English Chess Forum

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I've no idea how a tournament of 18 players will be completed in 12 days but I guess all will become clear........

LawrenceCooper wrote: I've no idea how a tournament of 18 players will be completed in 12 days but I guess all will become clear........

They announced some while ago that they would be running the Grand Prix as a Swiss. 18 players over 11 rounds doesn't always work very well. If they are using software, you would hope that it checks that a pairing for round n, doesn't leave rounds n+1 or n+2 impossible to pair.

If they are using a Swiss, why not have all 24 players in each tournament?

They can use the 4NCL Div 3 N pairing method, though, if they want to stick with 18 playing 11 rounds

Using Agon simple really all play all with some games as rapid chess!.....

Interesting mix of players: agon

Peter Svidler (RUS), Anish Giri (NED), Pavel Eljanov (UKR), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Levon Aronian (ARM), Ding Liren (CHN), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), Alexander Grischuk (RUS), Harikrishna Pentala (IND), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE), Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS), Boris Gelfand (ISR), Michael Adams (ENG), Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS), Li Chao (CHN), Teimour Radjabov (AZE), Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS), Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP), Salem Saleh (UAE), Wei Yi (CHN), Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR), Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS), Alexander Riazantsev (RUS), Richard Rapport (HUN).

Presumably Caruana & So expect to qualify for the Candidates on (average) rating, and Kramnik will have a go at winning the World Cup again; Karjakin is already qualified

Mick Norris wrote:Interesting mix of players: agon

Peter Svidler (RUS), Anish Giri (NED), Pavel Eljanov (UKR), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Levon Aronian (ARM), Ding Liren (CHN), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), Alexander Grischuk (RUS), Harikrishna Pentala (IND), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE), Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS), Boris Gelfand (ISR), Michael Adams (ENG), Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS), Li Chao (CHN), Teimour Radjabov (AZE), Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS), Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP), Salem Saleh (UAE), Wei Yi (CHN), Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR), Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS), Alexander Riazantsev (RUS), Richard Rapport (HUN).

Presumably Caruana & So expect to qualify for the Candidates on (average) rating, and Kramnik will have a go at winning the World Cup again; Karjakin is already qualified

I follow chess quite a lot its bad to admit I didnt know of three of these players

Did most of the people on here know of all of these players?

Joshua Gibbs wrote: Did most of the people on here know of all of these players?

They are all reasonably well known GMs. It does have the feel of a second tier competition with many famous names not playing. Anand, Kramnik, So, Caruana plus Carlsen and Karjakin all missing. Topalov too for that matter. They are intending to run the events using Swiss pairings. 18 players over 11 rounds.

Joshua Gibbs wrote:I follow chess quite a lot its bad to admit I didnt know of three of these players

Did most of the people on here know of all of these players?

I've heard of all of them apart from Salem Saleh. I've played 4 of them and have played in the same tournament as at least another 4.

Ian Thompson wrote:

Joshua Gibbs wrote:I follow chess quite a lot its bad to admit I didnt know of three of these players

Did most of the people on here know of all of these players?

I've heard of all of them apart from Salem Saleh. I've played 4 of them and have played in the same tournament as at least another 4.

It was the three Chinese players I hadnt heard of!
Im not as good a player as you but I thought i followed chess quite well

Finally we have a list of the 18 players for Sharjah due to kick off on the 17th Feb:

1 Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2796
2 Aronian Levon ARM 2785
3 Nakamura Hikaru USA 2785
4 Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2766
5 Ding Liren CHN 2760
6 Eljanov Pavel UKR 2759
7 Adams Michael ENG 2751
8 Nepomniachtchi Ian RUS 2749
9 Grischuk Alexander RUS 2742
10 Wei Yi CHN 2725
11 Li Chao B CHN 2720
12 Tomashevsky Evgeny RUS 2711
13 Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 2709
14 Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2709
15 Rapport Richard HUN 2692
16 Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2671
17 Salem A.R. Saleh UAE 2656
18 Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2628

Can't see any schedule yet though.
http://chess-results.com/tnr262596.aspx

No, can't see a schedule, but I am sure you can guess Chris!

TWIC has:
Fri 17th Feb 2017
Tue 28th Feb 2017
9 Rounds
Swiss
Time Control: 100:50:15+30spm(1)

The website has:
The World Chess FIDE Grand Prix 2017 is a series of four chess tournaments that form part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2018. The top two finishers will qualify for the 2018 Candidates Tournament.

There are four tournaments in the cycle; each consists of 18 players. 24 players in total were selected to compete in the tournaments, and each player will compete in three of the four tournaments.

Each tournament is an 18-player, nine-round Swiss system tournament. In each round players will score 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand Prix points will then be allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament.

The Grand Prix consists of 24 players. Two players qualified from being finalists in the World Chess Championship 2016 match; four players qualified from reaching the semifinals of the Chess World Cup 2015, eight players will qualify based on rating; one player will qualify from participation in the Association of Chess Professionals, and finally nine players rated at least 2700 will be nominated by Agon and FIDE.

The total prize money is €130,000 per single Grand Prix, or €520,000 for the total Grand Prix series. This money is allocated based on ranking in each individual tournament.

The series is the part of the 2017-2018 World Chess Championship cycle.

Mick Norris quoting Agon wrote: one player will qualify from participation in the Association of Chess Professionals, and finally nine players rated at least 2700 will be nominated by Agon and FIDE.

They don't seem to have been able to make a 2700 minimum stick.

15 Rapport Richard HUN 2692
16 Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2671
17 Salem A.R. Saleh UAE 2656
18 Hammer Jon Ludvig NOR 2628

Only 44 players over 2700 on list. Salem at 99.
May well be other players have better offers. Anyway hopefully these players will get over 2700 by performing well.
Assuming Hammer in as Norway's No.2 player as the No.1 player is WCC.

Just had an email from World Chess (i.e. Agon) trying to sell access to their coverage of the Grand Prix cycle. It included drawn caricatures of the 24 players. Interestingly, Hou Yifan is shown (at the expense of Wei Yi). So is Hou Yifan included after all. or was Wei Yi a late replacement and they forgot to change their prepared promotional material?

Friday 17 Opening ceremony

Saturday 18 Game 1
Sunday 19 Game 2
Monday 20 Game 3
Tuesday 21 Game 4
Wednesday 22 Game 5

Thursday 23 Rest day

Friday 24 Game 6
Saturday 25 Game 7
Sunday 26 Game 8
Monday 27 Game 9