On Thursday, October 30th at 15.45 the Chess Tournament Magistral Casino de Barcelona 2008 will take start. This year the Tournament is organised by the Catalonian Chess Federation and sponsored by the Casino of Barcelona (Group Peralada), Barcelona City Hall, Catalonian Sports Council and Hotel Icaria of Barcelona.
 

The Venue of the Tournament is the Casino of Barcelona (Marina Avenue, 19-21 ), the dates are from October 30th to November 7th, 2008, and the games will start at 16.00.

The following ten internationally recognized Grandmasters will participate in this Round Robin Tournamet:

GM Alexey Dreev (2670)

GM Baadur Jobava (2664)

GM Kiril Georgiev (2644)

GM Holden Hernández (2580)

GM Artur Kogan (2561)

GM Boris Gulko (2552)

IM Fidel Corrales (2551)

GM Antoaneta Stefanova (2550)

GM JM. López (2547)

GM Marc Narciso (2511)


The Tournament reaches category 14 which makes it the strongest tournament in Catalonia, and one of the strongest in Spain. Also it is included in the ACP Tour, as one of the most important events in the Chess World.
 

There will be live broadcasting of the tournament offered by the Catalonian Chess Federation website: http://www.directefcde.org/  and by the Internet Chess Club (ICC). 

For more information please visit the FCE website: http://escacs.cat/ciutat08/jugadors.html

There will be more activities besides the Tournament. Grandmasters Alexey Dreev and  Antoaneta Stefanova will offer a Simultaneous Exhibition on Saturdays, November, 1st and 8th, at 10.30 a.m., respectively. Georgia´s Grandmaster Baadur Jobava will give a lecture "About The Usefulness of Research in Chess", on Sunday, 2nd of November, in the Aténeu Colón Chess Club of Barcelona. The lecture will start at 11.00 a.m. Free enrty for everyone. (Address: Pujades Str. 107 08005 Barcelona, Spain)