Second Grand Prix Tournament: Sochi 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Before we know it, the time has come for already the second tournament in the FIDE Grand Prix Series. On Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Sochi 2008 will be officially opened. Fourteen of the strongest chess grandmasters will compete in the Russian city at the Black Sea.
The tournament will run July 30 – August 15, with thirteen rounds and two rest days – the standard schedule for all six tournaments. The first Grand Prix was won by Vugar Gashimov, Wang Yue and Magnus Carlsen and of these three players, Gashimov and Wang Yue will also compete in Sochi.
The big favourite, however, is Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR), whose new rating is no less than 37 points higher than second seeded Teimour Radjabov (AZE), who also played in Baku. The other players who already participated in the first GP, are Peter Svidler (RUS), Alexander Grischuk (RUS), Sergey Karjakin (UKR), Gata Kamsky (USA), Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) and David Navara (CZE). For Levon Aronian (ARM), Boris Gelfand (ISR), Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS, the host city’s nominated player) and Mohamad Al Modiahki (QTR), Sochi 2008 will be the first Grand Prix tournament.
The Russian resort city Sochi (population 400,000) is situated in Krasnodar Krai, just north of the southern Russian border. It sprawls along the shores of the Black Sea against the background of the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. The city has been selected to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014.
01 Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2781
02 Radjabov Teimour AZE 2744
03 Svidler Peter RUS 2738
04 Aronian Levon ARM 2737
05 Grischuk Alexander RUS 2728
06 Karjakin Sergey UKR 2727
07 Kamsky Gata USA 2723
08 Gelfand Boris ISR 2720
09 Gashimov Vugar AZE 2717
10 Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 2709
11 Wang Yue CHN 2704
12 Cheparinov Ivan BUL 2687
13 Navara David CZE 2646
14 Al Modiahki Mohamad QTR 2556
Ivanchuk needs 8/13 or +3 just to keep his rating, and 9/13 or +5 to pass 2800 virtual rating.
The biggest name amongst them is Al Modiahki Mohamad. He may be the underdog, but his name is longest.
Ivanchuk’s expected score is 7.87/13.
He would be just 0.2 below Anand with virtual 2997.8 if he score 8.5/13 or +4. However he would be first in an official list as would be rounded up and win by playing more games.
Still there will be Bilbao with Anand, Carlsen , Ivanchuk, Topalov in it that will finally decide who October number 1 is.
It is funny that he needs 8/13 to not lose rating points, while 8.5/13 puts him in position for being world number 1- half a point difference. Just shows how close it is at the top. Ivanchuk just needs to perform to his rating and odds are he will be virtual number 1 sometime during the event.
Go Chucky!!! You’re the best!!
Ivanchuk! Ivanchuk! Ivanchuk!
What else?