Nice move: World-class chess tournament comes home to Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

RSS Feed

Nice move: World-class chess tournament comes home to Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

July 31st, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Leon Watson

PUBLISHED:

22:59 EST, 30 July 2012

|

UPDATED:

23:00 EST, 30 July 2012

World-class tournament chess will return to the sport’s so-called ‘home’ in central London for the first time in more than a century.

Simpson’s-in-the-Strand will host the first in a new series of world chess Grand Prix in a private upstairs room.

The venue, known as Simpson’s Grand Divan Tavern in the 19th century, was to chess what Lord’s is to cricket or Wimbledon is to tennis.

The Grand Prix event at Simpson's-in-the-Strand is part of a competition to find the next challenger to Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (left), who holds the world title

The Grand Prix event at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand is part of a competition to find the next challenger to Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand (left), who holds the world title

In its heyday, a coffee house where giant chess boards and chess pieces several feet tall enabled a voracious public to watch and bet on the action.

But when the Grand Prix is held the matches will be out of sight of spectators who will have to follow the moves online.

Organisers remain hopeful that the tournament will mark a new beginning for the game, which has faded from public consciousness since it boomed during Cold War.

The Simpson’s tournament is the first event in a newly created World Chess Championship Cycle, designed to find the next challenger for the world title held by the great Indian grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand.

Twelve of the world’s top players will compete against each other over a fortnight for a prize fund of €240,000 (£187,000).

They include three former world champions and Boris Gelfand, the Israeli who was beaten by Mr Anand in Moscow in May, the last challenge for the title.

Simpson's-in-the-Strand will host the first in a new series of world chess Grand Prix in a private upstairs room

Simpson’s-in-the-Strand will host the first in a new series of world chess Grand Prix in a private upstairs room

The event was due to be held in Chelyabinsk in the Russian Ural mountains but preparations fell victim to ongoing squabbling between the Russian Chess Federation and the governing body, the World Chess Federation.

Andrew Paulson, the social media entrepreneur whose company Agon recently secured the commercial rights to the World Chess Championships, told The Times that he switched the tournament to London when it became clear that these difficulties would not be resolved in time.

‘If we had held it in Chelyabinsk I might have been thrown in jail,’ he said. ‘I felt it was prudent to withdraw with dignity to Simpson’s.’

Mr Paulson has ambitious plans for attracting global sponsors and exploiting the ‘great potential’ for chess on smartphones, tablets and the internet as well as on television.

The association between chess and Simpson’s dates back to 1828 when the Fountain Tavern on the Strand reopened as the Grand Cigar Divan.

Patrons included Charles Dickens, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli.

Most of the top European chess players of the time played in Simpson’s. One of them, Johannes Zukertort, had a fatal stroke while playing there.

However in 1903, following its acquisition by the Savoy Group, Simpson’s closed for a year while The Strand was widened for automobile traffic. When it reopened in 1904 chess was banned.

The game briefly returned in 2003 for a small tournament to mark the 175th anniversary of chess on the site.

‘It’s a great feeling that chess is back in this venue,’ Mr Gelfand said. ‘It’s a historic place.’