Chess World Cup 2017

The Chess World Cup 2017 is a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament originally to be held in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 1 to 25 September 2017. At the 2016 FIDE General Assembly, permission was granted to move the event to Batumi, with the final in Tbilisi.^[1]

The top two finishers in the tournament who do not already qualify as a result of the 2016 World Championship, will qualify for the candidates' tournament for the World Chess Championship 2018.^[2]

Bidding process

At the 85th FIDE Congress held during the 41st Chess Olympiad, FIDE received bids to host the World Cup 2017 and 2018 Olympiad from the national federations of Georgia and South Africa.^[3] South Africa proposed Sun City and Durban as venues, while Georgia proposed Tbilisi and Batumi respectively.^[4] Although Garry Kasparov expressed support for the South African bid during his FIDE presidential campaign,^[5] Georgia's bid won, receiving 93 votes to South Africa's 58.^[6]

Format

Matches consists of two games (except for the final, which consists of four). Players have 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from the start of the game. If a match is tied after the regular games, tie breaks will be played the next day. The format for the tie breaks is as follows:

• Two rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment).
• If the score is tied after two rapid games, further two rapid games (10 minutes plus 10 seconds increment) are played.
• If the score is tied after four rapid games, the opponents play two blitz games (five minutes plus three seconds increment).
• If the score is tied after a pair of blitz games, an armageddon game (in which a draw counts as a win for Black) is played. White has 5 minutes and Black has 4 minutes, with an increment of 3 seconds/move starting from move 61.

Prize money

According to the regulations, all players have to pay their own expenses for travel.^[7]

Participants

The participants^[8] are seeded by their FIDE rating of August 2017. All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise.

Qualification paths

Results, Rounds 1–4

Section 1

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	1	Magnus Carlsen (NOR)
	128	Oluwafemi Balogun (NGR)
	64	Aleksey Dreev (RUS)
	65	Axel Bachmann (PAR)
	32	Etienne Bacrot (FRA)
	97	Alexandr Fier (BRA)
	33	Bu Xiangzhi (CHN)
	96	Diego Flores (ARG)
	16	Peter Svidler (RUS)
	113	Jahongir Vakhidov (UZB)
	49	Bassem Amin (EGY)
	80	Viktor Erdos (HUN)
	17	Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL)
	112	Felipe El Debs (BRA)
						(USA)
	48	Alexander Onischuk (USA)
	81	Yaroslav Zherebukh (USA)

Section 2

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	8	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)
	121	Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (TJK)
	57	Boris Grachev (RUS)
	72	Hrant Melkumyan (ARM)
	25	Pavel Eljanov (UKR)
	104	Aleksandr Lenderman (USA)
	40	David Howell (ENG)
	89	Aryan Tari (NOR)
	9	Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
	120	Essam El-Gindy (EGY)
	56	Gawain Jones (ENG)
	73	Jorge Cori (PER)
	24	David Navara (CZE)
	105	Jóhann Hjartarson (ISL)
	41	Ivan Cheparinov (BUL)
	88	Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (GRE)

Section 3

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	4	Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)
	125	Dai Changren (CHN)
	61	Alexander Areshchenko (UKR)
	68	Anton Demchenko (RUS)
	29	Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)
	100	Murtas Kazhgaleyev (KAZ)
	36	Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL)
	93	Levan Pantsulaia (GEO)
	13	Anish Giri (NED)
	116	Nana Dzagnidze (GEO)
	52	Alexander Motylev (RUS)
	77	Jeffery Xiong (USA)
	20	Pentala Harikrishna (IND)
	109	Yuri Gonzalez Vidal (CUB)
	45	Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR)
	84	S.P. Sethuraman (IND)

Section 4

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	5	Levon Aronian (ARM)
	124	Daniel Cawdery (RSA)
	60	Hou Yifan (CHN)
	69	Kacper Piorun (POL)
	28	Maxim Matlakov (RUS)
	101	Julio Sadorra (PHI)
						(RUS)
	37	Dmitry Andreikin (RUS)
	92	Aleksey Goganov (RUS)
	12	Sergey Karjakin (RUS)
	117	Anton Smirnov (AUS)
	53	Daniil Dubov (RUS)
	76	Daniel Fridman (GER)
	21	Teimur Radjabov (AZE)
	108	Helgi Dam Ziska (FRO)
	44	Vladislav Artemiev (RUS)
	85	Benjamin Bok (NED)

Section 5

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	2	Wesley So (USA)
	127	Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo (COL)
	63	Sandro Mareco (ARG)
	66	Matthias Bluebaum (GER)
	31	Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP)
	98	Murali Karthikeyan (IND)
						(RUS)
	34	Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS)
	95	Mikhail Antipov (RUS)
	15	Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)
	114	Mladen Palac (CRO)
	50	Baskaran Adhiban (IND)
	79	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE)
	18	Yu Yangyi (CHN)
	111	Amirreza Pourramezanali (IRI)
	47	Baadur Jobava (GEO)
	82	Ivan Salgado Lopez (ESP)

Section 6

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	7	Hikaru Nakamura (USA)
	122	Abdullah Al-Rakib (BAN)
	58	David Anton Guijarro (ESP)
	71	Lazaro Bruzon (CUB)
	26	Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS)
	103	Yusnel Bacallao Alonso (CUB)
	39	Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS)
	90	Mikheil Mchedlishvili (GEO)
	10	Viswanathan Anand (IND)
	119	Yeoh Li Tian (MAS)
	55	Varuzhan Akobian (USA)
	74	Anton Kovalyov (CAN)
	23	Michael Adams (ENG)
	106	Tsegmed Batchuluun (MGL)
	42	Maxim Rodshtein (ISR)
	87	Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM)

Section 7

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	3	Fabiano Caruana (USA)
	126	Kenny Solomon (RSA)
	62	Laurent Fressinet (FRA)
	67	Luka Lenic (SLO)
	30	Nikita Vitiugov (RUS)
	99	Kaido Kulaots (EST)
	35	Evgeniy Najer (RUS)
	94	Aleksej Aleksandrov (BLR)
	14	Wei Yi (CHN)
	115	Bator Sambuev (CAN)
	51	Richárd Rapport (HUN)
	78	Emilio Cordova (PER)
	19	Li Chao (CHN)
	110	Leandro Krysa (ARG)
	46	Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu (GER)
	83	Samuel Sevian (USA)

Section 8

	First round					Second round					Third round					Fourth round
	6	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE)
	123	Liu Guanchu (CHN)
	59	Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR)
	70	Sergei Zhigalko (BLR)
	27	Boris Gelfand (ISR)
	102	Kirill Stupak (BLR)
	38	Wang Hao (CHN)
	91	Deep Sengupta (IND)
	11	Ding Liren (CHN)
	118	Mohamed Haddouche (ALG)
	54	Martyn Kravtsiv (UKR)
	75	Igor Kovalenko (LAT)
	22	Le Quang Liem (VIE)
	107	Vitaly Kunin (GER)
	43	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (IND)
	86	Neuris Delgado Ramirez (PAR)

Results, rounds 5–7

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final (best of 4)

Notes

1. ↑ The Women's World Champion, Tan Zhongyi, renouced to participate and, in accordance with the regulations, she was replaced from the average rating list.
2. 1 2 In the 2017 US Zonal, which normally awards five spots for the World Cup, only three players, other than those who already qualified with the previous criteria, attained the required score of 50% or better. In accordance with the World Cup regulations, the two unused positions at the US Zonal Championship passed on to the American Continental Championship.

References

External links

• Official website
• Pairings tree (PDF). FIDE.