Grand Prix in London ?

[Roger de Coverly]

I suppose this needs its own thread

http://www.chessdom.com/russian-chess-f ... elyabinsk/

https://twitter.com/telegraphchess

https://twitter.com/times_chess

for the announcements and speculation

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Possibly three super-GM tournaments in London in seven months!

I wonder if I have enough holiday leave left for this... If you had to chose between going to one or more of these events (presuming they all go ahead as scheduled), but not all three (Grand Prix, London Chess Classic, Candidates Tournament), which would you chose? I never got the chance to go to any of the Simpsons events, so I'm hoping that one goes ahead. Any news on where in London the Candidates tournament might be held?

[John McKenna]

If the GP venue is to be Simpsons salo(o)n does that imply the Lone Ranger (and perhaps Tonto) will be involved in rounding up the sponsorship and if they succeed will anyone say - I'd like to thank that masked man (and his sidekick)?
(The new Lone Ranger movie starts filming in New Mexico this month and will star Johnny Depp & Arnie Hammer as Tonto and his 'kimosabe' respectively.)

[Clive Blackburn]

Rounding up sponsorship?

Sounds like a job for a Loan Arranger, not a Lone Ranger

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The thread title reminded me of these other Grand Prix:

http://www.diamondleague-london.com/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ju ... one-london

I suppose athletics and motor sports will always attract more attention and sponsorship than chess.

[Paul Cooksey]

Some more detail today:http://www.whychess.org/en/node/2253

Dates and players confirmed.

[Mick Norris]

London looks on paper the weakest event, nice to see Radjabov playing though, and will be interesting to see how Topalov gets on in London

[Andrew Camp]

Magnificent news.

[LawrenceCooper]

London looks on paper the weakest event, nice to see Radjabov playing though, and will be interesting to see how Topalov gets on in London

A shame that we won't have Morozevich & Ivanchuk playing in London, they are always good entertainment.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

This bit (noted in the link provided above: http://www.whychess.org/en/node/2253) is interesting:

"AGON will also encourage interactivity between the spectators and the players by developing live and post-live technology, called ChessCasting, that will use biometric inputs, chess engine analysis and human commentary to transform chess into a spectator sport. The product will enable fans to monitor the players’ heartbeats, blood pressure and stress levels; track their eye movements over the board; predict the next move; and comment on the games’ progress. The content will be made available for immediate translation into dozens of languages around the world."

Not sure about this: "The product will enable fans to monitor the players’ heartbeats, blood pressure and stress levels; track their eye movements over the board"

I agree with the 'laboratory rats' comment at the whychess article.

[Clive Blackburn]

"The product will enable fans to monitor the players’ heartbeats, blood pressure and stress levels; track their eye movements over the board"

It would be great fun if this biometric information could be seen by the players, that would introduce a whole new element into the game!

Just imagine watching your opponent's heart beat increase when you made a particularly surprising move!

[Andrew Camp]

Come on you lot, some great news for top class chess in this country and so far, only a couple of hints at negativity. You're slipping.

[Mick Norris]

Come on you lot, some great news for top class chess in this country and so far, only a couple of hints at negativity. You're slipping.

Ok, hope Topalov comes last

Maybe someone could hook Danailov up to one of the monitoring machines and then pull the plug

[John Foley]

Come on you lot, some great news for top class chess in this country and so far, only a couple of hints at negativity. You're slipping.

We don't need to do negativity when the AGON website does it for us. It greets visitors thus:

Identify yourself with this website. All requests to log into this website are logged. Repeated failed login attempts will result in lock out.

Furthermore, the FIDE announcement now returns an error page http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... 01213.html

Having no British interest in the event, it will be hard to generate publicity.

What does it mean anyway? FIDE Grand Prix. Is this part of the world championships? If so, then why not call it World Chess Championship Qualifier.

Might as well hold it in Siberia.

[Paul Cooksey]

Come on you lot, some great news for top class chess in this country and so far, only a couple of hints at negativity. You're slipping.

Might as well hold it in Siberia.

That's the spirit!