Londonskaya hotel again gathered the leading grand masters of the world – for the second Rapid Chess World Cup organized by Association of chess professionals and Pivdenny Bank on January 3-7.

A lot of famous international masters came to Odessa to take part in the Cup. There was Vasiliy Ivanchuk from Ukraine, Theymur Radgabov from Azerbaijan, Alezander Grishchuk from Russia among them. And also the legendary grand master of chess, the 12th World Champion Anatoliy Karpov was invited to the Cup. The prize fund of the tournament amounted USD 136 000, and the the1st prize, won by Theymur Radgabov, was USD 40 000.

At the press conference the Vice-president of Chess Federation and Chairman of the Board of Pivdenny Bank Vadim Morokhovsky thanked the organizers of the tournament for the considerable contribution to the world chess development and added: “Our goal is to make Odessa the capital of the chess world”.