Chess enthusiasts will be treated to a master class during the Maccabiah with exhibition matches involving Grandmasters Boris Gelfand, Judit Polgar and Pavel Eljanov at the Richard Riordan International Festival.

Some of the world’s most prominent players will join the legends at the Blue Bay Hotel in Netanya where the super tournament featuring 12 elite Grandmasters takes centre stage.

Competitors from Israel will include GM Boris Gelfand, ranked number one nationally and among the top 10 in the world, and the man who helped lead the Israeli national team to a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. GM Emil Sutovsky, 1996 Junior World Champion and 2001 Individual European Champion, GM Boris Avrukh, current Israeli national champion, GM Ilia Smirin, former Israeli champion (1992, 1999), GM Maxim Rodshtein, 2006 Israeli national champion, GM Michal Roiz, and GM Vitali Golod are also involved.

International participants include GM Judit Polgar of Hungary, the strongest female chess player in history, who achieved the title of Grandmaster at age 15, GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine, currently among the world’s top 50 players, GM Evgeny Najer of Russia, winner of the super-tournament during the 2005 Maccabiah, GM Daniel Fridman of Germany, and GM Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia, a former USSR champion.