FIDE Grand Prix 2017
The FIDE Grand Prix 2017 will be a series of four chess tournaments that form part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2018. The top two finishers will qualify for the 2018 Candidates Tournament.
Format
There are four tournaments in the cycle; each will consist of 18 players. 24 players will be selected to compete in the tournaments, and each player will compete in three of the four tournaments.[1]
In contrast to the previous editions where players played a full round-robin, each tournament will now be an 18-player, nine-round Swiss system tournament. In each round players will score 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand Prix points will then be allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament, as shown in the table below.
Players
The Grand Prix consists of 24 players. Two players qualified from being finalists in the World Chess Championship 2014 match; four players qualified from reaching the semifinals of the Chess World Cup 2015, eight players will qualify based on rating; one player will qualify from participation in the Association of Chess Professionals, and finally nine players rated at least 2700 will be nominated by Agon and FIDE.[2]
In an interview with Chessdom (Aug 2016), Zurab Azmaiparashvili (president of the European Chess Union) indicated various plusses and minuses with the new system, particularly that he considered the nine "wild card" entries were less expensive than in previous versions.[3] However, with few details currently available and maybe questions unanswered, he also was unsure of the professionality of Agon's approach.[3]
At the FIDE General Assembly in September, Agon presented Vladimir Kramnik as having Russia as a national sponsor, which if true would be the first time that he has participated in the FIDE Grand Prix.[4]
Any player who declines to participate in the Grand Prix will be replaced by another player who is rated over 2700.
| Invitee | Country | Qualifying method |
|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen |  Norway |
World Chess Championship 2014 |
| Viswanathan Anand |  India | |
| Sergey Karjakin |  Russia |
Chess World Cup 2015 |
| Peter Svidler | Russia | |
| Pavel Eljanov |  Ukraine | |
| Anish Giri |  Netherlands | |
| Hikaru Nakamura |  United States |
FIDE rating list (from June 2015 to May 2016) |
| Fabiano Caruana | United States | |
| Veselin Topalov |  Bulgaria | |
| Vladimir Kramnik | Russia | |
| Levon Aronian |  Armenia | |
| Wesley So | United States | |
| Ding Liren |  China | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |  France | |
| Evgeny Tomashevsky | Russia |
ACP Tour ranking |
| TBD | organiser's nominees | |
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD | ||
| TBD |
Prize money and Grand Prix points
The total prize money is €130,000 per single Grand Prix, or €520,000 for the total Grand Prix series. This money is allocated based on ranking in each individual tournament. [5]
Additionally, each player who can recruit a sponsor will receive €20,000.
| Place | Single Grand Prix event | Grand Prix points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €20,000 | 170 |
| 2 | €15,000 | 140 |
| 3 | €12,000 | 110 |
| 4 | €11,000 | 90 |
| 5 | €10,000 | 80 |
| 6 | €9,000 | 70 |
| 7 | €8,000 | 60 |
| 8 | €7,000 | 50 |
| 9 | €6,000 | 40 |
| 10 | €5,000 | 30 |
| 11 | €4,250 | 20 |
| 12 | €4,000 | 10 |
| 13 | €3,750 | 8 |
| 14 | €3,500 | 6 |
| 15 | €3,250 | 4 |
| 16 | €3,000 | 3 |
| 17 | €2,750 | 2 |
| 18 | €2,500 | 1 |
Tie breaks
With the objective of determining qualifiers to play in the Candidates 2018, and in the case that two or more players have equal cumulative points at the top, the following criteria were utilized to decide the overall Series winner and other overall placings:[5]
- Number of actual game result points scored in the three tournaments entered.
- Number of games played with black.
- Number of wins.
- Number of black wins.
- Drawing of lots.
Schedule
Originally the first event was to take place in Oct 2016, but this has been moved to Nov 2017, with the other dates mostly the same.[6][7]
| No. | Host city | Date | Winners | Points (win/draw/loss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sharjah | 17 – 28 February 2017 | ||
| 2 | Moscow | 11 – 22 May 2017 | ||
| 3 |  Geneva | 5 – 16 July 2017 | ||
| 4 |  Palma, Majorca | 8 – 19 November 2017 |
Originally the 3nd Grand Prix (now the 2nd) was to conflict with the World Team Chess Championship, but now that event has been moved to June where it instead conflicts with the Grand Chess Tour events and Norway Chess.
References
- ↑ "FIDE Grand-Prix 2014-2015 Announcement". FIDE. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
- ↑ FIDE Grand-Prix 2016-2017 Announcement, fide.com
- 1 2 ECU is independent Chessdom interview with Azmaiparashvili
- ↑ Annex 94, FIDE General Assembly 2016
- 1 2 "Regulations for the Grand Prix" (PDF). FIDE. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
- ↑ FIDE Calendar 2017
- ↑ Dates And Venues For The 2017 Grand Prix Events Confirmed
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