Freestyle Chess

It?s not my idea to advertise the tournament of a big and powerfulcompany, but over the past days and weeks I wondered quite often, whythere has been no note and no discussion on the ?1st InternationalOnline Advanced Chess Tournament? on http://www.mundialchess.com with prize funds of more than 130,000 Euros, starting on October 5th.

Fora while I was not quite sure, how the organizers define ?advancedchess? (they even spoke of ?Freistilschach?!) as they chose the strangetime format of 10m+1s per game and player and as in an earlier document they wrote:

?GAMECONTROL: There shall be an arbitration committee composed ofCounsellors, GM and International Arbiters who may be qualified to determine the loss of the game being deemed to have received any aid.The Committee may act on its own motion or upon complaints laid by aparticipant. For more information go to the MundialChess.com SportsDiscipline Rules."

As I saw yesterday, they may have read my request - they deleted the text in bold type, so it seems they are reallyplanning an Advanced Chess tour. Though there will still be much ?GameControl?, as e.g. players are not allowed to chat with other players during their games.

Anyway,as for anyone experienced in computer chess this seems to be anexcellent opportunity to win some thousand Euros, I expect that many ofYOU ? esp. many freestylers ? will like to have a try. There are three categories with the following top cash prizes:

A) without FIDE-Elo up to FIDE-Elo 1500 (29,312 Euro, rank 1-4),

B) up to FIDE-Elo 2200 (25,554 Euro, rank 1-4) and

C) FIDE-Elo 2200+ (20,293 Euro, rank 1-4).

In addition there are more cash prizes and also special prizes.

Probablythey expect the most players joining category A; while I find it funnyto consider that this most probably will also be the hardest group interms of computer chess

Now, there are two reasons why I am posting this:

a)Our own scheduling plans for a freestyle tour as proposed by privatesponsor ?Highendman? (and may be InfinityChess as co-sponsor) have tocount with a strong interest in the mundialchess tour between Oct. 5thand November 10th. I suggest, we should definitely not start before the end of this tour.

b) It is of general interest forall freestylers and probably also computer chess fans to watch thisevent, to discuss the concept and may be to join in (registration feeis 40 Euro).

Arno