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.
All games will be played on the Chess.com live server and can be followed on our events page and in our Android and iOS apps under "Watch." Commentary by GM Robert Hess, IM Daniel Rensch, and special guests can be enjoyed at Chess.com/TV where the games will be discussed and explained.
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
# | Flag | China | Standard | Rapid | # | Flag | USA | Standard | Rapid | |
1 | Ding Liren | 2791 | 2836 | 1 | Fabiano Caruana | 2835 | 2773 | |||
2 | Wang Hao | 2763 | 2750 | 2 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2736 | 2829 | |||
3 | Wei Yi | 2732 | 2752 | 3 | Leinier Dominguez | 2758 | 2786 | |||
4 | Hou Yifan | 2658 | 2621 | 4 | Irina Krush | 2429 | 2392 | |||
5 | Yu Yangyi | 2709 | 2738 | 5 | Wesley So | 2770 | 2816 | |||
6 | Ju Wenjun | 2560 | 2610 | 6 | Anna Zatonskih | 2420 | 2327 | |||
C | Ye Jiangchuan | av. 2702 | av. 2718 | C | John Donaldson | av. 2658 | av. 2654 | |||
# | Flag | Europe | Standard | Rapid | # | Flag | India | Standard | Rapid | |
1 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2778 | 2860 | 1 | Viswanathan Anand* | 2753 | 2785 | |||
2 | Levon Aronian | 2773 | 2778 | 2 | Vidit Gujrathi | 2726 | 2636 | |||
3 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 2753 | 2774 | 3 | Pentala Harikrishna | 2719 | 2690 | |||
4 | Anna Muzychuk | 2535 | 2533 | 4 | Humpy Koneru | 2586 | 2483 | |||
5 | Anish Giri | 2764 | 2731 | 5 | Adhiban Baskaran | 2659 | 2624 | |||
6 | Nana Dzagnidze | 2524 | 2447 | 6 | Harika Dronavalli | 2515 | 2450 | |||
C | Garry Kasparov | av. 2688 | av. 2687 | C | Vladimir Kramnik* | av. 2660 | av. 2611 | |||
# | Flag | Russia | Standard | Rapid | # | Flag | Rest of the World | Standard | Rapid | |
1 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2784 | 2778 | 1 | Teimour Radjabov | 2765 | 2758 | |||
2 | Vladislav Artemiev | 2716 | 2769 | 2 | Alireza Firouzja | 2728 | 2703 | |||
3 | Sergey Karjakin | 2752 | 2709 | 3 | Bassem Amin | 2686 | 2608 | |||
4 | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2582 | 2502 | 4 | Mariya Muzychuk | 2544 | 2506 | |||
5 | Dmitry Andreikin | 2726 | 2740 | 5 | Jorge Cori | 2652 | 2599 | |||
6 | Olga Girya | 2469 | 2471 | 6 | Dinara Saduakassova | 2500 | 2412 | |||
C | Alexander Motylev | av. 2672 | av. 2662 | C | Arkady Dvorkovich | av. 2646 | av. 2598 |
*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!
— Chess.com (@chesscom) May 2, 2020
āšµāšµāšµā
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
Related posts: