PRESS RELEASE 5
28 January 2015
‘We want you to continue coming to play chess on
the Rock’ say Gibraltar’s Tourism Minister
CAPTION: Gibraltar’s Tourism Minister Samantha Sacramento next to James Humphreys, Chairman
of Tradewise Gibraltar Insurance Ltd, and addressing the event organiser Brian Callaghan. Pic: Sophie
Triay.
Gibraltar’s new Minister for Tourism Samantha Sacramento hosted a special dinner in honour of the
13th edition of the Tradewise Chess Festival at the Khaima restaurant at the Rock Hotel. Her
message to the strong chess contingent was simple.
“We want you to continue coming to the Tradewise Chess Festival and making it an even greater
success year after year,” she stated.
The Tradewise Chess Festival, she emphasised, was an important event on the Rock and also “about
hosting successful events led tourism in Gibraltar”.
CAPTION: New Tourism Minister Samantha Sacramento hosts her first chess dinner.
Ms Sacramento told the chess players: “We are fortunate to have you as our guests and enjoy
Gibraltar. It is interesting to see how this tournament has grown since 2003 with just 60
participants. It is also great to see that some players have attended all the events over the 13 years
and that now there are second generation participants also.”
But she was also, wearing her hat as Minister for Equality, pleased with the strong emphasis this
tournament has always given women in chess, its attempt to redress the gender balance and
address the fact that not enough women are attracted to this game.
In his speech organiser Brian Callaghan had highlighted that this 13th edition of the Tradewise Chess
Festival had a record number of women players with 54 in total.
“This year, “ he said, “the women are led by the Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan on her return
to Gibraltar, and underpins the success of this tournament on many levels. “
Mr Callaghan announced that the top 10 players in this year’s Gibraltar Masters had an average
rating of 2731 making it the strongest leader board Gibraltar has ever seen.
“We have 100 players in the Masters Tournament with ratings below 2,300 and they will be playing
against a field led by Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Nakamura and Pete Svidler,” he said.
He was confident that the Tradewise Tournament, certainly in the early stages, would continue to
provide the opportunity for amateurs to play against some of the best professional players in the
world.
He paid tribute to the Government for supporting the event as well as the Junior International
Tournament in August and “most importantly the whole effort to promote chess in our schools and
our community”.
Mr Callaghan highlighted the fact that there were players from 52 countries visiting the Rock for this
tournament. Some, he added, had travelled for the first time from as far as Iran, Bangladesh, South
Korea, Monaco and Paraguay.
This year the tournament has attracted 430 visitors to the Rock over the 10 days.
CAPTION: Emil Sutovsky, President of the Association of Chess Professionals.
At the end of the dinner Emil Sutovsky, President of the Association of Chess Professionals , in which
Gibraltar has been voted the best open tournament in the world for the third consecutive year,
announced they were looking at the possibility of hosting an all women’s tournament on the Rock.
He further emphasised that Tradewise was not only the best but also the strongest open
tournament in the world and an outstanding event in chess.
Alice Mascarenhas, John Saunders and Leontxo Garcia, Tradewise Press Chess Officers
[email protected] | www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
Steve Connor, Webmaster.
All 2015 Tradewise Festival reports are also on our Facebook page. Follow us
on Twitter @GibraltarChess #GibChess or @Stuthefox with TD Stuart
Conquest.