Chess Grand Prix 2012-2013 participants announced

Chess Grand Prix 2012-2013 participants announced

FIDE and AGON have announced the 18 participants in the Grand Prix series, which are part of the World Chess Championship cycle. The participants come from the previous World Championship, the World Chess Cup, the highest average ratings of July 2011 and January 2012, one FIDE President nominee, and nominees of AGON.

1. From World Championship Match 2012

GM Boris Gelfand (ISR)

2. From World Cup 2011

GM Peter Svidler (RUS)
GM Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
GM Vasily Ivanchuk (UKR)
GM Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR)

3. By Average Rating (July 2011 + January 2012)

GM Teimour Radjabov (AZE)
GM Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
GM Veselin Topalov (BUL)
GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov (AZE)
GM Gata Kamsky (USA)

4. FIDE President Nominee

GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA)

5. AGON Nominees

GM Alexander Morozevich (RUS)
GM Wang Hao (CHN)
GM Peter Leko (HUN)
GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (CUB)
GM Anish Giri (NLD)
GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB)

After the Russian Chess Federation refused to hold the Grand Prix in Chelyabinsk, Agon has scheduled a new event in London. In fact, with the current player’s list and schedule this will be the strongest of all events, with ELO average of over 2750.

Here is the complete schedule and players participating in each event. There are slight modifications in the dates previously announced in the draft schedule.

FIDE GRAND PRIX				2012		2013
Name	Country	Criteria	Jul-12	London	Tashkent	Lisbon	Madrid	Berlin	Paris
				20 Sep – 3 Oct	21 Nov – 5 Dec	17 Apr – 1 May	22 May – 4 Jun	3 – 17 Jul	18 Sep – 2 Oct
Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	Rating	2788	2788			2788	2788	2788
Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	Rating	2779		2779	2779		2779	2779
Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	Rating	2778	2778		2778	2778		2778
Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	FIDE President	2773		2773	2773	2773		2773
Morozevich, Alexander	RUS	AGON	2770		2770	2770	2770	2770
Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	World Cup	2769		2769		2769	2769	2769
Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	World Cup	2763		2763		2763	2763	2763
Topalov, Veselin	BUL	Rating	2752	2752		2752	2752	2752
Svidler, Peter	RUS	World Cup	2749		2749		2749	2749	2749
Kamsky, Gata	USA	Rating	2744	2744	2744	2744		2744
Wang, Hao	CHN	AGON	2739	2739	2739	2739			2739
Gelfand, Boris	ISR	Match	2738	2738	2738			2738	2738
Leko, Peter	HUN	AGON	2730	2730	2730	2730		2730
Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	World Cup	2726	2726		2726	2726		2726
Mamedyarov, Shakriyar	AZE	Rating	2726	2726	2726	2726		2726
Dominguez Perez, Leinier	CUB	AGON	2725	2725		2725	2725		2725
Giri, Anish	NLD	AGON	2696	2696		2696	2696		2696
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	UZB	AGON	2690	2690	2690		2690	2690
		Average	2746.4	2736.0	2747.5	2744.8	2748.3	2749.8	2751.9
		Players		12	12	12	12	12	12

More about the Grand Prix 2012-2013

Following the approval of the Executive Board in Krakow, Poland in 2011, the FIDE World Championship and Olympiad Commission has agreed on these Regulations which will apply to the Grand Prix Series which forms part of the World Championship Cycle for 2012/2014.

Each Grand Prix tournament shall consist of the 12 players playing a round robin of 11 games. Time control: 120 minutes for the first forty moves, 60 minutes for the next twenty moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes after the second time control and an increment of 30 seconds per move will be allowed from move 61 onwards.

The total Grand Prix prize fund for the six tournaments in aggregate is 1.44 million euro. The Prize Fund will be split equally between each tournament. The prize money which will be paid by AGON for each tournament is 240,000 Euros (170,000 Euros for the tournament and 70,000 Euros towards an accumulated prize fund for the overall Series positions).

Andrew Paulson, Director of AGON, said, “We are glad to be bringing a series of World Chess events to the capitals of Europe. In the future we will be progressing continent by continent, bringing great competitions to the world’s capitals in a regular and predictable schedule.”