World Cup starts today

World Cup starts in hours 10th September – 5th October Baku, Azerbaijan

The 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup is here! The massive 128 player KO gathers some of the top players in the World, as well as qualifiers from every region and every continent. The winner will take home a massive USD$120,000 (minus the usual 20% FIDE tax). Both the winner and the runner-up will directly qualify to next year's Candidates Tournament.

The playing hall is in the Fairmont Baku Hotel, the north "Flame Tower"

The format is rather simple. The player's will play two games against each other, one with white and one with black. In case of a tie, a third day will be used for tiebreaks: colors will be drawn and the day will start with two rapid games (25+10). If still tied, colors will be redrawn and two quick games (10+10) will be played. If still tied, colors will be redrawn and two blitz games will be played (5+3).

If this is still drawn the the players shall play a single decisive sudden death game. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the opponent with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds for each move from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

The action starts at 15:00 Baku time, which is 6 a.m. New York and 11:00 in London.

The prize fund is as follows:

• Round 1 losers: 64 x USD 6,000 (net 4,800) USD 384,000
• Round 2 losers: 32 x USD 10,000 (net 8,000) USD 320,000
• Round 3 losers: 16 x USD 16,000 (net 12,800) USD 256,000
• Round 4 losers: 8 x USD 25,000 (net 20,000) USD 200,000
• Round 5 losers: 4 x USD 35,000 (net 28,000) USD 140,000
• Round 6 losers: 2 x USD 50,000 (net 40,000) USD 100,000
• Runner-up: 1 x USD 80,000 (net 64,000) USD 80,000
• World Cup winner: 1 x USD 120,000 (net 96,000) USD 120,000

Total: USD 1,600,000

Round One Pairings

The tournament has already had a couple of hiccups, but nothing that the organizers could control! Due to the ongoing Lufthansa strike in Germany, many players were unable to catch their flights. Some had to buy new flights, for example Samuel Sevian reportedly arrived in Europe from America and had to buy a new flight through Turkish Airlines for himself and his mother who is accompanying him.

Le Quang Liem arrived at 2 a.m. Baku time without luggage, but at leaset he was able to make the tournament. The organizers briefly considered postponing the first round but it seems that everything is now in order. Incidentally, the Vietnamese player will be playing Vasif Durarbayli, his roommate at Webster University in Saint Louis!

Other people played it rather safe, like Fabiano Caruana who arrived in Baku basically as soon as he was done with the Sinquefield Cup.

Caruana posted a nice view from his hotel room on his Instagram

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was held a couple of hours after the player's meeting. Security is very tight in Baku to avoid cheating, though perhaps a little too tight: watches and pens will not be allowed in the playing hall! The players will have to use the official pens to fill in their scoresheets.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov opened the tournament

He also picked the color: White king means Topalov (seed one) is white, Nakamura (seed two) is black in game one

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov blitzing out making sure the DGT boards are in working order

Make sure to follow with live commentary on www.playchess.com!

Top Ten Match-Ups on Round One

by Sagar Shah

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2678) - Anton Guijarro (2628)

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is a great attacker and original player but so is his 20-year-old opponent. This promises to be highly creative match-up.

Teimour Radjabov (2738) - Samuel Sevian (2556)

On one hand you have a person with loads of experience having played in the most elite tournaments against top ten players of the world, and on the other you have a 15-year-old prodigy who is one of the most talented players in the world today. Though Radjabov is the favourite it will be interesting to see how Samuel Sevian fares.

Denis Khismatullin (2651) – Alexander Areschenko (2661)

Two battle hardened fighters. Khismatullin’s games in the Russian championships were nothing but a show of a creative genius at work - always aiming for unconventional positions. He meets Areshchenko who loves to play sound and correct chess. Will Khismatullin’s ideas breakthrough or the pragmatism of the Ukrainian Areshchenko prevail?

Wei Yi (2734) – Salem Saleh (2610)

Wei Yi has taken the chess world by storm. He is the youngest guy to cross 2700 in the history of the game, and people are already predicting that he will soon be challenging Magnus Carlsen for the highest title. His opponent is not a guy to be messed around with. Trained by great players like Ivan Sokolov and Alexey Dreev, Salem is in great form winning the Asian Continental championships and beating players like Yuriy Kryvoruchko and Yuriy Kuzubov in the Abu Dhabi Masters. Wei Yi looks like the favourite but we can expect some surprise here.

Granda Zuniga Julio (2667) – Alexandr Fier (2624)

Two of the strongest players of South America face off against each other - the experienced Granda Zuniga from Peru against Alexandr Fier from Brazil. People will remember Granda’s fine run in the 2013 world cup where he knocked out strong players like Hrant Melumyan, Peter Leko and Anish Giri.

Eltaj Safarli (2657) – Balogh Csaba (2659)

Local boy and one of the most talented players of Azerbaijan takes on Hungarian number five. Anything can happen!

Mateusz Bartel (2623) – Gabriel Sargissian (2679)

Bartel had a very strong result at the European Individual Championships 2015 by taking the bronze medal and beat Nepomniachtchi in the last round. Gabriel Sargissian is famed for his amazing performances in team events. Who is the favourite here is quite unclear.

Samuel Shankland (2656)- Ivan Popov (2661)

Samuel Shankland has been having quite a torrid year in 2015. But he would be highly pumped up to win the first round and meet his country mate Hikaru Nakamura in round two. A product of the Russian chess school, Ivan Popov is no push over.

Michael Adams (2742) - Mariya Muzychuk (2528)

Of course, there is no doubt about who is the favourite in this match –it’s definitely Michael Adams. But if someone has some first-hand experience of playing in knock-out matches in extremely high pressure scenarios, then it has to be the World Women’s Champion Mariya Muzychuk. She won the world women's title by emerging victorious at the Women’s World Cup (a 128 player knock-out event) just six months ago. Will she be able to weave her magic again?

Vladimir Fedoseev (2659) – B.Adhiban (2674)

One word describes them the best – fighters. Vladimir Fedoseev loves to play long games never agreeing to a draw and Adhiban is currently on fire winning one open tournament after another. This is a match-up between a Russian and an Indian super-talent - who will prevail?

Photos and information from the official website and their Facebook page