World Cup starts tomorrow

Tomorrow the first round of the FIDE World Cup will be played; a knockout tournament with no less than 128 players that runs November 23 till December 17 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Seven round of two-game matches, except for the last round (the final) which will have four games. Total prize fund: 1,600,000 US dollars.

Let’s first make clear where exactly that is, Khanty-Mansiysk:

The first three round (23 November-2 December), with first 128, then 64 and then 32 players, will be held in the Big Hall of the Concert Theater Center “Ugra-Classic”:

The last four rounds (3-16 December) will take place in the Arts Centre:

A total of 128 players will travel to Siberia, who qualified from national championships, zonal tournaments and continental championships (from which 45 players from Europe could qualify, 19 from the Americas, also 19 from Asia and 6 from Africa). For this World Cup all Mexico participants had qualified but of course current world champion Anand doesn’t have to play, and neither does Kramnik who already has his match. By the way this also holds true for Topalov, who… indeed, will play the winner of this World Cup. And if we’re not mistaken, the winner of this “Topalov-World Cup winner” match will play a match for the world title in 2009 against the winner of Anand-Kramnik.

So the strongest players we’re missing in this World Cup are Gelfand, Leko and Morozevich. Who knows more about this, please leave a comment to this article. Also qualified is the current women’s world champion (Xu Yuhua, and she’s participating), the junior world champion under 20 of 2006 (Zaven Andriasian, also playing), and then the 20 best players on average from the July 2006 and January 2007 rating list, then 89 players from continental championships, 5 FIDE President nominees and 4 nominees by the organizers. This leads to the following list (pairings for the first round):

World Cup Round 1 Pairings

No.	Name	Country	elo		Name	Country	elo
1	Ivanchuk,V	UKR	2787	-	Aderito,P	ANG	2352
2	Mamedyarov,S	AZE	2752	-	Abdel Razik,K	EGY	2389
3	Radjabov,T	AZE	2742	-	Genba,V	RUS	2413
4	Aronian,L	ARM	2741	-	Hobaica,J	ARG	2427
5	Shirov,A	ESP	2739	-	Gwaze,R	ZIM	2429
6	Svidler,P	RUS	2732	-	Iturrizaga,E	VEN	2435
7	Adams,M	ENG	2729	-	Zugic,I	CAN	2477
8	Alekseev,E	RUS	2716	-	Ismagambetov,A	KAZ	2480
9	Grischuk,A	RUS	2715	-	Lima,D	BRA	2487
10	Carlsen,M	NOR	2714	-	Zhao,Z	AUS	2491
11	Kamsky,G	USA	2714	-	Adly,A	EGY	2494
12	Akopian,V	ARM	2713	-	Filippov,A	UZB	2496
13	Jakovenko,D	RUS	2710	-	Rahman,Z	BAN	2497
14	Ponomariov,R	UKR	2705	-	El Gindy,E	EGY	2503
15	Wang Yue	CHN	2703	-	Pridorozhni,A	RUS	2506
16	Bacrot,E	FRA	2695	-	Laylo,D	PHI	2508
17	Karjakin,S	UKR	2694	-	Matsuura,E	BRA	2511
18	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	2692	-	Kabanov,N	RUS	2512
19	Eljanov,P	UKR	2691	-	Hossain,E	BAN	2514
20	Almasi,Z	HUN	2691	-	Wen Yang	CHN	2515
21	Malakhov,V	RUS	2690	-	Xu Yuhua	CHN	2517
22	Kasimdzhanov,R	UZB	2690	-	Gopal,GN	IND	2520
23	Dominguez,L	CUB	2683	-	Iljushin,A	RUS	2528
24	Van Wely,L	NED	2679	-	Nguyen,NTS	VIE	2530
25	Landa,K	RUS	2678	-	Nevednichy,V	ROU	2531
26	Volokitin,A	UKR	2678	-	Le,Q	VIE	2534
27	Rublevsky,S	RUS	2676	-	Hera,I	HUN	2544
28	Onischuk,A	USA	2674	-	Andriasian,Z	ARM	2546
29	Inarkiev,E	RUS	2674	-	Peralta,F	ARG	2546
30	Zvjaginsev,V	RUS	2674	-	Kunte,A	IND	2547
31	Cheparinov,I	BUL	2670	-	Gonzalez,JC	MEX	2552
32	Harikrishna,P	IND	2668	-	Zhao Jun	CHN	2552
33	Nisipeanu,LD	ROU	2668	-	Amin,B	EGY	2561
34	Tkachiev,V	FRA	2661	-	Balogh,C	HUN	2561
35	Sasikiran,K	IND	2661	-	Zhigalko,S	BLR	2562
36	Vallejo,F	ESP	2660	-	Kudrin,S	USA	2563
37	Nikolic,P	BIH	2657	-	Iljin,A	RUS	2565
38	Navara,D	CZE	2656	-	Ivanov,A	USA	2565
39	Sutovsky,E	ISR	2655	-	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2566
40	Fressinet,L	FRA	2654	-	Flores,D	ARG	2566
41	Bareev,E	RUS	2653	-	Becerra,J	USA	2568
42	Short,N	ENG	2649	-	Baramidze,D	GER	2569
43	Georgiev,K	BUL	2649	-	Megaranto,S	INA	2569
44	Volkov,S	RUS	2648	-	Gajewski,G	POL	2573
45	Socko,B	POL	2646	-	Georgiev,V	MKD	2576
46	Tomashevsky,E	RUS	2646	-	Mamedov,R	AZE	2582
47	Motylev,A	RUS	2645	-	Savchenko,B	RUS	2583
48	Zhang Pengxiang	CHN	2644	-	Gagunashvili,M	GEO	2584
49	Roiz,M	ISR	2644	-	Akobian,V	USA	2585
50	Tiviakov,S	NED	2643	-	Ganguly,S	IND	2585
51	Wang Hao	CHN	2643	-	Markus,R	SRB	2586
52	Khalifman,A	RUS	2643	-	Belov,V	RUS	2587
53	Izoria,Z	GEO	2643	-	Ghaem Maghami,E	IRI	2591
54	Avrukh,B	ISR	2641	-	Milos,G	BRA	2592
55	Naiditsch,A	GER	2639	-	Granda Zuniga,J	PER	2592
56	Najer,E	RUS	2635	-	Berg,E	SWE	2593
57	Sakaev,K	RUS	2634	-	Vitiugov,N	RUS	2594
58	Gurevich,M	TUR	2627	-	Kaidanov,G	USA	2597
59	Shabalov,A	USA	2626	-	Pavasovic,D	SLO	2597
60	Shulman,Y	USA	2616	-	Leitao,R	BRA	2601
61	Rodshtein,M	ISR	2615	-	Gustafsson,J	GER	2606
62	Laznicka,V	CZE	2610	-	Macieja,B	POL	2606
63	Kozul,Z	CRO	2609	-	Bruzon,L	CUB	2607
64	Bartel,M	POL	2608	-	Galkin,A	RUS	2608

