The 2006 edition of the very strong Essent tournament had its opening ceremony on Friday, with the first round games played yesterday. The event is a 4-player, double round-robin, meaning that each of the four players will play the other three players twice, with White and Black.The participants are:
GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), ranked #1 in the world, who just eight days ago lost the World Championship reunification match with Vladimir Kramnik in the tiebreak phase.
GM Shakhryar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), the only 2-time World Junior Champion in history, and a big star only beginning to reach his potential.
GM Judit Polgar (Hungary), without question the strongest woman chessplayer who has ever lived, she has been among the world elite for more than a decade.
GM Ivan Sokolov (Netherlands), a top Grandmaster for about two decades, extremely experienced and very dangerous, finds himself the lowest-rated player in the event at 2670.
In the first round, "Shak" Mamedyarov pulled off a big upset, beating the World #1 Topalov. Polgar defeated Sokolov in a nice Ruy Lopez.
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