FIDE World Chess Cup starts in Khanty-Mansiysk

The tournament will take place in the Ugorian Chess Academy, a modern citadel of intellectual sports in the very heart of Khanty-Mansiysk. This complex has already been involved in organization of international meetings – the 81th Congress and General Assembly of FIDE were held there in 2010, during the 39th World Chess Olympiad.

The new Ugorian Chess Academy is the venue of the 2011 FIDE World Cup

The Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was held in the Concert and Theater complex Ugra-Classic on August, 27. At the beginning there is a lot in Russian with a professional translator repeating everything in English.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with the Mayor of Khanty-Mansiysk Vassily Filipenko. Ilyumzhinov said that in just a few year Khanty Mansiysk had become one of the chess centres of the world, "a chess Mecca”.

After the anthems of Russia and FIDE there is the drawing of colours

Starting from 18:40 minutes there is the musical presentation, which is a joy to watch –
the section (18:41 min) with Gounod's Ave Maria set to Bach's First Prelude is inspirational

At around 18:44 we have a vocal group called "Quatro" doing popular Italina songs. At around 18:47 there is a lovely Russian rendering of "Sorrento", modelled after the immortal "Four Tenors". Watch them both and compare!

At 18:58 min we have a nicely done section with Bach, Baroque figures and chess ballet

At 19:04:30 another treat – a charming interpretation of Johann Strauss' Pizzicato Polka

After a second performance by the "Quatros", at 19:18 into the video, we have a lively
section performed to the music of (correct us if we are wrong) Aram Khachaturian

Certainly the second part, starting at 19:20:50, is Khachaturian's Masquerade Waltz

It was a thoroughly enjoyable opening celebration, and we can only hope that the chess
that follows will be as full of spirit and as elegant as the musical presentation on the stage.

Participants

128 players meet in a seven-round tournament, with everyone starting from round one (i.e. no seedings). All matches except the final consist of two games, with FIDE time control (90 minutes for 40 moves and 30 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game). The tie-break is played on the third day and consists of two rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move), two semi-rapid (10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move), and two blitz games (5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move). If the tie remains unbroken, an Armageddon game is played: White has five minutes against Black's four. with both sides getting a three second increment per move after move 60. White must win – a draw means Black proceeds to the next stage.

The rules of the final match are basically the same except for starting with four long games. Also those who lose in the semi-finals will stay in Khanty-Mansiysk to play for the third place, which is very valuable as the third place finisher advances to the Candidates tournament.

Schedule of the World Chess Cup 2011

The live commentary on Playchess will begin on Sunday at 13:00h CEST (= 15:00h Moscow, 7 a.m. New York), with GM Jan Gustafsson analysing with the spectators in English, and GM Klaus Bischoff in German. At around 19:00h there will be a wrap-up of the day's events.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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