The chess locomotive is being prepared in the depot and the last preparations are coming to an end. On Friday 9 October at 10 am, the Chess Train will depart from the Prague Main Railway Station to start its fifth journey across Central Europe. This year it will even be with 11 carriages, named after the world champions of chess history, because it will carry a record number of chess players.

The Chess Train 2015 is setting off on the route Prague - Dresden - Wroclaw - Bratislava - Vienna - Prague, during which 122 chess players from 19 different national federations will compete in an 11-round rapid chess tournament on board the train. The participants of the tournament include both amateurs and professionals from all over the world.

They will compete not only for glory and honour, but also for interesting prizes; the value of the prize fund exceeds 100,000 Czech crowns. The biggest favourites are the four grandmasters Julio Sadorra (the Philippines), Lars Karlsson (Sweden), Raj Tischbierek (Germany), and Ján Plachetka (Slovakia). The Chess Train 2015 will carry also the last year’s winner, Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers; however, for health reasons, he will not be competing this year. The participants will be fighting not only for the overall victory, but also for the first place in the team competition (the winners will receive vouchers for a stay at a Czech Inn Hotels hotel in Harrachov) and for the best performance over one’s own ELO rating (the prize for the winner will be the superb Sporten Glider 5 downhill skis).

The results will be known on Tuesday 13 October in the evening, when the Chess Train reaches Prague.

With no parallel in history, the Chess Train is a unique project of the Prague Chess Society and the Czech Railways. You can follow the photographic reportage from the journey on the Prague Chess Society website, for the current results visit chess-results.com.
(Source: CD)