FIDE Announces World Cities Championships
FIDE announces the qualifiers to the coming World Cities Team Championship for the Sheikh Zayed Cup scheduled 21-29 December 2012 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Olympiad champion Armenia will lead 32 city teams in the $150,000 knock-out format championship.
Host United Arab Emirates joins qualifiers from the World Team Championship, Continental teams and 25 top zonal teams from the Istanbul Olympiad.
The tournament is organized by the Al Ain Chess Club, headed by Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan, on behalf of FIDE, Asian Chess Federation and UAE Chess Federation.
Attached are the regulations and flyer outlining the pairing system. Teams will be grouped by rating into 8 groups of 4 teams each who will play a single round robin. The top two qualify into the knockout Round of 16 followed by exciting Quarterfinal and Semifinal matches, and the climactic Final showdown.
Qualified federations should accomplish and return the attached Entry Form with passport copies and ID photos for visa application. Deadline for registration is 31st October. Otherwise reserves from other countries shall be invited. Deadline for submission of names of players is 15th November. Visas shall be issued by email.
The qualified federations are:
| 1 | Olympiad Champion | Armenia |
| 2 | World Team Champion | Hungary - 5th (after Armenia, China, Ukraine, Russia) |
| 3 | European Champion | Germany |
| 4 | American Champion | Brazil |
| 5 | Asian Cities Champion | Kazakhstan - 2nd (after China) |
| 6 | African Champion | Egypt |
| 7 | Host Country | UAE |
| 8 | Zone 1.1 | Netherlands - 6th |
| 9 | Zone 1.2 | Slovenia - 25th |
| 10 | Zone 1.3 | Sweden - 16th |
| 11 | Zone 1.4 | Romania - 8th |
| 12 | Zone 1.5 | Serbia - 14th |
| 13 | Zone 1.6 | Russia |
| 14 | Zone 1.7 | Latvia - 28th |
| 15 | Zone 1.8 | Azerbaijan - 10th |
| 16 | Zone 1.9 | Ukraine |
| 17 | Zone 2.1 | United States Of America |
| 18 | Zone 2.2 | Canada |
| 19 | Zone 2.3 | Cuba - 11th |
| 20 | Zone 2.4 | Peru - 55th |
| 21 | Zone 2.5 | Argentina - 22nd |
| 22 | Zone 3.1 | Iran - 61st |
| 23 | Zone 3.2 | Bangladesh - 33rd |
| 24 | Zone 3.3 | Vietnam - 7th |
| 25 | Zone 3.4 | Uzbekistan - 24th |
| 26 | Zone 3.5 | China |
| 27 | Zone 3.6 | Australia - 32nd |
| 28 | Zone 3.7 | India |
| 29 | Zone 4.1 | Tunisia - 75th |
| 30 | Zone 4.2 | Uganda - 90th (after Egypt) |
| 31 | Zone 4.3 | South Africa - 62nd |
| 32 | New Zone 4.4 | Nigeria - 96th |
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Regulations (pdf)
Entry Form (doc)
World Cities Flyer (pdf)
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Excerpts from the regulations:
The FIDE World Cities Championship shall be held at two-yearly intervals among teams representing cities with a maximum of one city per country. Qualified National Federations are eligible to play with their national team members representing a city.
The teams are made up of 4 players plus 1 reserve and 1 captain. 32 teams shall be divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each according to their seed number. In these pairings teams who play each other in the Group RR are not scheduled to meet again until the final.
Time control for the event is 90 min/40 moves +30 min/end, with 30 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. Each match will be scored by match points as used in the FIDE Olympiad. Winner will get 2 points, a draw will give each team 1 point, and a loss is scored as 0 points.
A total of $150,000 in cash prizes shall be awarded for the World Cities Championship for the Sheikh Zayed Cup as follows:
- 16 eliminated from Round Robin Groups receive $2,500 each
- 8 qualifiers to Round of 16 receive $4,000 each
- 4 Quarterfinalists receive $5,000 each
- Fourth Place receives $10,000
- Third Place receives $12,000
- Second Place receives $15,000
- Champion receives $21,000
