ZAGREB, June 26, 2019 - The opening ceremony of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour, this year's strongest individual chess competition in the world, took place at Zagreb's Mimara Museum on Tuesday evening.

The tournament will be played in the Novinarski Dom building, the head office of the Croatian Journalists' Association, until July 8 and will feature 12 grandmasters. It will be the first time a current world championship, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, plays in Croatia. The tournament prize fund is $325,000.

Among the participants will be former world champion Viswanathan Anand of India (9th on the FIDE list), an absolute world champion from 2007 to 2013 who lost the title to Carlsen, and American Fabiano Caruana (2nd on the FIDE list), who challenged Carlsen last year, but lost.

The tournament is sponsored by the Croatian government, and in his opening remarks Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said: "In the days ahead Zagreb will be the world capital of chess. I hope this tournament has a positive effect on young people and I thank Garry Kasparov for helping ensure that it is held in Zagreb."

Kasparov, a world championship from 1985 to 2000 and one of the best chess players of all time, also attended the opening ceremony. He was granted Croatian citizenship in 2014.

Among those attending were Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek and Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli.

The tournament opened with Prime Minister Plenković making the symbolic first move against Carlsen.

More chess news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, June 17, 2019 - The Croatia Grand Chess Tour will be held in Zagreb starting as of June 26 and under the high sponsorship of the Croatian government with 12 of the best world chess players attending including world champion Magnus Carlsen.

After seeing legendary chess players like Robert Fischer and Russia's greats Tigran Petrosian and Vasily Smyslov in Zagreb's chess arena, one of the world's best and current world champion, Carlsen will come to Zagreb for the first time.

The simple fact that the top eight players in the world will be attending the Croatian Grand Chess Tour means that this is one of the strongest chess tournaments in history.

The tournament will officially open in Zagreb's Mimara Museum on June 26 while the actually tournament will be held in the Croatian Journalists' Home across the road and will run until July 7. The official closing and award ceremony will be held on July 8. The prize pool for the tournament is $325,000.

More chess news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

Croatian chess enthusiasts and celebrities play against the former world champion.

World champion and Croatian citizen Garry Kasparov soon to be in action in Zagreb.

TCN's Michel Percan meets childhood hero Garry Kasparov, as a 13 year-old girl from Rijeka tests the former world champion.