Chess News
From May 8th to 12th, ten participants play 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz in the "Côte d'Ivoire Rapid & Blitz 2019", one of four new tournaments to be added to the Grand Chess Tour series in 2019. The tournament was made possible by a partnership between Vivendi SA, Canal+ Group and the Pullman Abidjan Hotel. The total prize fund is USD $150,000.
The economic capital of Ivory Coast, Abidjan, is the first stop of the new series and also the first tournament on the African continent in which a reigning World Chess Champion is participating.
Ratings as of May 8th, 2019
| # | FED | Name | URS* | FIDE Elo | Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2867 (1) | 2861 (1) | 1990 | |
| 2 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2805 (2) | 2761 (11) | 1987 | |
| 3 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2792 (3) | 2780 (6) | 1990 | |
| 4 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2791 (4) | 2816 (2) | 1992 | |
| 5 | Ding, Liren | 2786 (5) | 2805 (3) | 1992 | |
| 6 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2777 (6) | 2781 (5) | 1985 | |
| 7 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 2776 (7) | 2773 (8) | 1990 | |
| 8 | Aronian, Levon | 2776 (8) | 2762 (10) | 1982 | |
| 9 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2773 (9) | 2752 (16) | 1990 | |
| 10 | So, Wesley | 2772 (10) | 2754 (13) | 1993 | |
| 11 | Giri, Anish | 2766 (13) | 2787 (4) | 1994 | |
| 12 | Anand, Viswanathan | 2759 (15) | 2774 (7) | 1969 |
*URS stands for Universal Rating System, developed and used by the Grand Chess Tour
The players of the first leg of the GCT 2019 — Wei, Amin and Topalov are the wild cards
Promotional video introducing the players | Grand Chess Tour
Abidjan is not the capital of Ivory Coast, but it is the largest city and economic hub
On the even of the tournament, Maurice Ashley and the GCT video crew visited a local chess school with Dr Essoh Essis
From May 8th-10th, three rapid chess games will be played per day, starting at 17:00 local time (UTC) each day — 19:00, 20:30 and 22:00 (CEST) or 1PM / 2:30PM / 4PM EDT.
On May 11th and 12th, a total of 18 blitz games will be played. On both days, the rounds start at 14:00 local time (UTC), with each round starting 30 minutes after the prior round until 18:00. Should a tie-break be necessary, it starts on May 12th at 18:30 UTC.
All rounds will feature live commentary by GM Yannick Pelletier, IM Tania Sachdev, GM Alejandro Ramirez & GM Maurice Ashley.
|
Time (GMT) |
May 8 |
Time (GMT) |
May 9 |
Time (GMT) |
May 10 |
|
17:00 |
Round 1 |
17:00 |
Round 4 |
17:00 |
Round 7 |
|
18:30 |
Round 2 |
18:30 |
Round 5 |
18:30 |
Round 8 |
|
20:00 |
Round 3 |
20:00 |
Round 6 |
20:00 |
Round 9 |
|
Time (GMT) |
May 11 |
Time (GMT) |
May 12 |
|
14:00 |
Round 1 |
14:00 |
Round 10 |
|
14:30 |
Round 2 |
14:30 |
Round 11 |
|
15:00 |
Round 3 |
15:00 |
Round 12 |
|
15:30 |
Round 4 |
15:30 |
Round 13 |
|
16:00 |
Round 5 |
16:00 |
Round 14 |
|
16:30 |
Round 6 |
16:30 |
Round 15 |
|
17:00 |
Round 7 |
17:00 |
Round 16 |
|
17:30 |
Round 8 |
17:30 |
Round 17 |
|
18:00 |
Round 9 |
18:00 |
Round 18 |
|
|
|
18:30 |
Playoffs / Prizegiving |
