Third GP Starts Tomorrow

The third stage of the 2014-2015 FIDE Grand Prix is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. The tournament will run from February 14th to February 28, 2014. Some of the strongest players in the world will compete in a Round Robin event. The winner and runner-up of the Grand Prix series will earn their spot at the 2016 Candidate's Tournament.

Grand Prix Standings

Since the format was changed for this cycle and the players cannot "drop" a tournament, which means that every tournament participation counts for their total score, some players come to Tbilisi with more hopes to qualify than others. Even though Andreikin is currently third in the standings it is clear that his disastrous Baku makes him far from a favorite to qualify to the Candidates - similarly Gelfand and his Tashkent, or Mamedyarov and his Baku.

In much better shape are, for example, Grischuk, Svidler and Tomashevsky. The three Russians shared third in Baku and accumulate 82 points each; since all three skipped Tashkent they can accumulate up to 240 extra points (if they win both remaining Grand Prix tournaments back to back). Jobava is not far behind with 75 points, but a really rough Wijk aan Zee casts a cloud over how well he can do here in Tbilisi. That being said, Jobava is a player that is full of surprises, and playing in home turf never hurts.

With both of the current GP leaders, Caruana and Nakamura, playing in Zurich instead of this Grand Prix and finishing their participation in this cycle with the Khanty-Mansiysk GP in May, everything will remain up in the air.

Opening Ceremony

he third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix series 2014-2015 was officially inaugurated in the presence of the players, FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg, President of the Georgian Chess Federation Giorgi Giorgadze, Chairman of the Appeals Committee Nona Gaprindashvili and Chief Arbiter Faik Gasanov.

During the opening speech Mr. Borg thanked the Georgian Chess Federation and its President Mr. Giorgadze for stepping in last November to organize this event. Mr.Borg added that the chess world greatly appreciates the effort invested by the Georgian Chess Federation to prepare the tournament in such a short timeframe.

Mr.Gasanov reminded the participants about the time control, zero tolerance rule and no-draws rule. He proceeded with drawing of lots and composing the pairings. One by one, the players were collecting the gift bags, with starting numbers printed on the back of the shirts.

The Grand Prix is taking place in Tbilisi (Georgia) from the 14th until 27th of February 2015. The organizers of the tournament are the Georgian Chess Federation, the Ministry of Sport and Youth of Georgia and Tbilisi City Hall. SOCAR Energy Georgia is the general sponsor of the event. The games are taking place at the Courtyard by Marriott Tbilisi Hotel.

When you see the same players in the same tournaments a sort of friendship is bound to arise

Geoffrey Borg, FIDE CEO

The players waiting for the relatively short opening ceremony. No dances this time!

Their gift bag had a shirt with their pairing number on it

Dominguez got the lucky number one: starts with two whites

Seven for Jobava, the only player that is not 2700 in this tournament (though we are sure he will be back soon)

The crowd! Left to right: Dominguez, Giri, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko,
Svidler, Grischuk, Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Jobava and Kasimdzhanov.

Tomorrow's round starts at 15:00 Tbilisi time. It's time to get the third leg of this GP series under way! You can follow the action live from our server www.playchess.com

Photos from the official website by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule

Links Official tournament site The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.