Gibraltar Chess Festival
The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is a chess tournament held annually at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. Its eleven days of competition usually run from late January to early February. The inaugural edition, then known as the Gibtelecom Gibraltar Chess Festival, took place in 2003, when fifty-nine competitors took part, of whom 24 held the FIDE Grandmaster title. In 2011 the festival was renamed to its current name when Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd became the new primary sponsor.[1]
The main event, the Masters, is open to all, and was voted the best open event in the world by the Association of Chess Professionals in 2011,[2] 2012,[3] 2013[4] and 2014.[5] Since 2011 an annual Gibraltar Junior International Chess Festival, also held at the Caleta Hotel, has been organised. It lasts five days and takes place in August and it comprises two events: under-16 and under-12.
The Director of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has been Stuart Conquest since 2011.
In 2012, special stamps were issued by the Gibraltar Post Office to commemorate the tenth edition of the chess festival.[6]
In 2012 Chinese grandmaster Hou Yifan, at the time ranked number two female chess player in the world, scored 8 points from a possible 10 in the Masters, tying for first place with Nigel Short before losing a play-off match for the first prize.[7] During this event Hou Yifan defeated Judit Polgar, number one rated female chess player in the world from 1989 to her retirement as a professional player in 2014.[8]
The highest score achieved in a Gibraltar Masters event has been 9 points from a possible 10, made by Vassily Ivanchuk in 2011, with a performance rating of 2968.
List of winners
Since 2007, ties for first place in the Masters have been resolved by a tie-break.
Year Winner(s) Leading Female(s) 2003 
Vasilios Kotronias
Nigel Short
Nora Medvegy2004 Nigel Short
Pia Cramling2005 
Levon Aronian
Zahar Efimenko
Kiril Georgiev
Alexei Shirov
Emil Sutovsky
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
Viktorija Cmilyte Pia Cramling
Iweta Radziewicz
Almira Skripchenko2006 Kiril Georgiev
Zhu Chen Antoaneta Stefanova Natalia Zhukova2007 Vladimir Akopian Jovanka Houska2008 
Hikaru Nakamura
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant Viktorija Cmilyte
Harika Dronavalli Antoaneta Stefanova2009 
Peter Svidler Nana Dzagnidze2010 Michael Adams Natalia Zhukova2011 Vassily Ivanchuk Nana Dzagnidze2012 Nigel Short Hou Yifan[9]2013 Nikita Vitiugov Zhao Xue2014 Ivan Cheparinov Mariya Muzychuk2015 Hikaru Nakamura Hou Yifan2016 Hikaru Nakamura Anna Muzychuk
References
- ↑ Crowther, Mark (2011-02-03). "Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ↑ http://www.chessprofessionals.org/content/acp-tournament-year-results
- ↑ http://www.chessprofessionals.org/content/special-acp-prize-be-awarded-tradewise-gibraltar-chess-festival-2013
- ↑ http://www.chessprofessionals.org/content/london-candidates-tournament-year-2013
- ↑ Gibraltar Tradewise Chess is the Tournament of the Year 2014. ACP. 2015-04-16
- ↑ ChessBase News: Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Chessbase News, accessed 21 September 2014
- ↑ ChessBase News: Hou Yifan, Short win Gibraltar, Short wins play=off
- ↑ ChessBase News: Hou Yifan beats Judit Polgar in an historic encounter
- ↑ 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Festival Hou Yifan ties, Nigel Short wins