FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov presided at last night's opening ceremony for the World Chess Grand Prix London at Somerset House.
The evening was hosted by Andrew Paulson of Agon, the new rights holder to the World Chess Championship Cycle, who thanked Vladimir Palikhata, the president of the Moscow Chess Federation, for supporting the reception.
He added his appreciation to FIDE for according him the commercial rights to the World Chess Championship Cycle.
Mr Paulson, the Director and founder of Agon, said: "I am enormously grateful to FIDE for placing their confidence in me. We are at an inflection point for chess and I have every hope that we are entering a new golden era for the sport."
Last night's reception, which celebrated the start of today's Grand Prix at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, was attended by more than 300 distinguished guests including Ambassadors, stars from the stage and screen, well-known models and patrons of the arts.
Invitees also enjoyed a number of performance ‘blitz' games, where the Grandmasters competing at the Grand Prix London tournament challenged guests such as the Hollywood actress Gillian Anderson, the chess-loving supermodel Lily Cole, and the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
The Grand Prix London is the first fixture in the new World Chess Championship Cycle.
The Grand Prix matches will be played over 11 rounds between 21 September and 3 October, with two rest days on 26 and 30 September. All games will be streamed live at http://london2012.fide.com
Players include: Hikaru Nakamura (2783), USA Vassily Ivanchuk (2769), UKR Alexander Grischuk (2754), RUS Veselin Topalov (2752), BUL Michael Adams (2722), GBR Wang Hao (2742), CHN Boris Gelfand (2738), ISR Peter Leko (2737), HUN Shakriyar Mamedyarov (2729), AZE Leinier Dominguez Perez (2725), CUB Anish Giri (2730), NLD Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2684), UZB
*As of 1 September 2012.
The player pairings can be viewed at www.agonlimited.com.
For more information, please contact:
Andrew Murray-Watson, Mission PR
Tel: +44 (0)20 7845 7800
Mob: +44 (0)7515 695232
Email: [email protected]