 2607).
Netanya Masters- list of participants
The average rating of 2678 makes a category 18 tournament, arguably the strongest classical chess event ever to be held in Israel, with a total prize fund of 100.000 US dollars, and 25.000 US dollars reserved for the first place. The time control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the first move.
The Open tournament will be simultaneously held with the Masters’ event, at the same venue.. The total prize fund of the Open event will be 170 thousand Israeli Shekels, which is more than 40.000 EUR.
Already 52 players have registered for the Open event, and among the registered players, five of them are rated 2600+: Korobov Anton (UKR, 2687), Kuzubov Yuriy (UKR, 2664), Moiseenko Alexander (UKR, 2642), Efimenko Zahar (UKR, 2632) and Roiz Michael (ISR, 2603).
Open Tournament- list of participants
All the further information about registration, schedules or accommodation are available on the official website of the festival.