Qualification criteria Grand Prix published

We haven't heard from Global Chess BV for a while, the company financed by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and runned by Bessel Kok and Geoffrey Borg. But behind the scenes they're busy working on a more professional organisation of international chess. A vanguard: the Grand Prix Series. Today the qualification criteria for the 2008-2009 have been published and the first batch of qualifiers is: Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Kamsky, Shirov, Carlsen, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Leko, Morozevich, Aronian, Radjabov and Gelfand.

First a bit of explanation. The Grand Prix Series (by the way not to be mistaken for the Grand Slam!) is based on an old idea of Bessel Kok's, who organised Grand Prix tournaments already in the nineteen eighties. Besides the Candidates Matches, it will be a new way for chess players to play their way into the World Championship Cycle.

The Grand Prix Series could be considered the "quarter finals" of the overall Chess World Championship. Why? Well, the winner of the Grand Prix Series (at the end of 2009) will play the winner of the World Cup (held in December 2009) in an eight-game match. This could be considered the "semi-finals", of which the winner becomes the challenger to the World Champion in a match (to be held in the third quarter of 2010). If everything goes according to plan (normally an absurd presumption but let's give them the benefit of the doubt now that Global Chess is involved), and cities, organizers and sponsors will be found for all of this, the 2010 match forms the "big final" of the whole system, and in fact the first match since 1990 that's the result of a complete and "everyone-included" cycle.

FIDE regulations add that should the overall winner of the Grand Prix also be the World Champion at the end of the Grand Prix series in 2009, then the Challenger rights will go to the second placed overall in the Grand Prix. Should the second placed player in the Grand Prix also be the winner of the World Cup 2009, then the Challenger rights emanating from the Grand Prix will go to the third placed overall in the Grand Prix series.

Now let's move on to today's news. FIDE states:

Following a request by some of the players who are playing in the matches this year, the FIDE President has accepted to allow the four players to take part in the Grand Prix from the beginning, if they so desire.

The criteria for qualification therefore read as follows:

3.1. MATCHES. For the first cycle of 2008/9, all players in the World Championship (ie. Kramnik or Anand) and Challenger matches (Topalov or the World Cup 2007 winner) will be invited to participate in the Grand Prix from the outset.

Given the organisation of both these matches in the third quarter of 2008, all these players will all be asked to commit their participation in the Grand Prix series by not later than 31st January 2008. Should any of these players decline to participate in the Grand Prix series, the President may nominate a player to replace and this player must be rated among the top 40 players in the World.

Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2799	9	1975
Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2799	3	1969
Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2780	14	1975
Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2726	32	1974

3.2. QUALIFICATION. The FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk 2007 will be used to determine three qualifiers for the 2008/9 Grand Prix Series. Excluding the winner, these will be the players who have qualified to the semi final stages of the World Cup.

Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2755	49	1972
Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2733	37	1990
Karjakin, Sergey	g	UKR	2732	36	1990

3.3. RATING. Based on an average calculation to two decimal places, of the January 2007 rating list and the October 2007 rating list in the year prior to start of the cycle, seven qualifiers will be selected (excluding the four players who will be playing the matches as defined in Article 2.1). If players have the same average rating, the number of games played between January 2007 and September 2007 (rating period) will be used to determine ranking.

To ensure active participation in the future, a minimum of twenty five (25) games is being recommended in the four rating lists including and prior to the October rating list in the year of qualification i.e. 2009, 2011 etc.. Given the short notice in the first edition of the Grand Prix, this regulation will not be applicable in the 2008-2009 series.

If any player, qualified by rating, does not accept to play in the Grand Prix series, then the selection process using the average rating (Oct-07 & Jan-07 to two decimal places) plus number of games played in the rating period (Jan-07 + Apr-07 + Jul-07 + Oct-07) will be adopted to identify reserves, until the number of qualifiers required for the Grand Prix is completed.

The first seven players and reserves are as follows:

	Name	Country	Oct-07	Games	Jan-07	Games	Avg
1.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	UKR	2787	20	2750	33	2768.50
2.	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2752	11	2754	25	2753.00
3.	Leko, Peter	HUN	2755	21	2749	9	2752.00
4.	Morozevich, Alexander	RUS	2755	19	2741	15	2748.00
5.	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2741	14	2744	13	2742.50
6.	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2742	9	2729	6	2735.50
7.	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2736	21	2733	19	2734.50
1st res	Adams, Michael	ENG	2729	16	2735	0	2732.00
2nd res	Svidler, Peter	RUS	2732	25	2728	28	2730.00
3rd res	Polgar, Judit	HUN	2708	9	2727	6	2717.50
4th res	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	2715	23	2717	16	2716.00

3.4. PRESIDENT NOMINEES. The FIDE President may nominate one player and he/she must be rated among the top 40 players in the world as per the October 2007 rating list. If the President has more than one nominee as a result of players qualified under 3.1 declining to play , then the players nominated by the President should be from different countries.

Still to be nominated

3.5. HOST CITY NOMINEES. One players may be nominated by each host city and must be rated not less than 2550 in the last rating list prior to the final nomination or selection of players. If the host city does not have a player rated at least 2550 then the highest rated player from the Federation of the host city will be invited to play, subject to his rating not being lower than 2500.

Still to be nominated

The WCCC will coordinate with Global Chess and with all the host cities, in the allocation of players, should there be a conflict in the number of players in their ranking of preference of host cites. FIDE is not obliged, but will do its utmost to respect the players' preferences, and will balance the player allocation to a host city according to predetermined criteria such as average tournament rating, piece colour, continental representation, etc.

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Related items:

• Results of the Executive Board Meeting at the 78th FIDE Congress
• Head office Global Chess at the Max Euwe Center - interview with Bessel Kok