I was quite surprised at the format of this tournament ie a knockout. Personally I like them but they have been heavily criticised in the past so it was interesting to see that its the chess professionals themselves choosing it. Here's the press release from the ACP web site:
"The ACP, in cooperation with GM Alexei Shirov and Latvian chess society, is proud to announce the ACP Cup 2013, taking place in Riga, Latvia, from September 12 to 15. The total prize fund is 75.000 USD. Sixteen of World's best players will fight for the Cup in a spectacular rapid chess Knock Out system. A number of great players, including Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Teimour Radjabov and Ruslan Ponomariov have already confirmed on their participation. The complete list of participants will be announced later this week.
ACP - with the chess players and for the chess players!"
ACP Cup Riga 12-15 September 2013
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Alex Holowczak
- Posts: 9085
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
- Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire
Re: ACP Cup Riga 12-15 September 2013
I think the important point is that it's Rapidplay. This means a few things:
(1) The play is likely to be of a slightly lower overall standard than something like the Candidates Matches, with the accelerated game lengths. So you're less likely to get draws. There's also far less riding on this compared to the prize of the Candidates Matches.
(2) You can have a decent match length, say best-of-6, with a blitz playoff if required. And it still only takes one day, rather than a week!
(1) The play is likely to be of a slightly lower overall standard than something like the Candidates Matches, with the accelerated game lengths. So you're less likely to get draws. There's also far less riding on this compared to the prize of the Candidates Matches.
(2) You can have a decent match length, say best-of-6, with a blitz playoff if required. And it still only takes one day, rather than a week!