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The list of the tournaments and locations released are:
|
#
|
Year
|
From | Until | Venue |
|
a)
|
2014
|
01 October | 15 October | Baku, Azerbaijan |
|
b)
|
2014
|
20 October | 03 November | Tashkent, Uzbekistan |
|
c)
|
2015
|
14 February | 28 February | Tehran, Iran |
|
d)
|
2015
|
13 May | 27 May | Moscow, Russia |
The series has also been reduced from six to four tournaments, possibly due to the constricted scheduling, making it harder to secure sponsorship as many budgets are already accounted for. With the locations all taking place in Eastern Europe or Asia, it seems a pity that greater efforts were not make to try to diversify a bit more, to promote chess in places where it is not already the national sport. The exception being Iran, an unusual choice, especially considering Israeli player Boris Gelfand.
Of note also are the dates of the events, with two taking place in succession in October, right before the World Championship match. This may end up excluding both Carlsen and Anand, as they finalize their preparations for an epic encounter in November. These caveats aside, the list of participants is of the highest order and promises some breathtaking chess.
In all, a total of sixteen players will take part, with eleven qualifiers as per regulations (listed below) plus four nominees from the organisers (to be announced) and one nominee by the FIDE President (to be announced). The eleven original qualifiers who have to confirm their participation by 27 August 2014 are:
 Magnus Carlsen World Champion |
Viswanathan Anand World Championship match 2013 |
|
Vladimir Kramnik, World Cup winner 2013 |
Dmitry Andreikin World Cup runner-up 2013 |
|
Evgeny Tomashevsky World Cup semi-finalist 2013 |
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave World Cup semi-finalist 2013 |
|
Levon Aronian Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
Fabiano Caruana Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
|
Alexander Grischuk Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
Hikaru Nakamura Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
|
Veselin Topalov Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
Sergey Karjakin (reserve) Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
|
Boris Gelfand (reserve) Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (reserve) Average rating 5/2013 to 4/2014 |
Each player will play in three tournaments and all his results will be taken into account for the overall final standings of the Grand-Prix. The full regulations of the Grand-Prix 2014-2015 can be downloaded from the FIDE website here.
