FIDE announces the full details of the Grand-Prix 2017, from which the first two (2) winners will qualify to the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2018. The schedule of the four events is the following:
a.) 17 – 28 February 2017: Sharjah, UAE
b.) 11 – 22 May 2017: Moscow, Russia
c.) 5 – 16 July 2017: Geneva, Switzerland
d.) 15 – 26 November 2017: Palma de Mallorca, Spain
In total 24 players will participate, 15 qualifiers as per regulations (listed below) plus 9 nominees from AGON Ltd (to be announced).
The 15 original qualifiers who have to confirm their participation by 4 January 2017 are:
01. Carlsen, Magnus (NOR, World Champion)
02. Karjakin, Sergey (RUS, World Ch. runner-up 2016)
03. Svidler, Peter (RUS, World Cup runner-up 2015)
04. Giri, Anish (NED, World Cup semi-finalist 2015)
05. Eljanov, Pavel (UKR, World Cup semi-finalist 2015)
06. Nakamura, Hikaru (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
07. Caruana, Fabiano (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
08. Anand, Wiswanathan (IND, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
09. Topalov, Veselin (BUL, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
10. Kramnik, Vladimir (RUS, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
11. Aronian, Levon (ARM, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
12. So, Wesley (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
13. Ding, Liren (CHN, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
14. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (FRA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
15. Tomashevsky, Evgeny (RUS, ACP Tour qualifier)
The first reserves for any replacement needed are:
01. Grischuk, Alexander (RUS, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
02. Li, Chao (CHN, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
03. Harikrishna, P (IND, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
Each player will play in 3 tournaments and all his results will be taken into account for the overall final standings of the Grand-Prix. The full regulations of the Grand-Prix can be downloaded from the FIDE website.
The qualified players mentioned above shall download their participation contract and return it signed to the FIDE Secretariat, by fax or scanned email, to the FIDE Secretariat’s fax number +30 2109212859 or email office@fide.com by the deadline of 4 January 2017.
It seems like they’re waiting until the last minute for AGON to announce the 9 more nominees, which FIDE said they’d do by the end of 2016. Is there a problem, do you know?