2019 Women’s Candidates Chess Tournament – Opening Ceremony
Kazan, Russia is the host city of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament which starts today.
The winner of this event will become the challenger to the World Champion Ju Wenju of China.
The spectacular opening ceremony welcomed all participants, journalists, local chess players, guests and officials to Kazan.
Victor Bologan (FIDE Executive Director) and Mark Glukhovsky (Executive Director of Russian Chess Federation) gave speeches at the opening ceremony. Khalil Shaikhutdinov who is the First Deputy Minister of Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan, also spoke at the ceremony.
The opening ceremony included choreographic and musical performances set the tone for the event.
The vocal-choreographic composition “World Chess” was performed by “Way from the City” and the “WOW” bands.
There were performances from the orchestra “Just Brass” and the highly acclaimed Tatarstan singer Aidar Suleimanov.
Classical ballet performance by ballet “Allegro” meshed with breakdancing by “Action Man Crew” in a surprising way.
The inspirational video “World Crown”, prepared specially for the tournament, was also shown during the ceremony.
Chief Arbiter IA Hal Bond at the end invited all players to the stage for a group photo.
Round 1 pairing
Round one pairings are as follows.
V. Gunina – K. Lagno.
A. Kosteniuk – A. Goryachkina.
N. Dzagnidze – Tan Zhongyi.
M. Muzychuk – A. Muzychuk.
The venue is Nogai Hotel (16B, Profsojuznaja St., Kazan).
All rounds begin at 3 pm local time.
The players will compete for a total prize fund of Euro 500,000.
Sponsors
PJSC PhosAgro and Russian Railways are the sponsors.
Links
Promotional video for the 2019 Women’s Candidates Tournament done by Kim Bhari.
2019 Women’s Candidates Chess Tournament official website.
Draw of Women’s Candidate Tournament.
