ACP Newsletter January 2016
Dear Members,
The beginning of the year is a good time to update you on the latest activities of the ACP as there were a lot of them. We are proud that a lot of good work was accomplished and we continue to improve the world of chess.
In December 2015 the General Assembly of the ACP took place and a new Board was elected. Emil Sutovsky was re-elected President, a new Chairman is Maxim Dlugy, a new General Secretary is Aleksandar Colovic and Pavel Tregubov was re-elected Treasurer. The other Board Members are Yuri Garrett, Bartlomiej Macieja, Anastasia Savina, Abhijit Kunte and Jeroen van den Berg.
ACP continued its successful support of prestigious events. In December 2015 ACP Masters took place in Ashdod (Israel). Twelve players (eight from the ACP Tour 2013-2015 and four wild cards) played over four days in an exciting rapid tournament, the strongest ever to be held in Israel. The event was won by Vasyl Ivanchuk who beat Etienne Bacrot in the final. The other players were Nepomniachtchi, Gelfand (semi-finalists), Eljanov, Jakovenko, Rapport, Guseinov, Smirin, Georgiev Kiril, Sutovsky and Sevian.
The centenary of the birth of the legendary Paul Keres was marked with the Keres Memorial - ACP Open held in Tallinn (Estonia), organised by the ACP in cooperation with the Estonian Chess Federation. An impressive tournament with about 40 Grandmasters including stars like Svidler, Gelfand, Kosteniuk, Cramling, veterans Balashov and Sveshnikov and many more. ACP donated substantial funds to the prize fund and ensured the accomodation of two dozen of ACP Premium Members that participated in the event. The winner was Igor Kovalenko from Latvia, ahead of David Howell, Boris Gelfand and Surya Ganguly.
ACP Tour is a unique system, used to determine ACP nominations and wild cards and is constantly improved and adjusted. The updated ACP Tour 2016 regulations, which will incorporate a wider range of the tournaments, are published on the ACP website (http://www.
We are proud to announce that the ACP-FIDE Veteran Program successfully continues for a third year. Six distunguished veterans will receive an award of 5000 USD each.
The ACP wild cards will have another chance to meet the elite in 2016 – Evgeny Tomashevsky is playing in Wijk aan Zee, Nino Batsiashvili is playing in the B-group in Wijk aan Zee and also there is a constant veteran spot in that same B-group in Wijk aan Zee (this year it went to Alexey Dreev). The cooperation with the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival continues as well with the wild cards going to Dmitry Jakovenko, Bela Khotenashvili and Valentina Gunina. In the Masters tournament there is also a special ACP prize to be awarded to the highest-placed ACP Premium Member who did not win any regular or category prize.
The new year also means that the deadline to renew your membership is approaching (it’s on 1 March). We believe in what we do and with your help we will strive to do better.
These days ACP is finalising a number of agreements and we plan to announce these shortly, so expect more good news soon!
This year promises to be another great year for chess. We wish you success and prosperity!
The ACP Board
