50th Anniversary USSR vs the Rest of The World Match Featuring Magnus vs Nepo ONLINE!

To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1970 'match of the century' in Belgrade, FIDE has just announced a third match in this series - the Rest of the World vs. former Soviet republics. Due to the travel restrictions, the match will be played online, with each player having two arbiters present. The total prize fund wlil be at least $1,500,000, with the winning team receiving 2/3 of the sum. According to FIDE Director-General Emil Sutovsky, the main sponsor is a software company developing tools for distant working. Several top brands have expressed interest in this match, so according to sources in FIDE, the prize fund is likely to be considerably higher. An official announcement is expected shortly.

There will be 4 founds. The time control is 90 min for 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 15 sec. increment from move 1. Games will be FIDE rated.

The provisional list of players:

ROW

1. Carlsen NOR 2863

2. Caruana USA 2835

3. Ding Liren CHN 2791

4. Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2778

5. So USA 2770

6. Giri NED 2764

7. Wang Hao CHN 2763

8. Rapport HUN 2760

9. Dominguez Perez USA 2758

10. Anand IND 2753

Average rating: 2783.5

First reserve: Duda POL 2753

'The USSR'

1. Nepomniachtchi RUS 2784

2. Grischuk RUS 2777

3. Aronian ARM 2773

4. Radjabov AZE 2765

5. Mamedyarov AZE 2764

6. Karjakin RUS 2752

7. Andreikin RUS 2726

8. Svidlerr RUS 2723

9. Vitiugov RUS 2722

10. Artemiev RUS 2716

Average rating: 2750.2

First reserve: Tomashevsky RUS 2706

There is unconfirmed information that both Kramnik and Kasparov might come out of their retirement and play in the match, but the latter has not decided yet what side he'll be on. Grandmaster Sutovsky said that the ROW team is a clear favourite, but noted: "The arrival of two KKs may boost chances of team 'USSR'. This is chess - anything is possible!".

Stay tuned!