Cap d'Agde

Each year the world's chess elite gather in the south of france for a chess tournament at Cap d'Agde. From the end of october until early november, the 16 invited players from around the world battled it out until Grandmaster (GM) Teimour Radjabov (19 years old) emerged the winner and collected the 16,000 euro winner's check (not bad for a week's work!). I went to watch some of the games including the semi-final between 2 players tipped for future greatness. Here GM Magnus Carlsen (15 years old) is photographed while waiting for his much older opponent, 16-year-old GM Sergey Karjakin. In the background a photograph of a competitor knocked out in the early rounds: former world champion Anatoli Karpov. Apparently chess is a young man's game.