Chess fans from five Continents will have their eyes focused on Miskolc between 24-29 August 2010. The most prestigious annual match in Hungary is going to be organized at the National Theater of Miskolc. The No. 1 Hungarian Grandmaster Péter Lékó takes up a duel of eight games against the 2009 World Cup winner, Boris Gelfand of Israel. The arbiter of the match will be Zsuzsa Verőci, GM.

In the first match of the series, Péter Lékó played against Michael Adams from England in 2005. The exciting duel ended up with a tie of 4-4.

Four years ago Lékó’s opponent was the twelfth world champion of chess Anatolij Karpov. Lékó took the lead by winning the third game and preserved this advantage till the end gaining a victory of 4,5-3,5.

Three years ago Leko's opponent and the special guest of Miskolc was the Russian World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik won the third and fifth game, Lékó could strike back in the sixth, however, the Russian GM won the duel by 4,5-3,5.

After the great champions, Péter Lékó was facing the pretender, Magnus Carlsen two years ago. Before the duel in Miskolc, the Norwegian Wunderkind, who is also known as Mozart of the Chess, has been without victories against Péter. In course of the game, Magnus, who seemed quite faint-hearted at the beginning, just kept his wits about in the difficult moments, in expediencies of time pressure and beside two draws he secured two wins and finally prevailed.

Hardcore chess fans could hardly wait for the fifth anniversary match. The 15th world champions of chess, the 39 year-old Viswanathan Anand could be seen "live" by the Hungarian chess fans for the first time in his career. Anand proved that he is worth the title of the king of rapid chess. Beside six draws, his two wins secured him the chance to take the overall victory.

This time Péter Lékó is facing the last year’s World Cup winner Boris Gelfand. As one of the biggest successes in his career, he finished second in dead-heat out of 8 Grandmasters at the World Chess Championship in Mexico in 2007. Through the triumph at the World Cup he became the world champion candidate again.

Péter Lékó and Boris Gelfand played against each other for the first time in a blitz tournament in Munich in 1994 and, since then, they battled in a total 55 games.

They played classical games 26 times, out of which, beside 20 draws, 3-3 wins and losses can be enumerated. In their 30 rapid games the same balance can be observed: 20 draws, 5-5 wins and losses. In the semi final of the Rapid World Cup in Odessa, Lékó prevailed in 2007 while two years later Gelfand attained the title.

The players will have 25 minutes with a bonus of 10 seconds per move for the game. Should the duel of eight games end in a 4-4 draw, blitz games are going to decide the winner.


Schedule:

24 August (Tuesday)
6.00 PM Opening ceremony and hosting of the draw at the National Theater of Miskolc

25 August (Wednesday)
5.00 PM The first game of the match.
6.30 PM The second game of the match. After finishing, the two grandmasters are giving a short press conference of 10-15 minutes.

26 August (Thursday)
5.00 PM The third game of the match.
6.30 PM The fourth game of the match. After finishing, the two grandmasters are giving a short press conference of 10-15 minutes

27 August (Friday)
5.00 - 7.00 PM Public Event
(Location: ITC International Trade Center - 1. Mindszent Square, Miskolc,- Rákóczi terem)

28 August (Saturday)
5.00 PM The fifth game of the match.
6.30 PM The six game of the match. After finishing, the two grandmasters are giving a short press conference of 10-15 minutes.

29 August (Sunday)
5.00 PM The seventh game of the match.
6.30 PM The eighth game of the match. After finishing, the two grandmasters are giving a press conference of about 30 minutes.
cca. 7.30 PM The closing ceremony of the match

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