The fourth international chess tournament M-Tel Masters starts on May 7 2008 in Sofia's Military Club and will last till May 18.
Six of the world's best will take part in the tournament this year. Defending champion Vesselin Topalov and Ivan Cheparinov will represent Bulgaria. They will meet Armenia's Levon Aronian, Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk, Azerbaijan's Teimour Radjabov and China's Bu Xiangzhi.
One of the new features this year is the Chinese version of the tournament's website. Until now the information was only available in Bulgarian and English.
The reason for introducing Chinese fans to the tournament's results according to Silvio Danailov, director of M-Tel Masters was the participation of Chinese master Bu Xiangzhi this year.
“We decided it is obligatory to offer a Chinese version to the chess fans, mostly for Bu Xiangzhi’s participation as he is one of the world’s fastest progressing players,” Danailov, who is also Topalov's agent, said on the tournament's website.
“The interest towards chess in China is huge, I hope we will provide full information about our competition to the fans there”, he said. A day before the start of the tournament the Chinese version was still not available although the website has an icon saying Chinese, The Sofia Echo saw.
This year the website of the tournament will again offer the game Play Like Topalov. Traditionally, last year’s winner in the game, this time Jason Juett from US, will have the chance to play a game against Topalov, the former world champion.
This will happen on May 6, a day before the official opening of M-Tel Masters in the Military Club in Sofia. Bulgaria’s best grandmaster will play blindfold.
Kanal 1 of Bulgarian National Television (BNT) will show reports for each round of the chess battles. Live coverage on BNT's satellite TV Bulgaria channel will be broadcasted three times a day for 10 minutes.
Over 20 journalists from US, Russia, England, Spain, India, Greece, The Netherlands and Germany have already been accredited for the tournament. It is expected that in Sofia will arrive the teams of the Russian channel NTV Plus Sport and the Indian channel Doordashan TV.
The tournament is part of the Grand Slam circuit that started on January 11 2008 in The Netherlands with the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The other competitions included are in Linares-Morelia and in Mexico City. The four winners will determine the winner of the Grand Slam at a final tournament in Bilbao in the end of the year.
