The Minister for Sport and Leisure, the Hon Edwin J Reyes, is pleased to announce that as part of the support Government is providing to Chess in Gibraltar, and the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in particular, it was arranged for a representative of the Gibraltar Tourist Board to attend, for the first time, the British Chess Championships at the University of Kent in Canterbury to promote the Gibraltar Chess Championships. The Tourist Board’s role at the event was to offer promotional literature and information to tournament competitors and encourage their participation in the Gibraltar event.

The British Chess Championships also saw the launch of the 2011 Tradewise
Gibraltar Chess Festival, which will be held from Monday 24th January to Thursday 3rd February 2011.

Now in its 9th consecutive year, the Gibraltar Chess Festival is expected to attract over 5,000 room nights in Gibraltar from over 50 destinations.
The website for the 2011 tournament has now been launched and may be viewed at http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com. Tournament brochures and entry forms may be downloaded from the website in PDF and word formats. The website also has full details of the travel and hotel arrangements for next year and contact details for getting in touch with the organisers and hotels. A high level of activity is expected on the official website with more than half a million individual site visits.

This year’s festival, thanks to sponsorship contributions attracted by the organisers, will also see the total prize money increase by 10% to £126,000, with £6000 being allocated to new rating prizes and further increases to the top prizes for the open and women competitors.

No. 201/2010

Telephone: (350) 20047592; Fax: (350) 20047579; E-mail: minculture@gibtelecom.net