World Cup 2017: A glorious opening ceremony
9/3/2017 – We are just hours away from the start of the World Cup 2017. The players have settled down in the Hualing hotel. The opening ceremony was held in the evening of 2nd of September at the Funicular restaurant. The players were treated to a spectacular view, sumptuous food, and entertaining Georgian dance and music. Our reporters at the venue not only bring some exciting pictures, but also videos of the opening ceremony and an interview with Magnus Carlsen's opponent who thinks it is his once in a lifetime opportunity! | Photos: Amruta Mokal
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The official hotel Hualing and the inauguration ceremony
Hotels & Preference Hualing Tblisi - the official hotel where all the 128 players of the tournament are hosted. The playing hall is in the same hotel.
It was around 12 p.m. on 2nd of September as Amruta and I entered the hotel Hualing. The receptionist told us that we had to wait for two hours as the normal check-in time was 2 p.m. We placed our luggage in a corner and decided to walk around the premises. What we saw next was something that only a fortunate few are able to witness in their lives. Every direction that we looked at there was a super grandmaster. Anish Giri was sitting at the lunch table discussing with his friends and seconds. Wesley So was walking across the lobby with his foster mother Lotis Key. Sergey Karjakin was all dressed up and ready to go for the opening ceremony although there was still some time left. It was as if the Gods of chess from different parts of the world had descended in Tbilisi and walking around the Hualing Hotel! Yes, I have seen each of these super grandmasters at some point in my life, but to see them all together at one place was quite an awesome experience.
After a lacklustre performance in the Sinquefield cup, Wesley So is back with a smile and his biggest support Lotis Key to fight for the Candidates qualification at the World Cup 2017
"Erwin, whom will you support if both of us reach the finals!" Anish Giri with his seconds Erwin l'Ami and Vidit Gujrathi. The latter is here in Tbilisi as a player and not as Anish's second though.
Two Azerbaijanis with a Russian! Karjakin flanked by Mamedov on the left and Mamedyarov on the right!
This scene says it all. It's the hotel lobby and just a random click has five grandmasters captured in it!
The rooms are spacious and comfortable
The Inauguration ceremony:
After we checked into our room at 2 p.m. we quickly got ready with our equipment to leave for the opening ceremony that was going to be held at the Funicular restaurant at 4 p.m. Although the Funicular is just twelve kilometres away from the Hualing Hotel, the players were asked to gather in the hotel lobby at 2.30 p.m., as the road leading up to the restaurant was quite winding and uphill.
Players waiting for the buses to arrive to proceed for the opening ceremony. Most of the players spoke with each other, but...
...there were a few like Wang Hao, who just wanted to be away from all the noise and hullabaloo
What's Wang Hao reading? Maybe our Chinese readers could help us with that!
Three buses were arranged for the players
Vishy Anand is surely impressed with the view from the Funicular
And who wouldn't be! You get to see the entire city of Tbilisi and beyond!
The most delicious Georgian food was served to the players
And to complement it you had the local traditional dance
The dance was filled with loads of energy and grace!
Team Magnus consisting of father Henrik Carlsen and second Peter Heine Nielsen
Caruana and his second Kasimdzhanov seem to have some fun with Anish Giri. The two Indian players Vidit Gujrathi and Harikrishna Pentala are lost in their thoughts
Vladimir Kramnik with his shades already seemed like he means business!
For Ivanchuk the games have already begun!
2009 for Boris, 2015 for Pavel. What does 2017 hold for them?
Will Sopiko's hometown bring luck for her husband?
The don't-mess-with-me Rapport look!
Vishy Anand with the sixth Women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili and his former trainer Elizbar Ubilava
Hou Yifan and Nana Dzagnidze are the only two women players at the event. It will be interesting to see how far they are able to progress.
FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos and Georgian Chess Federation President Zurab Azmaiparashvili were present at the opening ceremony
The World Champion is also human! Tired. He has the white pieces and faces an FM (soon to be an IM) from Nigeria rated 2255 in round one.
Magnus' opponent Balogun Oluwafemi talks to us about how it feels to face the World Champion
Five Africans at the event (from left to right): Nigeria's Balogun Oluwafemi, South Africa's Kenneth Solomon, recent Abu Dhabi Open winner GM Amin Bassem and Essam El Gindy from Egypt and Algerian GM Mohamed Haddouche.
The technical meeting took place in the official hotel after the opening ceremony
A small clarification on what would happen if Magnus Carlsen and/or Sergey Karjakin reach the semi-finals
Yes, Igor! That's how excited we are as well for the World Cup 2017 to begin!
