ACP World Cup Matchups Announced

The opening ceremony of the World Cup ended with a drawing of lots. This is now the schedule of the 1st Round. The first player in each pair has White in the first game.

January 5, 2007

13.00: Sokolov-Leko
15.15: Rublevsky-Naiditsch
17.30: Smirin-Shirov
19.45: Gelfand-Nakamura

January 6, 2007

13.00: Harikrishna-Morozevich
15.15: Radjabov-Bareev
17.30: Bologan-Bacrot
19.45: Ivanchuk-Amonatov

Who are your favorites to win the individual matchups in round 1? Who will win the whole event?

Here is the official website.

First ACP World Rapid Cup Regulations

I. Tournament’s system

The 1st ACP World Rapid Cup will feature a knock-out tournament with 16 participants. A series of individual matches will determine who will be the winner of the event. It will run through four stages:

– 1st round with all 16 participants;
– quarter-finals with the 8 winners of the 1st round matches;
– semi-finals with the 4 winners of the quarter-finals;
– final with the 2 winners of the semi-finals.

II. Matches

All matches from the 1st round to the final will consist of two rapid games. These two games will be played with the following time control: 20 minutes each at the start of the game with an increment of 5 seconds per move from move 1.

III. Tie-breaks

If a match ends in a draw (1-1), two additional blitz games will have to be played. The time control will be 3 minutes each at the start of the game with an increment of 2 seconds per move from move 1.

If this tie-break match again ends in a draw (1-1), a last game will have to be played. This final tie-break will consist of a single blitz game where White starts with 5 minutes and needs to win the game in order to win the match (sudden death game). Black, on his part, only needs a draw to win the match, but has only 4 minutes at the start of the game. This final tie-break game will be played without time increment.

IV. Drawing of lots and pairings

The drawing of lots will take place during the opening ceremony.

Participants will be ranked according to the FIDE rating list of January 2007. The two best rated players of this list will be the No1 and No2 seeds of the tournament. They will draw lots in order to determine which half of the pairing table they will top. They may obviously not play each other earlier than in the final.

Players rated 3 and 4 will then draw lots to determine which half they belong to. They may encounter the top-seed of their pool no earlier than in the semi-finals.

The same procedure will be followed with players No5 to No8, bearing in mind that in the first round, players seeded 1 – 8 will forcefully play against one of the players ranked 9 – 16.

Colours for the first round will also be drawn during the opening ceremony.

V. Prizes

The total prize fund of the event amounts to 136,000 USD. Prizes will be distributed as follows:
4,000 USD to each player eliminated in the 1st round;
6,000 USD to each player eliminated in the quarter-final;
10,000 USD to each player eliminated in the semi-final;
20,000 USD to the runner-up;
40,000 USD to the winner.