PhosAgro is the Official Sponsor of the Qualifying Stage of the Moscow Grand Prix of the 2018 World Chess Championship

MOSCOW, May 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

PhosAgro is the official sponsor of the qualifying stage of the Chess Grand Prix, which takes place in Moscow from 12 to 21 May as part of the 2017-2018 World Championship cycle.

The partnership between PhosAgro, one of the world's largest producers of phosphate-based fertilizers, and World Chess by Agon Limited, which owns the global commercial rights to organise FIDE championship tournaments, was announced on 12 May 2017 during the official opening ceremony of the Moscow Grand Prix.

Eighteen chess players from 12 countries will compete in the Moscow Grand Prix. Competitors include five Russian players: Alexander Grischuk, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Peter Svidler and Ernesto Inarkiev

PhosAgro CEO and Russian Chess Federation Board of Trustees Andrey Guryev said: "PhosAgro has been the permanent general partner of the Russian Chess Federation for seven straight years. The philosophy of chess and the development of the Company are very similar: both are based on strategic thinking and the desire to calculate moves in advance in order to be one step ahead of the competition. These skills help us to maintain our leading position in the commodity markets of 100 countries across the world, including our priority Russian market.

"We also support matches for the title of World Champion in Chess that take place in Russia, for example in Sochi in 2014, and matches involving Russian grandmasters, including New York in 2016 where Sergey Karjakin played a truly exciting game. Today, we are pleased to be the official partners of the Grand Prix competition taking place in the Russian capital, and we hope that we will see a Russian Grandmaster in the World Championship match next year.

"We support the future of the Russian Chess School, popularising chess in those regions where we have a presence, opening chess classes in our sponsored schools and kindergartens, and financing the training of chess teachers.

"In addition to supporting chess, we have been able to accomplish our business objective of increasing awareness of the PhosAgro brand and widening our base of potential investors and partners."

Chess fans can watch the progress of the Grand Prix either in person or online at the website WorldChess.com .

Head of World Chess Ilya Merenzon said: "I am happy that PhosAgro remains our partner. Our goal is to increase the popularity of chess worldwide and to make chess tournaments as entertaining as possible. During the World Championship, we realised that it is important for fans to see all aspects of the game. They are interested in how the grandmasters behave at the chess table and when they are relaxing. I am sure that this new type of broadcast will attract millions of new viewers from all over the world to their computer and television screens."

Twenty-four grandmasters will take part in a series four of Grand Prix tournaments: the first was held in the UAE (Sharjah), the third will take place in Switzerland (Geneva), the fourth in Spain (Palma de Mallorca). As a result, two will receive vouchers for the Candidates' Tournament, which will take place 10 to 30 March 2018. The World Chess Championship match will take place in November of following year.

Notes to Editors

PhosAgro is one of the leading global vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers. The Company focuses on the production of phosphate-based fertilizers, feed phosphate and high-grade phosphate rock (P₂O₅ content of not less than 39%), as well as ammonia and nitrogen-based fertilizers.

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe, the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock worldwide and the third largest MAP/DAP producer in the world (excluding China), according to Fertecon. PhosAgro is also one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia.

PhosAgro has 2.1 billion tonnes of resources (according to JORC) of high quality apatite-nepheline ore. The Company's mines and phosphate rock production facilities are located in the mountainous areas of the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk region of northwest Russia, whereas its fertilizer and feed phosphate production assets are located near the city of Cherepovets in the Vologda region and near the city of Balakovo in the Saratov region of southwest part of European Russia.

PhosAgro's 2016 IFRS revenue was over USD 2.8 bln and EBITDA was USD 1.08 bln.

For further information on PhosAgro please visit: www.PhosAgro.com