The first press-conference "On holding in Novgorod the International Chess Super Tournament "Lord Novgorod the Great" and the 9th stage of Russian Chess Cup "Novgorod-open’97" was presided by Irina Kibina, Director of the fund of the International Chess SuperTournament "Lord Novgorod the Great" ; Nickolai Gratchev, Head of Novgorod City Administration Committee on Physical training and Sport, Valery Starkov, President of Novgorod Chess-Club and Ivan Firsov, Head of Novgorod Region Chess-Federation.
As Ms. Kibina informed the journalists, the three International Grandmasters, Kramnic, Topalov and Bareyev will play simultaneous games during three days before the official opening of the 1Vth SuperTournament "Lord Novgorog The Great": on June 8 Vladimir Kramnik will play with the best chess-players of the region; on June 9 Veselin Topalov will confront the best school girls, winners at the preliminary selection ; on June 10 the strongest schoolboys will venture to beat Evgeny Boreyev. By the way one of them Sasha Kirillov 7 years old was praised by the participants in the press-conference as a unique Novgorodian player, because by now he has managed to gain the best results and the maximum scores in all the tournaments where he has participated.
The opening ceremony of the Super Tournament will be held on June 11 in the Philharmonic hall in the Kremlin; the chess players’ tables will be on the stage of the Philharmonic hall . The Hall of Philharmonic will accommodate, up to 150 participants in the "Novgorod - open’ 97". Novgorod Kremlin is chosen as the most convenient place for the tourists guests and all the spectators of chess - battles.

The prize fund of the Tournament "Novgorod - open’ 97" is $10 000. Mainly, it is financed by Russian Chess Federation State Committee on Physical Training and Tourism. It sponsors half of the sum for the Super Tournament "Lord Novgorod The Great". The rest is sponsored by Novgorodian organizations, commercial firms and enterprises. The prize fund of the Super Tournament is $70 000. The 1st place prize is $ 25 000, the last place prize is $ 5 000.
Among the prizes are two chess pieces of XV century in a red-wood box encrusted with silver, found on the Ilmen-lake bank.

Here, in Novgorod for the 1th time in the history of Chess-Tournaments a new prize system is implemented: 3 points for the won game, 1 for the draw. The top score in the old (official) and in the new system can not coincide.

According to Nickel Gretchen, head of Novgorod Region Committee of Physical Training and Sport, playing chess is very popular in Novgorod nowadays. It was impossible to give a chess-player a candidate degree some years ago, because competitions were not held. But now the Chess-Club and its sections can not accommodate those who want it play chess, there is a necessity to open the 2nd Chess School (there is one: Novgorod sport school ¹31, trainer Eduard Egorov).
Regional committee of Physical Training and Sport has already included chess into the popular kinds of sport. President of Novgorod Chess Club, Valery Starkov quoted the following figures: 293 chess-players are in the club rating-list, among them two international masters (Olga Jashenko and Igor Zakharevitch), 1 master and 25 candidates. 9 rating tournaments are held in Novgorod every year.

Famous chess players, included into the 1st hundred of the best players will participate in "Novgorod - open’97", among them : Cheburdanidze, Dsematov, Balagan, Rublevsky and others. A lot of guest are expected at the Super Tournament "Lord Novgorod The Great". Managers of Indian Great master Anand will come for a few days, their visit would probably results in Mr. Anand’s coming to Novgorod himself, he had not a possibility to participate in 1996 because of private circumstances. President of Karelia and President of FIDE Kirsan Ilimzhinov have not yet changed their intention to come, and are expected at the opening ceremony of the Super Tournament "Lord Novgorod The Great".