The most interesting match-ups for World Cup 2017

Make your prediction:

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One of the biggest events of the year, FIDE World Cup 2017, begins in less than a week. It is a 128-player knock out event that will determine two players (the finalists) who qualify to the next Candidates tournament. The first round pairings were released a few days ago. We have chosen few of the most interesting round one match-ups that you can look forward to.

Anish Giri vs Nana Dzagnidze

Anish Giri and Nana Dzagnidze | Photo: Amruta Mokal and Pascal Simon

Anish is a huge favourite for this match, and also for the World Cup in general. However, Nana Dzagnidze is quite a tricky first round opponent. She has a wealth of experience and can surely give Giri a hard time if he doesn't show his best chess.

Vishy Anand vs Yeoh Li Tian

Vishy Anand and Yeoh Li Tian | Photos: Amruta Mokal and Peter Long 

Vishy Anand has played three World Cups in his career and won two of them! Quite an envious record. At the age of nearly 48 years, Vishy is not one of the favourites in this event which will span over four weeks and is a gruelling test of one's stamina, yet you can never write him off. He will begin his campaign against the young Malaysia number one Yeoh Li Tian, who is trying to become his country's first grandmaster.

Peter Heine Nielsen was the guest on 11th ChessBase India show a few days ago. Here's an extract of the show where he spoke about Anand's chances at the World Cup 2017:

Peter Heine Nielsen on the ChessBase India show

Hou Yifan vs Kacper Piorun

Hou Yifan and Kacper Piorun | Photos: Amruta Mokal and Pascal Simon

Hou Yifan is the queen of the chess world. Her playing the World Cup makes the event even more colourful. All eyes will be on her as to how far she is able to progress. In the first round itself she has a stiff challenge against Polish four-time problem solving World Champion Kacper Piorun.

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Sergey Karjakin vs Anton Smirnov

Sergey Karjakin and Anton Smirnov | Photo: Amruta Mokal and Lennart Ootes

Anton Smirnov proved at the Match of Millennials that he is right up there with the best by beating Li Ruifeng and Samuel Sevian. He is Austrialia's brightest star right now. It goes without saying that the odds are heavily in favour of Sergey Karjakin, but what will be interesting to see is the fight that Smirnov is able to create on the board.

Alexander Motylev vs Jeffery Xiong

Alexander Motylev and Jeffery Xiong | Photos: Pascal Simon and Lennart Ootes

Another experienced Russian versus young talent scenario. Jeffery Xiong is on his way to establishing himself as one of the best players in the world. He is the current World Junior champion and has a rating of 2633. On the other hand Alexander Motylev has been Sergey Karjakin's second and the head coach of the Russian team. It will be interesting to see this Russia against USA encounter.

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Boris Grachev vs Hrant Melkumyan

Boris Grachev and Hrant Melkumyan | Photos: Ray Morris Hill and Pascal Simon

This is definitely a battle of two equals. Two excellent positional players will be playing against each other in round one. It is just so difficult to choose between Grachev and Melkumyan and hence, I think this will be one of the most hard-fought encounters of round one.

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David Howell vs Aryan Tari

David Howell and Aryan Tari | Photos: Pascal Simon and Alina l'Ami.

David Howell recently broke into the 2700 club, while Norwegian Aryan Tari crossed 2600 on the live ratings in 2017. Aryan is improving quickly and the rating gap of hundred points between Howell and him will not count for much.

Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu vs Samuel Sevian

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Samuel Sevian | Photos: Georgios Souleidis and Lennart Ootes.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is a romantic attacker. He loves to throw his pieces at opponent's king. But in Tbilisi, he will have to tread carefully as his opponent is also a very dangerous tactician. Samuel Sevian is one of the biggest talents from America and his mini-match against Nisipeanu will be something to look forward to. 

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Complete Pairings:

Pairings of first half

Pairings of second half

Magnus Carlsen at the World Cup

The biggest buzz in the chess world is Magnus Carlsen playing in Tbilisi. The World Champion made a bold decision to play in the World Cup and in an interview with Chess.com pointed out that there is a loophole in the system that it allows a World Champion to participate in this tournament, and he likes to take advantage of it. Also, around two years ago, in August 2015, Magnus raised his voice for the World Championship to be held in a knock-out format in a Facebook post. Here is the most important excerpt: 

In short, I strongly believe the chess world should evolve to a more just system. What does that look like? I have long thought that moving to an annual knock-out event, similar to the World Cup, would be more equitable. This change would in effect improve the odds of becoming World Champion for nearly every chess player, with the exception of the reigning World Champion, and potentially a few other top players who would no longer be favoured by the current format. Creating regional qualifying events combined with rating spots, the participation of all the top players in the world and the undisputed World Championship title at stake, I truly believe this would make the World Championship cycle more accessible to everyone.

Thus, it would not be incorrect to say that this World Cup is similar to World Championship for Magnus as we have all the top players of the world participating. He would take this tournament very seriously. What will happen if Magnus wins? Who qualifies from the Candidates? We'll take a closer look in a follow up on ChessBase News.

Peter Heine Nielsen with Magnus Carlsen on the rest day of the Sinquefield Cup which ended a few days ago | Photo: Magnus Carlsen's Facebook page

Carlsen's second, Peter Heine Nielsen, speaks about Magnus' decision to play in the World Cup, which he calls "brave and funny"!

Live broadcast:

ChessBase will have a live games page with live updates from the venue like important happenings, key positions, video interviews and much more. 

ChessBase coverage:

ChessBase will in-depth coverage of this World Cup 2017 from Tbilisi, Georgia as our authors Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal will be at the venue. 

Schedule: