10/26/2014 – It is less than two week before it starts, and today we spotted the official FIDE site, conceived and designed by Pentagram in cooperation with Agon Ltd., the commercial partner of FIDE for staging top events. It represents an effort to rebrand chess and includes a new playing area setup and even new and exclusive chess pieces. Take a look.
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The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
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World Chess Championship Match
The World Chess Championship Match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen
and Challanger Viswanathan Anand is taking place in Sochi, Russia on November
7–28, 2014. A reminder: earlier this year Anand won
the Candidates Tournament in Khanty Mansiysk to become the next challenger
of the current World Champion, Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen.
The match will be held in Sochi, on the territory
of the Olympic Village, with a budget of
US $3,000,000. Of this one to one and a half million will go to the players
as prizes.
The look of the World Chess Championship official web site differs considerably
from previous designs. It was conceived by Pentagram,
a multi-disciplinary design firm with offices in London, New York, San Francisco,
Austin, and Berlin, that works on chess in cooperation with Agon
Ltd. The World Championship site stands out from typical chess events
designs and represents an effort by FIDE to rebrand chess and make it more
attractive for chess players and partners.
With a regular browser and especially in fullscreen
mode you get giant images from the
start screen on
On the other hand the page is construced in
in modern Responsive Web design,
which means it adjusts itself automatically for display on Android or Apple
smartphones
The web site has pictures and bio of the players...
... and gives you an impression of what the
playing area will look like.
The "World Chess Set" is the official chess set for the 2014
World Championship Match. The set was designed by internationally renowned
Pentagram designer and architect Daniel Weil. The pieces are based on the
proportions of classical Greek architecture and the classic Staunton design
to make a set that is both distinctive and traditional. A limited edition
of the sets has been produced for the 2014 World Chess Championship. It's
the only FIDE-approved set for use in the tournament.
Incidentally we came across the following interesting Youtube video:
In the above video the World Champion says
"... and there are 24 pieces on the chessboard". 24??
Is he under the impression that they will be playing on a 6 x 6 board in
Sochi? It would certainly
seem so. But knowing this guy it is just a prank, to mystify his fans. Vintage
Magnus.
The Rules and Regulations say the Match will be played over a maximum of
twelve games and the winner of the match shall be the first player to score
6.5 points or more. If the scores are level after the twelve games, after
a new drawing of colors, four tie-break games shall be played. The games
shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes for
each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. In case the
match is still drawn, a match of 2 games shall be played with a time control
of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move. In case of a level
score, another 2-game match will be played to determine a winner. If still
there is no winner after 5 such matches (total 10 games), one sudden-death
game will be played.
In our
previous report we showed you pictures of the venue, the official FIDE
World Championship hotel and a less expensive (but more convenient) one,
with prices ranging from EUR 88.00 for a standard room in the official five-star
Radisson Blu Resort
& Spa to EUR 40.00 in the three-star Tulip
Inn Omega Sochi.
The venue is Olympic Media Center, 11 Nesebrskaya
St, Sochi, Russia
... but you can also stay in the three-star
Tulip
Inn Omega Sochi for a special price of EUR 40.00.
Calendar of events
The WCM 2014 shall be played over a maximum of twelve (12) games and the
winner shall be the first player to earn 6.5 points or more. If winner scores
6.5 points in less than twelve games then Closing Ceremony will be rescheduled
for an earlier date. The games will be broadcast live on Playchess with
expert commentary.
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com
with full GM commentary. If you are not a member of Playchess get instant
access, but you can also use ChessBase
12 or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs to log on.
Frederic FriedelEditor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
FIDE World Cup 2025 with analyses by Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Shankland, Wei Yi and many more. Opening videos by Blohberger, King and Marin. 11 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
€14.90
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