The strongest FIDE World Cup ever has officially started yesterday when all the players took their seats and started their games.
The Opening Ceremony took place at Funicural restaurant in Tbilisi on 2nd September 2017 where all the players and guests were greeted by the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia Tariel Khechikashvili, the ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili, the President of Georgian Chess Federation George Giorgadze and the FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos.
128 the strongest players in the world are playing Knock Out tournament with an impressive prize fund of 1.6 million US dollars. Among participants are the World Champion and number one on FIDE rating list Magnus Carlsen, three former World Champions Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik and Ruslan Ponomariov, the winner of the previous World Cup in Baku, Sergey Karjakin, top two women players-world number one and former Women’s World Champion Hou Yifan and current European woman champion Nana Dzagnidze. The participation of the 15 top players makes this event the strongest World Cup in history.
FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos made the first move in the game between the World Champion Magnus Carlsen (NOR) and Oluwafemi Balogun (NGR).
In the first round the favorites according to the ratings met significantly lower rated opponents. The top seeds won their games relatively easily, but there were also surprising losses and draws. The second classical round starts today at 3 pm (local time). All the games are live transmitted and can be watched through the official website of the event or through the ECU website, section LIVE.
Tomorrow is day reserved for tiebreaks which will be played if the winner is still not determined after two rounds played. If players are tied even after the tiebreaks games then a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds and will be declared as winner if the game finishes as draw.
The FIDE World Cup takes place from 2nd to 27th of September in Hualing Hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia. The final will take place in the Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi from 23rd till 27th of September.
The event is organized by the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, the Check In Georgia Sports, the Georgian Chess Federation, Organising Committee of The 2018 World Chess Olympiad and Tbilisi City Hall while the title Sponsor is SOCAR.
Photographs by: Anastasia Karlovich