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Grand Prix: who plays where?

12 March 2008 16:42 PM | Last modified: 16:56

In about a month time, the first Grand Prix will already be played. What do we know of it? Who will play, and where? All info and a video interview with Geoffrey Borg.

Last week, Geoffrey Borg (commercial manager of FIDE and CEO of Global Chess BV) dropped by for one day in Linares. Right on that day, at the FIDE website the cities and participants of the first Grand Prix Series was published, a complex set of data which have been created mainly by Borg - not a bad result by itself.

On April 20th, the first of six Grand Prix tournaments will start in Baku, Azerbaijan. It’s the start of a new, long-term world championship cycle, that will be combined with the results of the already planned matches Anand-Kramnik and Kamsky-Topalov.

I took the opportunity to interview Mr Borg, and in the video Borg tells us about the six upcoming tournaments. He also comments on Morozevich’s recent criticism and tries to take away any left skepticism.



At the FIDE website, in PDF you can download the schedule and list of participants of the first Grand Prix Series. Here’s an overview of each tournament. Every player has to play four of the six tournaments and the eventual winner will be the player who scored most cumulative points. The cumulative score will be calculated from the three best results for each player.

April 20th - May 6th, 2008

Baku, Azerbaijan

  

July 30th - August 15th, 2008

Soci, Russia
No. Name Fed Rating   No. Name Fed Rating
1 Svidler, Peter RUS 2763   1 Svidler, Peter RUS 2763
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2760   2 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2751
3 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2735   3 Aronian, Levon ARM 2739
4 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2733   4 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2737
5 Karjakin, Sergei UKR 2732   5 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2735
6 Adams, Michael ENG 2726   6 Karjakin, Sergei UKR 2732
7 Kamsky, Gata USA 2726   7 Kamsky, Gata USA 2726
8 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2713   8 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2720
9 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2711   9 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2713
10 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2700   10 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2711
11 Wang Yue CHN 2698   11 Wang Yue CHN 2698
12 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2681   12 Navara, David CZE 2680
13 Navara, David CZE 2680   13 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2665
14 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2665   14 Al Modiahki, Mohamad QTR 2569

December 13th - 29th, 2008

Doha, Qatar

  

April 14th - 28th, 2009

Montreux, Switzerland
No. Name Fed Rating   No. Name Fed Rating
1 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2760   1 Svidler, Peter RUS 2763
2 Leko, Peter HUN 2753   2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2760
3 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2735   3 Leko, Peter HUN 2753
4 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2733   4 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2751
5 Adams, Michael ENG 2726   5 Aronian, Levon ARM 2739
6 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2720   6 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2737
7 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2713   7 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2735
8 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2711   8 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2733
9 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2700   9 Karjakin, Sergei UKR 2732
10 Wang Yue CHN 2698   10 Kamsky, Gata USA 2726
11 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2681   11 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2711
12 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2665   12 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2700
13 Pelletier, Yannick SWZ 2600   13 Pelletier, Yannick SWZ 2600
14 Al Modiahki, Mohamad QTR 2569   14 Al Modiahki, Mohamad QTR 2569

August 8th - 24th, 2009

Elista, Russia

 

December 7th - 23th, 2009

Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
No. Name Fed Rating   No. Name Fed Rating
1 Leko, Peter HUN 2753   1 Svidler, Peter RUS 2763
2 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2751   2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2760
3 Aronian, Levon ARM 2739   3 Leko, Peter HUN 2753
4 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2737   4 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2751
5 Karjakin, Sergei UKR 2732   5 Aronian, Levon ARM 2739
6 Adams, Michael ENG 2726   6 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2737
7 Kamsky, Gata USA 2726   7 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2733
8 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2720   8 Adams, Michael ENG 2726
9 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2700   9 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2720
10 Wang Yue CHN 2698   10 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2713
11 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2681   11 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2681
12 Navara, David CZE 2680   12 Navara, David CZE 2680
13 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2665   13 Pelletier, Yannick SWZ 2600
14 Pelletier, Yannick SWZ 2600   14 Al Modiahki, Mohamad QTR 2569




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Written by peter | Filed under Coverstory, Global Chess BV, FIDE, Videos, Interview 

Comments

11 Responses to “Grand Prix: who plays where?”

  1. Michel on 12 March 2008 17:07 PM

    I’d be interested in a list of 2700+ players missing…let’s see:
    - Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, because of the games they’ll be playing anyway?
    - Morozevich out of protest.
    - Polgar because of ….?
    - Shirov because of ….?
    - Akopian, Alekseev, Ponomariov

    Following frogbert’s day to day rating, actual 2700+ players
    Movsesian, Bu and Ni
    are missing too.

    Instead of this we find one or two pretty weak players.

    I by the way find it interesting that although China has quite some strong and promising players these days (I only mentioned the three strongest ones), only Wang Yu is present.
    Any reason for that?

  2. peter on 12 March 2008 17:23 PM

    Part of your question is answered when you take into account that qualification is based on “an average calculation to two decimal places, of the January 2007 rating list and the October 2007 rating list in the year prior to start of the cycle.” See the qualification criteria.

  3. manyoso on 12 March 2008 17:47 PM

    Great interview! Very informative. I like the line-up, but I really wish we’d have seen Nakamura, and Polgar included.

  4. xtra on 12 March 2008 18:24 PM

    polgar must have declined since she was in a spot to take one of the places for one of those who declined. would be interesting to know for sure and why.

  5. Michel on 12 March 2008 19:59 PM

    @ Peter

    Cheers. I was to lazy to read through all the criteria. ;)

    Nevertheless I find that quite some strong players are missing…

  6. Ron on 12 March 2008 21:32 PM

    “Weak” is a relative term! Al Modiahki is the weakest with 2569 and I think that rating is already stratosferic for 99,999% of the readers of this site.

  7. bobmutch on 12 March 2008 23:54 PM

    @xtra
    I posted on one of Susan’s blogs and asked her why she is not in the Grand Prix.
    http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/chess-trivia_12.html#links

  8. manyoso on 13 March 2008 2:37 AM

    bobmutch, I don’t think Susan is close to ELO for this kind of tournament. It is her sister that should be in the match.

  9. someone on 13 March 2008 15:22 PM

    The last few players are the local players. Each host country can nominate one (their top) player. So Pelletier, Al Modiakhi, Navara, Gashimov, Inkarkiev and I think Jakovenko have qualified as local players so it is not relevant to ask why these players play instead of some player 2700 or a bit below.

    Cheparinov, Wang and Bacrot, are president nominee’s (because Anand, Topalov and Kramnik do not participate and these positions are supposed to be filled like this).

    However, they are very strong (close or above 2700). Maybe Wang was selected to have one chineese player (fair since many are close to 2700). Bacrot probably was in line as reserve as for Cheparinov .. he has Danailov as manager :-) (ok, he is very strong and close to the line anyway).

  10. Jorn on 13 March 2008 17:02 PM

    Very good video. It has made me understand the Grand Prix and the World Championship Cycle much better. Thank you.

  11. bobmutch on 14 March 2008 3:38 AM

    @manyoso
    Right now I am confused again. It is not Susan but Judit that is rated 2707. I am sure Susan gets this all the time.

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