Radjabov, Mamedyarov, and Gashimov to participate
Several days ago FIDE has
officially announced the dates of the Gran Prix chess series. At
first glance they are well thought and do not overlap with major
tournaments. However, having in mind the concentration of events in
the spring and the two important matches Kramnik
Anand and Kamsky
Topalov, it is very probable that some of the semi finalists for
the world chess championship skip the first events. Indications have
been coming from Azerbaijan, where the first tournament is going to
take place.
Chess Grand Prix Baku, Azerbaijan
The online edition of Azerisport.com announced three sure players for the
Chess Grand Prix in Baku, April 20th – May 6th. These are the top guns
of Azerbaijan, GM Radjabov
and GM
Mamedyarov, who qualify according to the FIDE criteria of average
rating (Oct-07 and Jan-07 to two decimal places). They will be joined
by GM Vugar Gashimov, who will be the invited player to the first Gran
Prix tournament.
According to sources of the same newspaper, Anand and Kramnik will not
take part of the tournament. They might already have contracts with
other tournaments or they just want to prepare for the Grand Slam
tournament in Mexico. Bulgarian media have cited Silvio Danailov
saying that Topalov cannot make it to Baku because Mtel Masters 2008
is very soon after the Gran Prix tournnment.
The winner of the World Cup Gata Kamsky and the finalist Alexei Shirov
are about to sign their contracts for Baku. Kamsky will not go to this
year’s edition of the Mtel because of his match with Topalov in the
autumn, while Shirov will be entering the possible players list. They
will be joined by Peter Svidler. He is the second reserve in the
invitation list, and the Gran Prix in Baku will be his first top
competition of 2008. Another possible player that might join the race
is Ivan Cheparinov. As segabg.com informs, in the next days the Bulgarian
Chess Federation will make official request.There has been no
information about the other three reserves – Polgar, Adams, and
Grishuk. As soon as we have it, Chessdom readers will be the first to
know it.
Chess Grand Prix Baku prize fund
A good news from Baku is that the recommended prize fund of FIDE (212
000 eur) is increased to 300 000 eur. This may very well be a good
argument for strong participation, even in case of the absence of the
Kramnik, Anand, and Topalov.
