Home Chess News 2019 Women’s Candidates Chess Tournament – Opening Ceremony

2019 Women’s Candidates Chess Tournament – Opening Ceremony

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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.

Photo from the opening ceremony in Kazan. https://fwct2019.com
Photo from the opening ceremony in Kazan. https://fwct2019.com

There were performances from the orchestra “Just Brass” and the highly acclaimed Tatarstan singer Aidar Suleimanov.

Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com
Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com

Classical ballet performance by ballet “Allegro” meshed with breakdancing by “Action Man Crew” in a surprising way.

Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com
Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com
Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com
Photo from the opening ceremony. https://fwct2019.com

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.

The contestants poses for a group photo. https://fwct2019.com
The contestants poses for a group photo. https://fwct2019.com

Round 1 pairing

Round one pairings are as follows.

V. GuninaK. Lagno.

A. KosteniukA. Goryachkina.

N. DzagnidzeTan Zhongyi.

M. MuzychukA. 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.

Former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia poses with a fan. WGM Elisabeth Pähtz of Germany looks on. https://fwct2019.com
Former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia poses with a fan. WGM Elisabeth Pähtz of Germany looks on. https://fwct2019.com

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.

FIDE website.

Russian Chess Federation.

Draw of Women’s Candidate Tournament.