Strongest chess tournament in Austria in Linz with a sensational draw between the Upper Austrian and the world chess champion!
Linz/Pasching (OTS) – The strongest chess tournament in Central Europe ended as planned in Linz’s PlusCity. After almost 10,000 blitz and rapid chess games, around 1,000 participants had agreed on the 60,000 prize money.
The absolute highlight was the participation of the XV. World chess champion Viswanathan Anand. The Indian chess legend, now also Vice President of the World Chess Federation, played a total of 13 games and, as expected, remained undefeated – however, the Austrian Florian Sandhöfner was able to steal a draw from the chess great – an outstanding success for the Ottensheim local hero.
However, Anand’s performance was not enough for his team (he competed for the World Chess Federation FIDE) to win. With world-class grandmasters Parham Maghsoodloo, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vladimir Fedoseev and Nikita Vitiugov, ASV Linz lives up to its role as favorite, wins the tournament without losing points and also defends the Austrian championship title in blitz chess and rapid chess. An almost life-sized stuffed tiger was awarded for a victory against world chess champion Anand, nicknamed the “Tiger of Madras”. Thanks to the undefeated world champion, the tiger will remain in Linz until at least next year. In the women’s ranking, victory went to SC Victoria Vienna.
The youngsters also got their money’s worth. On Saturday, 14 local talents were allowed to compete against Olympic champion Anna Muzychuck and super grandmaster Parham Maghsoodloo. Of course there was nothing to win for the children and young people, but the enthusiasm was still huge!
With the participation of the 9th world champion Zhu Chen, the 12th world champion Alexandra Kostenjuk, 25 other grandmasters and almost the entire leadership of the World Chess Federation, led by FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky, the chess celebrity density was enormous.
„The world champion, the fight for the tiger, 1000 chess players and chess players, a beautiful chess festival with great advertising for the royal game is behind us, I’m already looking forward to the GrandPrix 2025
“, said organizer and ÖSB President Michael Stöttinger.
„We are very happy to be able to take part here and hope for a continuation of this fantastic event
“, said FIDE Chairwoman Dana Reizniece – Ozola.
„I felt very comfortable in Austria, both culinary and chess-wise.
“ joked world champion and FIDE Vice President Viswanathan Anand, he will also take part in the PlusCity GrandPrix in 2025 if possible.
Questions & Contact:
Austrian Chess Federation
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1040 Wien
Tel: +43 664 8404804
Email:office@chess.at