The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament () was a

double round robin A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

event featuring six super- GM players that took place in

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, China. The first edition in December 2008 was won by

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...

. According to ChessVibes website,

Silvio Danailov Silvio Danailov (; born 21 April 1961) is a former Bulgarian chess player and International Master. He was a manager and coach of the Bulgarian men's national chess team (1993-2000) and manager and coach of two former FIDE world chess champions, ...

- the manager and coach of Topalov - said the Pearl Spring tournament has been "guaranteed for five years and will enter in Grand Slam n 2009" The second and third tournaments in 2009 and 2010 were both won by

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

, with his first win being rated as one of the best performances in chess history. Together with

Corus Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

in the Netherlands,

Linares Chess Tournament The Linares International Chess Tournament (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares'') was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares ...

in Spain, M-Tel Masters in Bulgaria, and Grand Slam Masters Final in Spain, Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament became one of the five Grand Slam Tournaments in the world. It was the first in Asia and the only one in China.

Venue

The tournament was named after the venue, the Mingfa Pearl Spring Hotel located in

Pukou District Pukou District (), is one of 11 districts of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, China, lying northwest across the Yangtze River from downtown Nanjing. The district was formerly the southern terminus of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway; railcar ...

of Nanjing.

Organization

The tournament was organized by the Municipal People's Government of Nanjing and Chess & Cards Administration Center of General Administration of Sport of China, and the People's Government of Pukou District, Nanjing, and Nanjing Administration of Sport *Tournament Director: Wang Yonghong *Chief arbiter: Casto Abundo * Arbiters: Tang Jianming, Feng Zhe,

Zhang Jilin Zhang Jilin (; born June 24, 1986) is a Chinese and Australian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008. Career Zhang Jilin first represented China in the World Y ...

The organization web site did not disclose the player invitation criteria or protocol. In each of the first three years, one participant was of Chinese nationality.

Sponsorship

The tournament was sponsored by Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., ''Yangzi Evening News'', and Mundell International University of Entrepreneurship. The total prize fund was €250,000 with a first prize of €80,000.

Support

The tournament has received support from

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

, the

European Chess Union The European Chess Union (ECU) is an independent association for the interests of European chess. The European Chess Union was founded on August 30, 1985, with the organization's founding meeting taking place in Graz, Austria. Board The Europ ...

(ECU) and the

Asian Chess Federation The Asian Chess Federation is the continental governing body of the sport of chess in Asia. The ACF annually organized the Asian Chess Championship. Member Federations Tournaments * Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is ...

Guests

Guests invited to the opening ceremony included

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (born 5 April 1962) is a Russian oligarch, administrator and politician. He was President of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation from 1993 to 2010, and was president of FIDE, the chess internat ...

, President of the World Chess Federation;

Boris Kutin Boris may refer to: People * Boris (given name), a male given name * *List of people with given name Boris * Boris (surname) Arts and media * Boris (band), a Japanese experimental rock trio * ''Boris'' (EP), by Yezda Urfa, 1975 * "Boris" (son ...

, President of ECU;

Sheikh Sultan Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning " elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim scholar. Though this title generally refers to men, there are also a small number of ...

, President of ACU and Liang Zhirong, Secretary-General of FIDE,

Xu Jialu Xu Jialu (; born 1937) was a vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and was head of the College of Chinese Language and Culture at Beijing Normal University. Life Xu was born in Beijing, though his ancestral hom ...

, Vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Nobel Prize winner, Robert A. Mundell.

Results

2008

10-22 December The six players were

of Bulgaria (Elo rating 2791, ranked first in the world);

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk (; born March 18, 1969) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on the FIDE world rankings thr ...

of Ukraine (Elo rating 2786, ranked third in the world);

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former world rapid and blit ...

of Armenia (Elo rating 2757, ranked seventh in the world);

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Musheghi Movsesian (; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo. ...

of Slovakia (Elo rating 2732, ranked thirteenth in the world);

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and commentator who is an eight-time Russian Chess Champion. Svidler has competed in three World Championshi ...

of Russia (Elo rating 2727, ranked seventeenth in the world);

Bu Xiangzhi Bu Xiangzhi (; born December 10, 1985) is a Chinese chess player. In 1999, he became the 10th grandmaster from China at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua became the s ...

of China (Elo rating 2714, ranked twenty-sixth in the world). With at least an

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

average of 2751.6, it was a category 21 tournament making it the strongest chess tournament ever held in China. :

2009

September 27 - October 9 (Category 21, 2764) First tournament of the Grand Slam series 2009-2010. :

2010

The 3rd edition of the tournament took place from October 19 to October 30; with at least an Elo rating average of 2766, it was a category 21 tournament.
/ref> :

References

Pearl Spring Super Tournament
- more information from

External links

Official website
*

ChessBase ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...

Reports fo
20082009Pictures of the Pearl Spring Chess Tournament
{{Chess in China Invitational chess tournaments Chess in China 2008 in chess Recurring sporting events established in 2008 Sport in Nanjing 2009 in chess 2010 in chess