The "Chess Champions League – Playing for a better world"

The Cabin.

Photo from chessbase.com

The "Chess Champions League" (Jesus de Lafuente memorial) is taking place from 1st-15th November 2007 in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain.

The event is called the "Chess Champions League - Playing for a better world". It was called the Champion League because at first, only former world players were invited to take place - plus Judit Polgar , as the best woman ever but unfortunetly former World Champion- Alexander Khalifman was replaced by Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu at the last minute after the latter had to admitted to the hospital for a surgery .

The purpose of this tournament is to get funds for a Hospital in Mbuji-Mayi, one of the poorest regions in Congo.

The main features of this tournaments is the players a playing inside a glass cabin. Below are excerpt from Chessbase.com

...."The main intention of this glass cabin," organiser David Llada tells us, "is to save the spectators from being in silence during the long hours of game: the chess fans can talk, they can ask questions, they can participate, the can listen to interviews... and everything within a few meters distance from the great players. The players are isolated from the public, as the glass can muffle any noise up to 60 decibels; which means that if you put this glass cabin in the middle of a traffic roundabout, the wouldn't hear any noise from the cars around them."

There is another advantage to the setup: "The players are also visually isolated: due the special lighting, they can barely see anything further than the second row of spectators – apart from shadows." For this reason the organisers did not think it necessary to provide any additional anti-cheating features. In consideration was the use of a cell-phone "inhibitor", a device that block all telephone frecuencies and – sadly – is commonly used in the Basque Country to protect public buildings (Banks, Town Halls...) from terrorist attacks by ETA"...

Full article in chessbase.com can be read here

Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

Photo from chessbase.com

Russian State Symphony also contribute by performing a series of concerts in Vitoria. The benefits will be channel to the construction of a hospital in Congo.