ISTANBUL

Since 2000 Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, has hosted most of major world chess events. The Olympiads in 2000, the Balkan Individual championships in 2001 and 2002, the World Blind championship in 2002, the European Individual championships in 2003, the 8th World Universities in 2004, the World Junior championships in 2005, the Atatürk International Women Master in 2008, the 1st Bankasi Ataturk FIDE Women Grand-Prix in 2008 and since 2002 the Istanbul Chess Festival which attracts every year more than 500 players. In 2012 Istanbul the Turkish Chess Federation welcomed for the second time all world chess federations for the Olympiads, a record for such mega event that only Moscow (1956-1994) and Buenos Aires (1939-1978) have achieved it in the past. The last winners of the Istanbul Chess festival are: 2002 Sukuraliev Algiz, 2003 Izoria Zviad, 2004 Bojkov Dejan, 2005 Aleksandr Karpatchev, 2006 Sergei Azarov, 2007 Mikhail Gurevich, 2008 Suat Atalik, 2009 Levon Babujian, 2010 Andrey Sumets, 2011 Konstantine Shanava, 2012 Dogan Heval Reyhan, 2013 Mustafa Yılmaz.