Dubai: The first stage in the new World Chess Championship cycle kicked off on Friday at the Sharjah Chess Club, with 18 of the world’s top players competing in the Fide World Chess Sharjah Grand Prix to select two players for the Candidates Matches.
The opening ceremony was attended by Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development; Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov; Shaikh Saqr Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, president of Sharjah Sports Council; Shaikh Saud Bin Abdul Aziz Al Mualla, Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club chairman; Ilya Merenzon, CEO of World Chess; and representatives of the sponsors and a large number of mediapersons.
The Grand Prix features a total of 24 players, each of whom will play in three of the four tournaments. The two players with the most points at the end qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger for the World Championship.
Games start at 3pm daily.
The next leg will be in Moscow from May 11 to 22, then in Geneva from July 5 to 16, and finally in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from November 15 to 26.
Each Grand Prix has 18 players and a prize fund of 130,000 euros. The Grand Prix will be broadcast exclusively on the site WorldChess.com, which is owned by Agon.
Agon, the commercial partner of Fide, has announced a new sponsor for it in Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s foremost cybersecurity firms.
The competitors are, in rating order, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France (2796), Levon Aronian of Armenia (2785), Hikaru Nakamura of the USA (2785), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan (2766), Ding Liren of China (2760), Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine (2759), Michael Adams of England (2751), Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia (2749), Alexander Grischuk of Russia (2742), Li Chao of China (2720), Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia (2711), Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia (2709), Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain (2709), Richard Rapport of Hungary (2692), Alexander Riazantsev of Russia (2671), Saleh A.R. Salem of the UAE (2656), Hou Yifan of China (2651), Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway (2628).
First round meetings: Vachier-Lagrave Maxime vs. Li Chao B; Tomashevsky Evgeny vs. Aronian Levon; Nakamura Hikaru vs. Jakovenko Dmitry; Vallejo Pons Francisco vs. Mamedyarov Shakhriyar; Ding Liren vs. Rapport Richard; Riazantsev Alexander vs. Eljanov Pavel; Adams Michael vs. Salem A.R. Saleh; Hou Yifan vs. Nepomniachtchi Ian and Grischuk Alexander vs. Hammer Jon Ludvig.
