World Blitz Championship Preliminaries, Moscow 2007
The World Blitz Championship is being held in two phases:
-
Qualification tournament (Swiss system, 11 double rounds), which took place
on November 19 and 20. Players with a rating of 2625 or higher were entitled
to participate, with ten wild cards nominated by the organisers. Venue:
Gogolevsky bld., 14, Central House of Chessplayer, named after Mikhail M.
Botvinnik.
- The final tournament is double round robin with 20 participants playing
each other with white and black pieces (the original number was 18, but the
organisers decided to increase this to include the finalists of the 2006 World
Blitz Championship in Israel, Alexander Grischuk Peter Svidler). The finals
will be held on November 21 and 22, the venue is the GUM department store,
Red Square 2.
The participants in the final are nominated as follows:
- The ten participants of the Tal Memorial Tournament 2007
- Two wild cards: Viswanathan Anand and Anatoly Karpov
- Six players who qualified from the first-phase event
- Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler
The rate of play is 4 minutes per game for each player, plus 2 seconds per
move starting from move one. The prizes are US $25,000 for the winner, $15,000
for the runner up, $10,000 for third place and further prizes ranging from $7,250
for fourth to $2,500 each for 11th-14th places and $1,500 each for 15th-18th
places. If there are ties in the final standing order, then all respective prizes,
excepting the first one, are equally shared between the players who tied. The
players who are the first, second and third in the final standing order will
be awarded, respectively, with gold, silver and bronze medals.
Preliminaries of the World Blitz, with Rublevsky vs Lahno in the foreground

Rustam Kasimdzhanov vs Ruslan Ponomariov (with Michael Adams in the background)

