FIDE World Chess Cup & FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup 2023 kick off in Baku

The 2023 FIDE World Chess Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup 2023 kick off this Saturday in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Open event is taking place from 29 July to 25 August, and the Women’s tournament will be played from 29 July to 22 August in the same venue.

The FIDE World Chess Cup will gather 206 players, and the top seeds are: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Teimour Radjabov, Dommaraju Gukesh, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The event will be played in a knock-out system where the first 50 seeds join the competition from the 2nd round.

Magnus Carlsen at the 2021 World Cup; Photo: FIDE/Anastasiia Korolkova

The FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup 2023 features 103 players and the field is headlined by: Ju Wenjun, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Humpy Koneru, Kateryna Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Tan Zhongyi, Nana Dzagnidze, Mariya Muzychuk, Anna Muzychuk, and Harika Dronavalli. The first 25 seeds will join the battles from the second round.

The total prize fund of the events amounts to unprecedented 2.5 million USD, with 1.834.000 USD reserved for the FIDE World Chess Cup, and 676.250 for the FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup.

The Opening ceremony of the events is scheduled for Saturday, 29th of July, at the Baku Convention Center, starting at 18:00. The technical meeting wll be held afterwards, and the first round starts on Sunday, 30th of July, at 15:00 (local time).

Round 1 pairings – FIDE World Chess Cup 2023
Round 1 pairings – FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup 2023

Official website of the event