The super chess tournament will be the strongest in the world for second consecutive year

(Sofia, February 19, 2006) Three world champions will play in Sofia in the second edition of the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters in May. The Bulgarian fans of the ancient game will be able to see the present World Champion Veselin Topalov and the two former champions of the planet Viswanathan Anand (IND) and Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR).

The other three participants will be Gata Kamsky (USA), Etienne Bacrot (FRA) and Peter Svidler (RUS).

„For the second consecutive year M-Tel Masters will be the strongest in the world, said Silvio Danailov, director of the tournament – the average ELO of the participants is 2747, the competition is 20th category of FIDE”.

The tournament will be held from May 10 to May 21, 2006, and his patron will be the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov. The six grand masters will play in Sofia Hall of the luxury five-star Grand Hotel Sofia.

The rules of the tournament are for two rounds with 7-hour control. Each participant will play two games against the rest in exchanged colors. In case of a draw at the top a tie-break will be played to decide the winner. Like last year the new rule about the draws that was introduced in Sofia will be valid. According to it the players cannot agree a draw. This can be decided only by the chief referee of the tournament.

In the rest day of the competition the World Champion Veselin Topalov will give a simul in the National Theatre park, where M-Tel has donated 10 chess tables for the fans of the ancient game.