Quiz: where will the sixth Grand Prix be held?

The FIDE Grand Prix, as planned and announced on the Grand Prix web site, was envisioned as "a series of six tournaments held over two years (2008-2009) in leading world cities." Each tournament has 14 players and lasts seventeen days. The months allocated for the organisation of the Grand Prix tournaments are April, August and December of each respective year. These months were selected to ensure there is no conflict with any other major event.

According to the new FIDE World Championship cycle the winner of the Grand Prix series at the end of 2009 was scheduled play the winner of the World Cup that is currently being played in Khanty-Mansiysk (as is still stated on the FIDE Grand Prix web site given above). However that was changed in November last year when FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that there would be a Candidates Tournament in the spring of 2010, with eight players: the winners of the World Cup and the Grand Prix, the loser of the Topalov-Kamsky challenger match (i.e. Kamsky), and the runner-up in the World Championship match Anand-Topalov, the highest-rated players (out of those not otherwise qualified) and also a nominee of the host country of the Candidates Tournament (providing that his rating is not less than 2700).

So where is the sixth Grand Prix?

Despite the Cassandra predictions of many chess experts, and venue changes as sponsorship deals broke down, FIDE did manage to successfully stage five of the planned Grand Prix tournaments, and now, we are told by insiders, is in the process of signing up for the sixth and final tournament of the 2008/2009 cycle. So everything is in good order – except, so far, the bit about "leading world cities." On the other hand we have been treated to some excellent geography lessons with the previous editions (see links at the bottom of this page).

Now before you whip out your Google – that destroyer of all puzzles and quizzes – you may want to try an guess where the sixth Grand Prix will take place. We supply you with all the information, tools (naturally by Google) and hints you will need to find the city. The solution is out there staring you in the face – tugging at your mouse!

We start with a map showing the location of the previous five Grand Prixs. They are all in a relatively small area of the world, as you can see if you zoom out of the first of the two live Google maps we give below.

To make your research easier here is a map with all the chess events in recent years:

Below are two Google maps that will help you on your mission to find the location of the sixth FIDE Grand Prix – either in the vicinity of the first five or on the surface of our planet. You can zoom in and out with the control buttons on the top left, or grab the map with your left mouse key to move it around in the window. If you get really serious about things click on the "view larger map" link below each map to open it in full size in a new window.

You may want to extend your search to encompass the entire planet:

Previous Grand Prix tournaments

FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009 standings