FIDE Grand Prix Events
Mark Crowther writes for The Week In Chess:
The winner of the Grand Prix will play with the winner of the 2009 World Cup for the right to challenge the World Champion in 2010. Each Tournament will be a 14 player all play all. 14 players have the right to compete in the circuit and they have to play 4 of the 6 events (there will be local players too), these will be allocated to them. Below are the details as announced. It will be interesting to see who signs up for this event, my bet is that a number of the top players won't. This was supposed to be a held on different continents but the majority are being held in Europe. Secondly the presence of reserve cities suggests that some of these venues are not certain. Of course there is a certain chicken and egg situation, getting sponsors for the events without the players having signed up will be hard (they could end up with a distinct 2nd string) and the players won't sign up without venues being in place. Things will no doubt be easier if they do get this first series off the ground. They'll be nice events if they take place, I'm a big fan of all-play-alls but I've become quite cynical about announcements such as these.
FIDE Grand Prix 2008-9
Baku AZE April 20th - May 6th 2008
Krasnoyarsk * RUS July 30th - August 15th 2008
Doha QAT December 13th - 29th, 2008
Montreux SUI April 14th - 28th, 2009
Elista RUS August 1st - 17th, 2009
Karlovy Vary CZE December 7th - 23rd, 2009
* or other Russian city.
Reserve cities are Istanbul and Teheran.
Grand Prix 2008-9 Qualified Players
No Name NAT YroB Ja08
1 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 1975 2799
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 1969 2799
3 Topalov, Veselin BUL 1975 2780
4 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 1977 2765
5 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyaz AZE 1985 2760
6 Shirov, Alexei ESP 1972 2755
7 Leko, Peter HUN 1979 2753
8 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 1969 2751
9 Aronian, Levon ARM 1982 2739
10 Gelfand, Boris ISR 1968 2737
11 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 1987 2735
12 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 1990 2733
13 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 1990 2732
14 Kamsky, Gata USA 1974 2726
Reserves
1 Adams, Michael ENG 1971 2726
2 Svidler, Peter RUS 1976 2763
3 Polgar, Judit HUN 1976 2707
4 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 1983 2711
Grand Prix 2008-9 Prizes Each Event
Place EUR Points
1 30,000 140 + 40 bonus
2 22,500 130 + 20
3 20,000 120 + 10
4 15,000 110
5 12,500 100
6 11,000 90
7 10,000 80
8 8,500 70
9 7,500 60
10 6,000 50
11 5,500 40
12 5,000 30
13 4,500 20
14 4,000 10
Grand Prix 2008-9
Prizes for Final Standings
(Best three events)
Pl Prize (Euros)
1st 75,000
2nd 50,000
3rd 40,000
4th 30,000
5th 25,000
6th 20,000
7th 18,000
8th 16,000
9th 14,000
10th 12,000
The winner of the Grand Prix will play with the winner of the 2009 World Cup for the right to challenge the World Champion in 2010. Each Tournament will be a 14 player all play all. 14 players have the right to compete in the circuit and they have to play 4 of the 6 events (there will be local players too), these will be allocated to them. Below are the details as announced. It will be interesting to see who signs up for this event, my bet is that a number of the top players won't. This was supposed to be a held on different continents but the majority are being held in Europe. Secondly the presence of reserve cities suggests that some of these venues are not certain. Of course there is a certain chicken and egg situation, getting sponsors for the events without the players having signed up will be hard (they could end up with a distinct 2nd string) and the players won't sign up without venues being in place. Things will no doubt be easier if they do get this first series off the ground. They'll be nice events if they take place, I'm a big fan of all-play-alls but I've become quite cynical about announcements such as these.
FIDE Grand Prix 2008-9
Baku AZE April 20th - May 6th 2008
Krasnoyarsk * RUS July 30th - August 15th 2008
Doha QAT December 13th - 29th, 2008
Montreux SUI April 14th - 28th, 2009
Elista RUS August 1st - 17th, 2009
Karlovy Vary CZE December 7th - 23rd, 2009
* or other Russian city.
Reserve cities are Istanbul and Teheran.
Grand Prix 2008-9 Qualified Players
No Name NAT YroB Ja08
1 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 1975 2799
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 1969 2799
3 Topalov, Veselin BUL 1975 2780
4 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 1977 2765
5 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyaz AZE 1985 2760
6 Shirov, Alexei ESP 1972 2755
7 Leko, Peter HUN 1979 2753
8 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 1969 2751
9 Aronian, Levon ARM 1982 2739
10 Gelfand, Boris ISR 1968 2737
11 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 1987 2735
12 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 1990 2733
13 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 1990 2732
14 Kamsky, Gata USA 1974 2726
Reserves
1 Adams, Michael ENG 1971 2726
2 Svidler, Peter RUS 1976 2763
3 Polgar, Judit HUN 1976 2707
4 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 1983 2711
Grand Prix 2008-9 Prizes Each Event
Place EUR Points
1 30,000 140 + 40 bonus
2 22,500 130 + 20
3 20,000 120 + 10
4 15,000 110
5 12,500 100
6 11,000 90
7 10,000 80
8 8,500 70
9 7,500 60
10 6,000 50
11 5,500 40
12 5,000 30
13 4,500 20
14 4,000 10
Grand Prix 2008-9
Prizes for Final Standings
(Best three events)
Pl Prize (Euros)
1st 75,000
2nd 50,000
3rd 40,000
4th 30,000
5th 25,000
6th 20,000
7th 18,000
8th 16,000
9th 14,000
10th 12,000