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Amongst the players (some of whom are arriving late) we have spotted, in no particular order, Anand, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin, Kamsky, Radjabov, Shirov, Girschuk, Kasimdzhanov, Bologan, Short, Atalik, Adams, Ponomariov, Mamedyarov, Morozevich, van Wely, Sasikiran; and in the women's section Humpy, Cramling, Zhu Chen, Stefanova, Skripchenko, Chiburdanidze, Lahno, Hou Yifan; and many others. It is really a giant event with a collection of stars you only otherwise see at Olympiads.
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Chess organiser and promoter Josef Resh
The schedule of the competition in Mukachevo: four rapid games will be played every day (October 26, 27 and 28). The time control for each game is ten minutes plus ten seconds per move.
The St. Ciryl and Method statue in Mukachevo
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The World Chess Cup will be staged from November 22 to December 18th in Khanty-Mansiysk in the autonomous region of Yugra, Russia. 128 chess players will participate in this knock-out tournament, consisting of seven rounds of matches, with two game each: in the first round there are 128 players, in the second 64, etc. In the seventh round there are two players, and they will play a final match over four games.
The list of players who have qualified for the World Cup 2007 include those of the World Championship Tournament 2007: Anand, Morozevich, Leko, Aronian, Svidler, Gelfand, Grischuk and Kramnik. The Women's World Champion 2006, Xu Yuhua (CHN) and the Junior World Champion 2006, Z. Andriasian (ARM) will also participate. After that come 21 players from the FIDE Rating List, 45 players from the European Championships 2006 and 2007, 9 players from the Zonals and Continetal of Americas, 19 players from the Zonals and Continental of Asia/Oceania, six players from the Continent of Africa, five nominees of the FIDE President and four nominees of the local Organising Committee.
The total prize fund of the event is US $1.6 million. FIDE will wire a cash advance of US $1,500 to each player one month before the start of the event to cover their hotel bills. Originally the winner of the World Chess Cup was going to be the challenger of the current world champion in 2008. However, by special decree FIDE has decided that the former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov will play an eight-game "Challenger's Match" against the winner of the World Chess Cup. In the meantime the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand, will play a match against former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, and the winners of both these matches will play a world championship match in 2009. Details of these regulations can be found here.
The town of Khanti-Masnsiysk is located about 1400 miles (2250 km) east of Moscow, just north of Kazakhstan. The pronounciation of the name is roughly "kanty-mansisk", with the first part rhyming with "hunty", the second with "fun-sick". If you are up to it, pronounce the initial "k" like the guttural "ch" in the German "Dach" or the Spanish "rojo". The Russian original is Ха́нты-Манси́йск.
Today the town of Khanty-Mansiysk is the center of business life in the region, with all amenities, hotels, sports objects, motorways, a medical center, a center of Arts for gifted children, a skiing center, and many other things. Modern communication facilities are available to connect with foreign and CIS countries. The population is 55,700. More information and a lot of pictures are available at this Khanty-Mansiysk web site.
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The Corus Chess Tournament 2008 will be held from 11-27 January 2008 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The tournament venue is the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon. The participants have just been announced and it is billed as one of the world's strongest chess tournaments (category 20).
| No. | Player | nat. | born | rating | rank |
| 1 | GM Viswanathan Anand | IND | 1969 | 2801 | 1 |
| 2 | GM Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 1969 | 2787 | 2 |
| 3 | GM Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 1975 | 2785 | 3 |
| 4 | GM Veselin Topalov | BUL | 1975 | 2769 | 4 |
| 5 | GM Peter Leko | HUN | 1979 | 2755 | 5 |
| 6 | GM Shakhryar Mamedyarov | AZE | 1985 | 2752 | 7 |
| 7 | GM Teymour Radjabov | AZE | 1987 | 2742 | 8 |
| 8 | GM Levon Aronian | ARM | 1982 | 2741 | 9 |
| 9 | GM Boris Gelfand | ISR | 1968 | 2736 | 11 |
| 10 | GM Michael Adams | ENG | 1971 | 2729 | 13 |
| 11 | GM Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 1990 | 2714 | 17 |
| 12 | GM Judit Polgar | HUN | 1976 | 2708 | 20 |
| 13 | GM Pavel Eljanov | UKR | 1983 | 2681 | 30 |
| 14 | GM Loek van Wely | NED | 1972 | 2680 | 32 |
The Corus Chess Tournament has three main tournaments, all round robins. All three Grandmaster groups have 14 players and start on January 12th. All rounds begin at 13.30 hours, except for the last round on January 27th, which begins at 12.30 hours (Grandmaster group C starts at 11.30 hours in the last round). There are rest days: on January 16th, 21st, and 24th.
There are also four amateur events during the Corus Chess Tournament, open to all players: Weekend-three-round events (11-13 January), Weekday-three-round-events (14-16 January), Nine-round events (18-27 January) and the Rapid Tournament (19-20 January).
