The last few years have seen a recent revival of chess. With the Nanjing and London Chess classic, in addition to the Bilbao Masters, we thought a new era of chess has arrived.
However, the new year of 2011 has delivered a very hard blow to chess.
Next year Amber will be gone from the calendar. This was quickly followed by the cancellation of the NH Chess tournament.
Probably the hardest blow was the loss of Linares (although the organisers are still trying to have one ready before the end of the year) - once considered the Wimbledon of chess. And today, news reports that the latest axe to fall is on Mainz.
As it is, I'm currently suffering from a withdrawal of non-chess tournament period and the only major tournament in the calendar at the moment is the Aeroflot Open (which may not live to see another year). I remember a time when the beginning of the year was filled with major chess tournaments.
Pity.
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