Elsewhere on the Web : 2007 FIDE World Cup
Sunday November 18, 2007
Less than two months after the 2007 World Chess Championship in Mexico, a new two year World Championship cycle kicks off with the FIDE World Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia), 23 November to 17 December 2007. No fewer than 128 of the world's best chess players will battle over the board to determine which single player continues to the next stage of the World Championship.
The players come to the event by various paths. Many qualified via continental championships held in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. A handful qualified from restricted events like the World Women's and World Junior Championships. Many of the world's top players qualified because of their world ranking based on their Elo ratings. A few lucky players were handpicked by the FIDE President or by the organizing committee.
The World Cup uses the same knockout format as the five FIDE World Championships that took place in the period 1997-2004. The players will contest two game mini-matches using slow time controls. If a match is tied 1-1 after these games, the players meet on a third day in a series of tiebreak matches at increasingly fast time controls. The winning player advances to the next round and the losing player is eliminated from the event. The two players who survive to the final, seventh round will play a four game match with tiebreak on a fifth day.
Prizes start at $6,000 (US$) for players eliminated in the first round and increase each round to $80,000 for the runner-up. The winner will receive $120,000 plus the right to play former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in an eight game match near the end of 2008. The winner of that match goes on to play for the title of World Champion in the first half of 2009.
While only a small number of the 128 players have a realistic chance to win the event, the short matches and fast tiebreak games guarantee that upsets will occur. In past elimination events some top players have been sent home in the early rounds.
For more about the 2007 World Cup, see the official site Chess in Khanty-Mansiysk. • For all About Chess reports on this event, see our ChessChrono, 2007 FIDE World Cup.
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Later: A few days after we wrote this post, FIDE issued Regulations for the 2008-2009 FIDE Grand Prix, where 21 of the world's top players will compete in a series of six super tournaments. On top of producing one of the challengers for an eventual World Championship title bout, 'The FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk 2007 will be used to determine three qualifiers for the 2008/9 Grand Prix Series. Excluding the winner, these will be the players who have qualified to the semi-final stages of the World Cup.'