Isle of Man To Host FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament
The recently announced FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, where the winner will qualify for the 2020 Candidates', will be played October 9-21, 2019 in Isle of Man and organized in cooperation with Chess.com. This became official today.
The news was just posted on the FIDE website: The event that was formerly known as the Chess.com Isle of Man International will this year be serving as the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament (the exact name is yet to be determined).
It will be bigger, longer and more prestigious, with a ticket to the Candidates' Tournament and a $432,500 prize fund at stake.
FIDE announced the FIDE Grand Swiss and posted its regulations (here in PDF) on January 10 of this year. Instead of two, this time only one player will qualify for the Candidates' by rating, and one from this big Swiss event.
Bidding was possible until February 9, 2019 and the organizers from Isle of Man tournament won the bid. There were inquiries and at least one seriously interested organizer, but only one formal bid came in from Isle of Man.
There have been a few changes since the regulations came out last month. Here's what will happen:
Players
1. A total of 105 players will be invited by FIDE based on the following criteria:
- The top 100 players by average FIDE Rating of the 12 monthly lists starting from July 1, 2018 to June 1, 2019.
- The Women’s World Champion as of June 1, 2019.
- Junior U20 World Champion as of June 1, 2019.
- The World Senior 50+ Champion as of June 1, 2019.
- The World Senior 65+ Champion as of June 1, 2019.
- One qualifier from the ACP Tour based on standings as of June 1, 2019.
2. Another 15 players will be invited by FIDE based on criteria that will be announced soon.
3. The tournament organizers will then invite 40 more players (wild cards) as it was their wish to have a tournament of 160 players. They will focus on female players, juniors and local players.
Note that two participants will once again be coming as qualifiers from Chess.com Titled Tuesday tournaments; more details on that will be announced soon.
Schedule
| Date | Round | Event |
| October 8 | Arrival | |
| October 9 | Opening ceremony | |
| October 10 | Round 1 | |
| October 11 | Round 2 | |
| October 12 | Round 3 | |
| October 13 | Round 4 | |
| October 14 | Round 5 | |
| October 15 | Round 6 | |
| October 16 | Rest day | |
| October 17 | Round 7 | |
| October 18 | Round 8 | |
| October 19 | Round 9 | |
| October 20 | Round 10 | |
| October 21 | Round 11 | Closing ceremony |
Venue
The Isle of Man organizers will be hosting the event in a new venue: the luxurious Comis Hotel & Golf Resort, located just seven kilometers south west 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 1.
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) Tournament performance rating - TPR
b) Median Buchholz (cut 1)
c) Buchholz
d) Rapid play-off. The format is decided by the Chief Arbiter.
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 $32,500 special prizes for female participants.
Candidates
The winner of the FIDE Grand Swiss qualifies for the FIDE Candidates' Tournament 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.
On behalf of all of us @chesscom, sharing a HUGE thank you to the new @FIDE_chess leadership for considering and accepting our bid to host the Grand Swiss Tournament this year. Congrats to the organization team @iomchess as well! Very excited for what's in store this October... pic.twitter.com/x6WQWYkotM
— Daniel Rensch (@DanielRensch) February 16, 2019
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. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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