The organisers of the traditional Magistral Ciudad de León have announced the line-up for 2013. In the headline match, at rapid chess, Vasily Ivanchuk will meet Anish Giri. 

In the current year, the 25th festival, Topalov faced up to his former trainer Vallejo Pons, with Francisco coming out on top. Next year, the organisers have decided on a "match of the generations", inviting 43 year old (he will be 44 in May) Ivanchuk and 18 year old Giri. What prompted this decision? 

Vasily Mikhailovich has always had special relations with Spain...He played every year at Linares (winning this supertournament three times), and has taken part in tournaments at Las Palmas, Dos Hermanas, Bilbao, Madrid and now Leon. It hardly needs saying that he is one of the most creative and interesting players of the modern era. But with Ivanchuk, everything depends on his mood: if it is normal, we can expect a memorable spectacle, but if not, we can expect a boring routine. 

As for Giri, the recent results of the young Ducthman suggest he needs to take a break and re-think his chess path. But Anish is not thinking of taking a pause - he plays and plays! He owes his invitation to Leon principally to a brilliant performance in the Spanish League, where he has just put up the best result for the champion team “Sestao Naturgas”.

For Ivanchuk it will be his third Leon (in 2008, he won the match against Anand himself) and for Giri, his first. Six rapid games will serve to identify who is stronger...

(Text by Evgeny Atarov)

Source: http://www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=1291205