Nakamura and Dubov get wildcards for FIDE Grand Prix

by ChessBase
12/22/2021 – Six players have already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022, and the two remaining spots will go to the two best players in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022, a series of three tournaments that will be played from February to April in Berlin and Belgrade. The FIDE recently announced that Hikaru Nakamura (pictured), who in the last two years has not played a single FIDE-rated game, will get the FIDE wild card for the Grand Prix. Daniil Dubov will a wild card from the organiser. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

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24 players qualified for the Grand Prix, and each player will compete in two of three 16-player tournaments.

In the first stage of all three tournaments, the players are divided into four pools of four. The four players in each pool play a double round-robin mini-tournament, and the four winners of each pool progress to the second stage.

In the second stage, the four pool winners play a knock-out tournament. The players receive Grand Prix points according to their finishing position in each tournament, and the two players with the most Grand Prix points qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022, which is scheduled to take place in the summer of 2022.

FIDE Grand Prix 2022 - Participants

Player Qualifying method Rating (December 2021)
China Ding Liren Rating list (3rd) 2799
United States Levon Aronian Rating list (6th) 2772
Netherlands Anish Giri Rating list (7th) 2772
United States Wesley So Rating list (8th) 2772
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Rating list (9th) 2767
Russia Alexander Grischuk Rating list (10th) 2764
Hungary Richárd Rapport Rating list (11th) 2763
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Grand Swiss (6th) 2761
United States Leinier Domínguez Rating list (15th) 2752
United States Hikaru Nakamura Presidential nominee 2736
Russia Nikita Vitiugov Rating list (19th) 2731
China Wei Yi Rating list (21st) 2729
India Vidit Gujrathi World Cup (5th-8th) 2727
Russia Dmitry Andreikin Rating list (23rd) 2724
Russia Daniil Dubov Organizer's nominee 2720
China Yu Yangyi Grand Swiss (4th) 2713
United States Sam Shankland World Cup (5th-8th) 2708
Spain Alexei Shirov Grand Swiss (8th) 2704
Russia Vladimir Fedoseev World Cup (4th) 2704
Russia Alexandr Predke Grand Swiss (7th) 2682
Russia Grigoriy Oparin Grand Swiss (3rd) 2681
Germany Vincent Keymer Grand Swiss (5th) 2664
Iran Amin Tabatabaei World Cup (5th-8th) 2643
France Étienne Bacrot World Cup (5th-8th) 2642

Dates

  • Berlin: February 4 - 16, 2022
  • Belgrade: February 29 - March 13, 2022
  • Berlin: March 21 - April 3, 2022

Six players have already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022

  • Ian Nepomniachtchi (Loser of the World Championship match 2021)
  • Teimour Radjabov (Wild Card)
  • Jan-Krzysztof Duda (World Cup)
  • Sergey Karjakin (World Cup)
  • Alireza Firouzja (Grand Swiss)
  • Fabiano Caruana (Grand Swiss)

Hikaru Nakamura is granted wild card to FIDE Grand Prix

FIDE Press Release 20 December 2022

Hikaru Nakamura has been selected as the Presidential nominee to be one of the 24 participants in the FIDE Grand Prix, organized by World Chess. The series will take place in February — April of 2022 and will consist of three tournaments: two in Berlin and one in Belgrade.

Not having played any official rated game since December 2019, Hikaru failed to qualify for the current world championship cycle. "Travel restrictions affecting US players, and his activity as one of the most popular streamers in the world, prevented him from taking part in key events. Nevertheless, he remains very active in online tournaments, where he consistently shows he is in top shape and among the best in the world", explains the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. "Very strong and experienced, and popular among the fans, I believe he deserves a chance to fight. The chess community will be delighted to see him sitting at the chess board again".

Prior to the Grand Prix, Hikaru will also take part in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Warsaw, breaking a two-year-long impasse without playing over the board competitions.

Having recently turned 34 years old, Hikaru is currently ranked #21 in the world, with a rating of 2736. That would make him the 10th top seed in the Grand Prix series 2022, behind Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Richard Rapport, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Lenier Dominguez.

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