So eventually we’ll have one winner from this long list of players. But only after six rounds of two-game matches and a four-game final. The time control shall be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. After a 1-1 score there will be tiebreaks on the next day, with first two rapid games of 25 minutea and 10 secondes increment, then two 5-minutes games (also 10 secondes increment) and if needed, a sudden-death game. The player, who wins the drawing of lots, may choose the colour. White shall receive 6 minutes, Black shall receive 5 minutes, without any addition. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared as winner.

The total prize fund is 1,600,000 US dollars, divided like this:

World Cup Prize Fund

Players	Prize
Round 1 losers:	USD 6,000
Round 2 losers:	USD 10,000
Round 3 losers:	USD 16,000
Round 4 losers:	USD 25,000
Round 5 losers:	USD 35,000
Round 6 losers:	USD 50,000
Runner-up:	USD 80,000
World Cup winner:	USD 120,000

The schedule for the tournament:

World Cup Schedule

Date	Event
23.11.07	Opening ceremony
24.11.07	Round I- game 1
25.11.07	Round I- game 2
26.11.07	Tie break
27.11.07	Round II- game 1
28.11.07	Round II- game 2
29.11.07	Tie break
30.11.07	Round III- game 1
1.12.07	Round III- game 2
2.12.07	Tie break
3.12.07	Round IV- game 1
4.12.07	Round IV- game 2
5.12.07	Tie break
6.12.07	Round V- game 1
7.12.07	Round V- game 2
8.12.07	Tie break
9.12.07	Round VI- game 1
10.12.07	Round VI- game 2
11.12.07	Tie break
12.12.07	Free day
13.12.07	Round VII- game 1
14.12.07	Round VII- game 2
15.12.07	Round VII- game 3
16.12.07	Round VII- game 4
17.12.07	Tie break. Closing Ceremony

FIDE has punt an Excel file online with the full pairings tree for rounds 1-7. I’ve put that one as a PDF here. That’s about it as far as the information is concerned and the official website isn’t looking very promising yet. As soon as we’ve discovered the link for live games, we’ll add it to the grey column on the right.

Of course first-seed Vassily Ivanchuk is the favourite, but everything can happen in such a tournament. Energy and stamina are important, but from former FIDE knockout tournaments we know that rapid or blitz capacities are important as well. One thing is certain: the chess fans won’t be bored in the coming three weeks.