Pairings Revealed For FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup

The pairings for the first round of the $180,000 FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup are Europe vs. Russia, China vs. Rest of the World, and India vs. the USA. This was the result of the drawing of lots, held during the online opening ceremony of the tournament.

The opening ceremony took place on Monday in a live broadcast on Chess.com/TV with hosts GM Robert Hess and IM Daniel Rensch. They revealed the pairing numbers that came from a random number generator processed during a private Zoom call with team captains and Chess.com technicians.

And this is how the Captains meeting looks like! #OnlineNations pic.twitter.com/WY9s7JdDTd

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) May 4, 2020

These were the numbers:

1. Europe
2. China
3. India
4. USA
5. Rest of the World
6. Russia

The pairings system follows the round-robin Berger table for six teams. That means the pairings for the first round on May 5 is Europe vs. Russia, China vs. RoW, and India vs. the USA. 

FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup | Pairings

Rd. 1, May 5	6 a.m. PDT	15:00 CET		Rd. 6, May 7	7:45 a.m. PDT	16:45 CET
Europe	vs	Russia		Russia	vs	Europe
China	vs	RoW		RoW	vs	China
India	vs	USA		USA	vs	India
Rd. 2, May 5	7:45 a.m. PDT	16:45 CET		Rd. 7, May 8	6 a.m. PDT	15:00 CET
Russia	vs	USA		USA	vs	Russia
RoW	vs	India		India	vs	RoW
Europe	vs	China		China	vs	Europe
Rd. 3, May 6	6 a.m. PDT	15:00 CET		Rd. 8, May 8	7:45 a.m. PDT	16:45 CET
China	vs	Russia		Russia	vs	China
India	vs	Europe		Europe	vs	India
USA	vs	RoW		RoW	vs	USA
Rd. 4, May 6	7:45 a.m. PDT	16:45 CET		Rd. 9, May 9	6 a.m. PDT	15:00 CET
Russia	vs	RoWE		RoW	vs	Russia
Europe	vs	USA		USA	vs	Europe
China	vs	India		India	vs	China
Rd. 5, May 7	6 a.m. PDT	15:00 CET		Rd. 10, May 9	7:45 a.m. PDT	16:45 CET
India	vs	Russia		Russia	vs	India
USA	vs	China		China	vs	USA
RoW	vs	Europe		Europe	vs	RoW

This schedule right away leads to interesting board pairings in the first round. Most notably is the possibility of a clash between GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the two leaders of the FIDE Candidates tournament. They'll play on board one of their respective teams, Europe and Russia, if the captains decide to start with their main lineups (see below).

MVL joined the live show for a bit and, asked if he would hold anything back in preparation, he reminded that he already had played Nepo as White in Yekaterinburg: "If I play with white, it's not a match that's featured in the Candidates, and I can play my prep if I want to."

The broadcast of the opening ceremony for replay.

Other potential top-board clashes include GMs Viswanathan Anand vs. Hikaru Nakamura and GMs Ding Liren vs. Teimour Radjabov. The deadline for submitting the team lineups for the captains is 30 minutes before the start of the round.

Anand is the only player who also serves as a team captain. Wouldn't that potentially lead to an internal conflict? What if captain Anand wants the player to sit out a round, but player Anand doesn't want to?

Answering the half-serious question of how he would win this argument, the Indian GM quipped: "Oh, but I'm gonna crack the whip on him!"

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, team captain for Rest of the World, joined the broadcast as well. He started by saying: "Thank you for a nice ceremony. Chess.com is really instrumental in doing this at a high-quality level."

His team faces rating favorite China in the first round. Dvorkovich: "It's gonna be tough. In team China, there are some really great players, such as a top 10-player in the men's section and two world champions in the women's section!"

Below you'll find all teams. The first four players are part of the main lineup, while players five and six are reserve players. "C" stands for the captain.

Teams

*Anand will be playing captain while Kramnik is a team advisor.

The FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup is a team competition held from May 5-10 on Chess.com. The first stage consists of a double round-robin with each team playing each other twice. The top two teams after 10 rounds qualify for a "Superfinal" match on May 10.

All matches are played on four boards: three with male players and one with female players. The time control for all games is 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move one. The prize fund is $180,000.

Find all information about the tournament here.

Excited to announce that @JugadiPrima will be releasing a new chess song titled “You Better Resign” live during the #NationsCup on May 9th!

♔🎵♕🎵♚🎵♛

Tune in to the debut live at https://t.co/d7eYWvFwEd and find Juga's previous chess songs at https://t.co/4WjZOIeuHO! pic.twitter.com/HtpKBKGbBw

— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 2, 2020

Related posts:

• The FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup Starts Tuesday (preview)
• FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup: All The Info‎