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• 03 / 23 / 2009

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Leinier, Latin American leader in ELO (2,717) is among the six players ratified by the tournament’s organizers, which announced the event to run from may 12th till the 23rd in the Bulgarian capital, with the FIDE 21st category.

The Grand Masters are led by host Vesselin Topalov (2 796), number one in the world ranking and challenger to the world title; the roster includes Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk (2 779), Norwegian Magnus Carlsen (2 776), Chinese Yue Wang (2 739) and Spaniard Alexei Shirov (2 745), for an 2,753 average ELO, only two points less than famous Ciudad de Linares tournament, another of the Grand Slam.

Linares was precisely the last event attended by the Cuban placer, as well as Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Wang, thus making a quartet that started the year playing each other at Corus in Wijk aan Zee, Holland.

The Sofia Masters will be played like Linares, a doble round robin and the venue will be a special glass aquarium to be set in a square in front of the Ivan Vasov National Theater, according to Bulguarian news outlets. The Grand Slams will include a stop in Nanjing, China and will conclude in Bilbao, Sapin, to where Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk, winners in Corus and Linares, respectively, were already invited.

(PL)