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Also known as this Vugar Gashimov Memorial, this established annual tournament honours the world-class player who died of brain cancer in 2014 at the age of 27. His brother IM Sarkhan Gashimov helped initiate the tournament and organiser Mahir Mammedov is now a FIDE Vice President.
Magnus Carlsen is back for the fourth time. In his three previous visits to Shamkir he has left with the winner's trophy each time. (Mamedyarov won the other two.)
The players list closely resembles the 2018 roster, but now has six members of the world's Top 10, with Vishy Anand replacing Radoslaw Wojtaszek while Rauf Mammadov is traded up for Alexander Grischuk — making his Shamkir debut. So, there will be a former World Champion and a host of challengers and candidates joining the current World Champion!
Players from 2018 — swap Anand for Wojtaszek and Grischuk for Mammadov
The tournament is once again a 10-player round-robin and sports a total prize fund of €100,000, with €30,000 for first place. The time control is a leisurely 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30 seconds per move increment starting from move 61. If there is a tie, we'll see a rapid playoff match decide the winner.
Shamkir is the eighth largest city in Azerbaijan, about 40 kilometres northwest of Ganja — the location of the nearest airport.
Round 1: March 31st, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 2: April 1st, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 3: April 2nd, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 4: April 3rd, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 5: April 4th, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Rest day: April 5th
Round 6: April 6th, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 7: April 7th, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 8: April 8th, 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EDT)
Round 9: April 9th, 12:00 CEST (6:00 AM EDT)
