The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament () was a

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

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 tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition am ...

event featuring six super- GM players that took place in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...

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

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by wi ...

. According to ChessVibes website,

Silvio Danailov Silvio Danailov ( bg, Силвио Данаилов; 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 f ...

- 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 chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has ...

, 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 Steel ...

in the Netherlands, Linares Chess Tournament in Spain,

M-Tel Masters Mtel Masters was an annual Grandmaster (chess), super-GM chess tournament held between 2005 and 2009 in Sofia, Bulgaria, sponsored and organized by the Bulgarian mobile network operator, M-Tel. The tournament was held as a double round-robin at the ...

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; railcars ...

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 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 ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

, the

European Chess Union The European Chess Union (ECU) is an independent association for the interests of European chess. Board members * Zurab Azmaiparashvili – President * Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu – Deputy President * Finnbjorn Vang – Vice President * Theodor ...

(ECU) and the

Asian Chess Federation The Asian Chess Federation (ACF) is the continental governing body of the sport of chess in Asia. Tournaments * Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is a chess tournament open to all players from Asian chess federations (FIDE ...

Guests

Guests invited to the opening ceremony included

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov (russian: link=no, Кирса́н Никола́евич Илюмжи́нов, ; Kalmyk: Үлмҗин Кирсән, ''Ülmcin Kirsən'', ; born 5 April 1962) is a Russian business oligarch, administrator and po ...

, President of the World Chess Federation;

Boris Kutin Boris may refer to: People * Boris (given name), a male given name *:''See'': List of people with given name Boris * Boris (surname) * Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907), the first Christian ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, canonized after his ...

, President of ECU;

Sheikh Sultan Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief o ...

, 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 Robert Alexander Mundell (October 24, 1932 – April 4, 2021) was a Canadian economist. He was a professor of economics at Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences i ...

Results

2008

10-22 December The six players were

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

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading ...

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

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A chess prodigy, he earned the title ...

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

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Movsesian ( hy, Սերգեյ Մովսիսյան; 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 Ches ...

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

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently comment ...

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 be ...

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. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved c ...

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.
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References

Pearl Spring Super Tournament
- more information from

External links

Official website
* ChessBase Reports fo
20082009Pictures of the Pearl Spring Chess Tournament
{{Chess in China Chess competitions Chess in China 2008 in chess Recurring sporting events established in 2008 Sport in Nanjing 2009 in chess 2010 in chess