Blitz hunks: Vladislav Tkachiev and Etienne Bacrot

The glare: Kateryna Lahno, who scored 5.5/8 in the first half, vs Laurent
Fressinet
Final standings of the Preliminaries (after 11 rounds)
No. |
SNo. |
Name |
Fed. |
FIDE |
Total |
MBch. |
1 |
7 |
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam |
UZB |
2690 |
15.0 |
119.00 |
2 |
5 |
Bacrot, Etienne |
FRA |
2695 |
14.5 |
114.00 |
3 |
1 |
Adams, Michael |
ENG |
2729 |
14.5 |
114.00 |
4 |
44 |
Savchenko, Boris |
RUS |
2583 |
14.5 |
107.50 |
5 |
3 |
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
UKR |
2705 |
14.0 |
113.50 |
6 |
36 |
Dreev, Alexey |
RUS |
2607 |
14.0 |
112.50 |
7 |
11 |
Rublevsky, Sergei |
RUS |
2676 |
14.0 |
112.00 |
8 |
38 |
Korotylev, Alexey |
RUS |
2600 |
14.0 |
108.00 |
9 |
21 |
Fressinet, Laurent |
FRA |
2654 |
13.5 |
105.50 |
10 |
18 |
Tkachiev, Vladislav |
FRA |
2661 |
13.0 |
123.00 |
11 |
31 |
Fedorov, Alexei |
BLR |
2612 |
13.0 |
101.50 |
12 |
17 |
Sasikiran, Krishnan |
IND |
2661 |
13.0 |
101.00 |
13 |
19 |
Vallejo Pons, Francisco |
ESP |
2660 |
13.0 |
91.00 |
14 |
14 |
Movsesian, Sergei |
SVK |
2670 |
12.5 |
109.00 |
15 |
24 |
Volkov, Sergey |
RUS |
2648 |
12.5 |
104.50 |
16 |
28 |
Amonatov, Farrukh |
TJK |
2637 |
12.5 |
96.50 |
17 |
33 |
Nepomniachtchi, Ian |
RUS |
2611 |
12.0 |
116.00 |
18 |
8 |
Malakhov, Vladimir |
RUS |
2690 |
12.0 |
112.00 |
19 |
9 |
Van Wely, Loek |
NED |
2679 |
12.0 |
110.50 |
20 |
25 |
Moiseenko, Alexander |
UKR |
2646 |
12.0 |
106.00 |
21 |
13 |
Zvjaginsev, Vadim |
RUS |
2674 |
12.0 |
104.50 |
22 |
4 |
Wang, Yue |
CHN |
2703 |
12.0 |
104.00 |
23 |
23 |
Georgiev, Kiril |
BUL |
2649 |
12.0 |
103.00 |
24 |
57 |
Dlugy, Maxim |
USA |
2518 |
12.0 |
100.50 |
25 |
45 |
L'Ami, Erwin |
NED |
2577 |
12.0 |
96.50 |
26 |
27 |
Smirin, Ilia |
ISR |
2639 |
12.0 |
92.50 |
27 |
42 |
Kazhgaleyev, Murtas |
KAZ |
2588 |
11.5 |
101.00 |
28 |
46 |
Iljin, Artem |
RUS |
2565 |
11.5 |
97.50 |
29 |
48 |
Deviatkin, Andrei |
RUS |
2555 |
11.5 |
96.50 |
30 |
50 |
Tukmakov, Vladimir B |
UKR |
2551 |
11.5 |
96.00 |
31 |
26 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij |
GER |
2639 |
11.5 |
96.00 |
32 |
32 |
Potkin, Vladimir |
RUS |
2612 |
11.5 |
91.00 |
33 |
52 |
Psakhis, Lev |
ISR |
2538 |
11.5 |
90.50 |
34 |
29 |
Kobalia, Mikhail |
RUS |
2631 |
11.0 |
98.50 |
35 |
12 |
Onischuk, Alexander |
USA |
2674 |
11.0 |
97.00 |
36 |
61 |
Dobrov, Vladimir |
RUS |
2499 |
11.0 |
92.50 |
37 |
16 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter |
ROU |
2668 |
10.5 |
104.00 |
38 |
34 |
Pelletier, Yannick |
SUI |
2609 |
10.5 |
104.00 |
39 |
43 |
Akobian, Varuzhan |
USA |
2585 |
10.5 |
99.50 |
40 |
15 |
Krasenkow, Michal |
POL |
2668 |
10.5 |
93.00 |
41 |
10 |
Landa, Konstantin |
RUS |
2678 |
10.5 |
93.00 |
42 |
20 |
Sutovsky, Emil |
ISR |
2655 |
10.5 |
90.00 |
43 |
53 |
Novikov, Stanislav |
RUS |
2534 |
10.0 |
102.50 |
44 |
35 |
Tregubov, Pavel V. |
RUS |
2609 |
10.0 |
98.00 |
45 |
55 |
Rychagov, Andrey |
RUS |
2528 |
10.0 |
90.50 |
46 |
2 |
Akopian, Vladimir |
ARM |
2713 |
10.0 |
85.50 |
47 |
22 |
Bareev, Evgeny |
RUS |
2653 |
9.5 |
110.50 |
48 |
62 |
Lahno, Kateryna |
UKR |
2459 |
9.5 |
108.50 |
49 |
37 |
Huzman, Alexander |
ISR |
2602 |
9.5 |
99.50 |
50 |
58 |
Kosteniuk, Alexandra |
RUS |
2515 |
9.5 |
98.50 |
51 |
6 |
Almasi, Zoltan |
HUN |
2691 |
9.5 |
94.00 |
52 |
39 |
Vaganian, Rafael A |
ARM |
2600 |
9.5 |
91.00 |
53 |
54 |
Nevednichy, Vladislav |
ROU |
2531 |
9.5 |
87.50 |
54 |
47 |
Khismatullin, Denis |
RUS |
2560 |
9.0 |
87.00 |
55 |
51 |
Vaisser, Anatoly |
FRA |
2539 |
8.5 |
103.50 |
56 |
56 |
Gritsak, Orest |
UKR |
2524 |
8.5 |
100.00 |
57 |
60 |
Poluljahov, Aleksandr |
RUS |
2505 |
8.5 |
97.00 |
58 |
41 |
Lysyj, Igor |
RUS |
2591 |
8.5 |
95.50 |
59 |
40 |
Grigoriants, Sergey |
RUS |
2591 |
8.0 |
97.00 |
60 |
59 |
Rashkovsky, Nukhim N |
RUS |
2506 |
7.5 |
79.00 |
61 |
30 |
Aleksandrov, Aleksej |
BLR |
2614 |
7.5 |
78.50 |
62 |
63 |
Markosian, David S. |
ARM |
2394 |
5.5 |
92.50 |
63 |
49 |
Smagin, Sergey |
RUS |
2551 |
4.5 |
64.50 |
64 |
64 |
Zilbert, Oleg |
RUS |
2355 |
2.5 |
84.50 |