Pearl Spring chess tournament


The Pearl Spring Chess Tournament was a double round robin chess tournament event featuring six super-GM players that took place in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. The first edition in December 2008 was won by Veselin Topalov. According to ChessVibes website, Silvio Danailov - the manager and coach of Topalov - said the Pearl Spring tournament has been "guaranteed for five years and will enter in Grand Slam ." The second and third tournaments in 2009 and 2010 were both won by Magnus Carlsen, with his first win being rated as one of the best performances in chess history.
Together with Corus Chess Tournament in the Netherlands, Linares Chess Tournament 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 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
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 European Chess Union and the Asian Chess Federation.

Guests

Guests invited to the opening ceremony included Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the World Chess Federation; Boris Kutin, President of ECU; Sheikh Sultan, President of ACU and Liang Zhirong, Secretary-General of FIDE, Xu Jialu, 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 Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria ; Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine ; Levon Aronian of Armenia ; Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia ; Peter Svidler of Russia ; Bu Xiangzhi of China. With at least an Elo rating 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
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.