FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Starts Thursday
The $433,000 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss tournament is less than three days away. With Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Viswanathan Anand as the top seeds, the event is the strongest Swiss tournament in history.
The tournament will run for 11 rounds and produce one participant for the 2020 Candidates' Tournament.
You can follow the games here as part of our live portal Chess.com/events. There's daily coverage by GM Daniel King and IM Anna Rudolf, joined by WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni for interviews, on Twitch.tv/chess.
The show starts daily at 14:50 local time, which is 15:50 (noon) CEST, 9:50 a.m. Eastern and 6:50 a.m. Pacific.
The inaugural FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss will be played October 10-22 in Isle of Man. The total prize fund is $433,000 (394,695 euros).
Formerly known as the Chess.com Isle of Man International, the tournament is now part of the 2019-2020 FIDE world championship cycle. The winner will directly qualify to next year's candidates' tournament.
Players
A total of 120 players have been invited by FIDE based on the following criteria:
- 100 players qualified by their average rating over the 12 monthly FIDE standard rating lists starting from July 1, 2018 to June 1, 2019.
- Women’s world champion as of June 1, 2019: GM Ju Wenjun.
- Junior U20 world champion as of June 1, 2019: GM Parham Maghsoodloo.
- World senior 50+ champion as of June 1, 2019: GM Karen Movsziszian.
- World senior 65+ champion as of June 1, 2019: GM Vlastimil Jansa.
- 12 places were allocated to the qualifiers from the respective continental championships held in 2019: Europe (5), Asia (3), Americas (3), Africa (1).
- One qualifier from the ACP Tour based on standings as of June 1.
- Three players nominated by the FIDE president.
The tournament organizers invited 40 more players as wildcards, focusing on female players, juniors and local players. At the time of this report, there are 118 FIDE qualifiers and 36 wildcards listed.
Carlsen, Caruana, So and Anand are the top four seeds. Strong performers at the recent World Cup such as Yu Yangyi and Levon Aronian are also playing. In total, 21 players above 2700 are in the field.
Among the wildcards you can find talents like IM Vincent Keymer, GM Gukesh D and GM Lance Henderson and former women's world champions GM Anna Ushenina and GM Antoaneta Stefanova.
Two participants qualified from Chess.com's Titled Tuesday tournaments: GM Marie Sebag and WGM Vera Nebolsina. GM Jorden van Foreest qualified from the Junior Speed Chess Championship. From the Women's Speed Chess Championship, GM Elina Danielian qualified.
2019 FIDE Chess.com Isle of Man | Top 20 seeds
| # | Fed | Title | Name | Rtg | Qual. |
| 1 | GM | Carlsen, Magnus | 2876 | Rating Qualifier 1 | |
| 2 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | 2812 | Rating Qualifier 2 | |
| 3 | GM | So, Wesley | 2767 | Rating Qualifier 11 | |
| 4 | GM | Anand, Viswanathan | 2765 | Rating Qualifier 7 | |
| 5 | GM | Yu Yangyi | 2763 | Rating Qualifier 13 | |
| 6 | GM | Karjakin, Sergey | 2760 | Rating Qualifier 15 | |
| 7 | GM | Grischuk, Alexander | 2759 | Rating Qualifier 8 | |
| 8 | GM | Aronian, Levon | 2758 | Rating Qualifier 12 | |
| 9 | GM | Wojtaszek, Radek | 2748 | Rating Qualifier 24 | |
| 10 | GM | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2746 | Rating Qualifier 30 | |
| 11 | GM | Harikrishna, Pentala | 2746 | Rating Qualifier 22 | |
| 12 | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2745 | Rating Qualifier 14 | |
| 13 | GM | Vitiugov, Nikita | 2732 | Rating Qualifier 27 | |
| 14 | GM | Svidler, Peter | 2729 | Rating Qualifier 17 | |
| 15 | GM | Wang Hao | 2726 | Rating Qualifier 29 | |
| 16 | GM | Bu Xiangzhi | 2721 | Rating Qualifier 28 | |
| 17 | GM | Vidit Gujrathi | 2718 | Rating Qualifier 34 | |
| 18 | GM | Matlakov, Maxim | 2716 | Rating Qualifier 44 | |
| 19 | GM | Xiong, Jeffery | 2708 | Rating Qualifier 77 | |
| 20 | GM | Le Quang Liem | 2708 | Rating Qualifier 32 |
(Find the full list of FIDE qualifiers here.)
The tournament will be officially opened on the evening of October 9. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich will be attending. The first round starts October 10 at 15:00 local time, which is 16:00 CEST, 10 a.m. Eastern and 7 a.m. Pacific. The last round will start 1.5 hours earlier.
Schedule
| Date | Time* | Event |
| October 9 | 18:00 19:00 |
Players' Meeting Opening ceremony |
| October 10 | 15:00 | Round 1 |
| October 11 | 15:00 | Round 2 |
| October 12 | 15:00 | Round 3 |
| October 13 | 15:00 | Round 4 |
| October 14 | 15:00 | Round 5 |
| October 15 | 15:00 | Round 6 |
| October 16 | Rest day | |
| October 17 | 15:00 | Round 7 |
| October 18 | 15:00 | Round 8 |
| October 19 | 15:00 | Round 9 |
| October 20 | 15:00 | Round 10 |
| October 21 | 13:30 21:00 |
Round 11 Closing ceremony |
*Times in UTC
Venue
The Isle of Man organizers are hosting the event in a new venue: the luxurious Comis Hotel & Golf Resort, located just seven kilometers southwest of Douglas, where the tournament used to be held in the Villa Marina.
Details of Play
The time control for each game is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
The players cannot draw a game by agreement before Black’s 30th move. A claim for a draw before Black’s 30th move is permitted only through an arbiter in case of threefold repetition.
If the top two or more players score the same points, the tie is to be decided by the following criteria, in order of priority:
a) Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1 (AROC 1)*
b) Buchholz Cut 1;
c) Buchholz;
d) Direct encounter between the players in tie;
e) Drawing of lots.
Prizes
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | |
| 1 | $70,000 | 8 | $16,000 | |
| 2 | $50,000 | 9 | $13,000 | |
| 3 | $40,000 | 10 | $11,000 | |
| 4 | $35,000 | 11-15 | $8,000 each | |
| 5 | $30,000 | 16-20 | $5,000 each | |
| 6 | $25,000 | 21-25 | $3,000 each | |
| 7 | $20,000 | 26-30 | $2,000 each |
On top of the $400,000 prize fund as stipulated by FIDE, the organizers will add $33,000 special prizes for female participants.
Candidates
The winner of the FIDE Grand Swiss qualifies for the FIDE Candidates' Tournament in March 2020. If the winner in Isle of Man qualifies via a different qualification path or does not need to qualify, the qualification spot goes to the highest-placed player in the tournament who did not or will not qualify by other means.
The winner of the 2020 Candidates' Tournament will earn the right to challenge reigning champion Magnus Carlsen in a match for the world championship in November 2020.
For more info, don't miss the big preview by John Saunders on the tournament website.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.
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