Pairings for round one:
| White | Title | Rating | vs | Black | Title | Rating |
| Carlsen, Magnus | GM | 2827 | Balogun, Oluwafemi | FM | 2255 | |
| Ruiz Castillo, Joshua Daniel | IM | 2377 | So, Wesley | GM | 2792 | |
| Caruana, Fabiano | GM | 2799 | Solomon, Kenny | GM | 2398 | |
| Dai, Changren | 2422 | Kramnik, Vladimir | GM | 2803 | ||
| Aronian, Levon | GM | 2802 | Cawdery, Daniel | IM | 2449 | |
| Liu, Guanchu | IM | 2455 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | GM | 2797 | |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | GM | 2781 | Mollah Abdullah, Al Rakib | GM | 2454 | |
| Khusenkhojaev, Muhammad | IM | 2455 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | GM | 2804 | |
| Grischuk, Alexander | GM | 2788 | El Gindy, Essam | GM | 2455 | |
| Yeoh, Li Tian | IM | 2478 | Anand, Viswanathan | GM | 2794 | |
| Ding, Liren | GM | 2771 | Haddouche, Mohamed | GM | 2487 | |
| Smirnov, Anton | IM | 2508 | Karjakin, Sergey | GM | 2780 | |
| Giri, Anish | GM | 2777 | Dzagnidze, Nana | GM | 2519 | |
| Sambuev, Bator | GM | 2529 | Wei, Yi | GM | 2748 | |
| Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | 2741 | Palac, Mladen | GM | 2535 | |
| Vakhidov, Jakhongir | GM | 2518 | Svidler, Peter | GM | 2756 | |
| Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | GM | 2739 | El Debs, Felipe de Cresce | GM | 2533 | |
| Pourramezanali, Amirreza | GM | 2534 | Yu, Yangyi | GM | 2750 | |
| Li, Chao b | GM | 2745 | Krysa, Leandro | GM | 2540 | |
| Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri | GM | 2547 | Harikrishna, P. | GM | 2741 | |
| Radjabov, Teimour | GM | 2742 | Ziska, Helgi Dam | GM | 2545 | |
| Kunin, Vitaly | GM | 2531 | Le, Quang Liem | GM | 2739 | |
| Adams, Michael | GM | 2738 | Batchuluun, Tsegmed | GM | 2566 | |
| Hjartarson, Johann | GM | 2539 | Navara, David | GM | 2720 | |
| Eljanov, Pavel | GM | 2734 | Lenderman, Aleksandr | GM | 2565 | |
| Bacallao Alonso, Yusnel | GM | 2573 | Fedoseev, Vladimir | GM | 2731 | |
| Gelfand, Boris | GM | 2737 | Stupak, Kirill | GM | 2579 | |
| Sadorra, Julio Catalino | GM | 2574 | Matlakov, Maxim | GM | 2728 | |
| Ivanchuk, Vassily | GM | 2727 | Kazhgaleyev, Murtas | GM | 2570 | |
| Kulaots, Kaido | GM | 2571 | Vitiugov, Nikita | GM | 2728 | |
| Vallejo Pons, Francisco | GM | 2717 | Karthikeyan, Murali | GM | 2574 | |
| Fier, Alexandr | GM | 2569 | Bacrot, Etienne | GM | 2728 | |
| Bu, Xiangzhi | GM | 2714 | Flores, Diego | GM | 2580 | |
| Antipov, Mikhail Al. | GM | 2578 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | GM | 2710 | |
| Najer, Evgeniy | GM | 2694 | Aleksandrov, Aleksej | GM | 2580 | |
| Pantsulaia, Levan | GM | 2593 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | GM | 2698 | |
| Andreikin, Dmitry | GM | 2708 | Goganov, Aleksey | GM | 2567 | |
| Sengupta, Deep | GM | 2589 | Wang, Hao | GM | 2701 | |
| Inarkiev, Ernesto | GM | 2694 | Mchedlishvili, Mikheil | GM | 2607 | |
| Tari, Aryan | GM | 2588 | Howell, David W L | GM | 2701 | |
| Cheparinov, Ivan | GM | 2695 | Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios | GM | 2573 | |
| Hovhannisyan, Robert | GM | 2594 | Rodshtein, Maxim | GM | 2695 | |
| Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | GM | 2702 | Delgado Ramirez, Neuris | GM | 2614 | |
| Bok, Benjamin | GM | 2620 | Artemiev, Vladislav | GM | 2692 | |
| Ponomariov, Ruslan | GM | 2694 | Sethuraman, S.P. | GM | 2617 | |
| Sevian, Samuel | GM | 2610 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | GM | 2674 | |
| Jobava, Baadur | GM | 2702 | Salgado Lopez, Ivan | GM | 2627 | |
| Zherebukh, Yaroslav | GM | 2621 | Onischuk, Alexander | GM | 2682 | |
| Amin, Bassem | GM | 2699 | Erdos, Viktor | GM | 2619 | |
| Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son | GM | 2629 | Adhiban, B. | GM | 2670 | |
| Rapport, Richard | GM | 2675 | Cordova, Emilio | GM | 2616 | |
| Xiong, Jeffery | GM | 2633 | Motylev, Alexander | GM | 2668 | |
| Dubov, Daniil | GM | 2666 | Fridman, Daniel | GM | 2625 | |
| Kovalenko, Igor | GM | 2634 | Kravtsiv, Martyn | GM | 2670 | |
| Akobian, Varuzhan | GM | 2662 | Kovalyov, Anton | GM | 2649 | |
| Cori, Jorge | GM | 2648 | Jones, Gawain C B | GM | 2668 | |
| Grachev, Boris | GM | 2654 | Melkumyan, Hrant | GM | 2642 | |
| Bruzon Batista, Lazaro | GM | 2651 | Anton Guijarro, David | GM | 2656 | |
| Kuzubov, Yuriy | GM | 2688 | Zhigalko, Sergei | GM | 2642 | |
| Piorun, Kacper | GM | 2644 | Hou, Yifan | GM | 2670 | |
| Areshchenko, Alexander | GM | 2645 | Demchenko, Anton | GM | 2650 | |
| Lenic, Luka | GM | 2646 | Fressinet, Laurent | GM | 2657 | |
| Mareco, Sandro | GM | 2649 | Bluebaum, Matthias | GM | 2633 | |
| Bachmann, Axel | GM | 2634 | Dreev, Aleksey | GM | 2648 |
Magnus Carlsen has white on the first board. Pairings on official website.
Video tour of the city of Tbilisi:
