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FIDE World Rapid opening ceremony

7The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2014 have been officially opened in Dubai, UAE. The world’s best players, including Vishwanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Sergey Karjakin, Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Le Quang Liem, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and a total of 100+ titled players are ready to start competing in what is the strongest ever rapid and blitz chess championship.

The first seeded according to rapid ratings Hikaru Nakamura picked the black color for the World Rapid competition. See the full pairings below.

Games start at 13:00 CET and will be live with analysis at Chessdom

FIDE World Rapid Championship 2014 LIVE

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24The opening ceremony

(photos by A. Karlovich)

At the start of the ceremony Mr. Khaled Zayed expressed his sincere appreciation to Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, for sponsoring this great event. In addition he expressed his gratitude to Dubai Sports Council and Dubai Municipality for playing a vital role in organizing these tournaments. Mr. Khaled Zayed welcomed the participants from 46 countries and wished them success in the tournament. He was happy to see the top-class players, who travelled to Dubai to take part in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

The Chief-arbiter of the tournament IA Abdul Rahim Magdi conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. The top rated player in rapid and blitz, Hikaru Nakamura was proposed to choose one of two boxes with black and white kings inside. He will start the first round of the World Rapid Championship with Black pieces and it means that all participants with odd numbers will have Black for the first round as well. The second attempt, Hikaru selected a white king and it means he will play with White pieces in the first game of the World Blitz Championship.

It looked quite unusual to see Hikaru Nakamura at the stage conducting the procedure of drawing of lots, while World Champion Magnus Carlsen, seeded 4th in rapid and blitz, remained sited on his chair next to Vishwanathan Anand.
“It feels strange not to be number one by rating, it bothers me a bit and I’m going to change it”, said Magnus after the end of the official ceremony.

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The current World Rapid Champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov didn’t look same optimistic: “After our tournament in Shamkir  I cannot say anything concrete about my mood or my shape. I can only say it’s going to be difficult to defend my title but in any case I have to work on it”.

Le Quang Liem, the current World Blitz Champion also shared his feelings before the start of the tournament: “For sure it will be challenging and very difficult to defend my title because there are much stronger players in this tournament compared to last year.  I’m feeling very excited before the tournament and I hope to perform well. I tried to get myself into a good shape and I played some training games.”

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Pairings round 1

Bo. Name Rtg Result Name Rtg
1 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2652  – GM Nakamura Hikaru 2841
2 GM Caruana Fabiano 2840  – GM Sokolov Ivan 2650
3 GM Matlakov Maxim 2649  – GM Grischuk Alexander 2828
4 GM Carlsen Magnus 2827  – GM Georgiev Kiril 2642
5 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2641  – GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2799
6 GM Svidler Peter 2787  – GM Volokitin Andrei 2638
7 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2637  – GM Aronian Levon 2785
8 GM Karjakin Sergey 2781  – GM Adly Ahmed 2634
9 GM Salgado Lopez Ivan 2630  – GM Anand Viswanathan 2770
10 GM Korobov Anton 2770  – GM Sandipan Chanda 2628
11 GM Savchenko Boris 2626  – GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2768
12 GM Malakhov Vladimir 2766  – GM Yudin Sergei 2626
13 GM Amin Bassem 2624  – GM Radjabov Teimour 2750
14 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2749  – GM Dubov Daniil 2624
15 GM Anton Guijarro David 2600  – GM Morozevich Alexander 2732
16 GM Cheparinov Ivan 2727  – GM Fier Alexandr 2597
17 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2597  – GM Harikrishna P. 2726
18 GM Le Quang Liem 2724  – GM Ipatov Alexander 2596
19 GM Bartel Mateusz 2593  – GM Eljanov Pavel 2716
20 GM Wang Hao 2716  – GM Salem A.R. Saleh 2592
21 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej 2589  – GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2710
22 GM Dreev Aleksey 2709  – GM Moradiabadi Elshan 2586
23 GM Hansen Eric 2584  – GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2709
24 GM Vitiugov Nikita 2708  – GM Antipov Mikhail Al. 2576
25 GM Goloshchapov Alexander 2574  – GM Mamedov Rauf 2705
26 GM Ragger Markus 2701  – GM Al-Modiahki Mohamad 2569
27 GM Andriasian Zaven 2568  – GM Moiseenko Alexander 2699
28 GM Movsesian Sergei 2696  – GM Durarbayli Vasif 2550
29 GM Kovalev Vladislav 2547  – GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy 2694
30 GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2693  – GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan 2542
31 GM Lu Shanglei 2536  – GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2693
32 GM Bacrot Etienne 2692  – GM Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan 2534
33 IM Ringoir Tanguy 2504  – GM Jobava Baadur 2688
34 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2687  – GM Michalik Peter 2501
35 GM Al-Sayed Mohammed 2494  – GM Potkin Vladimir 2682
36 GM Fressinet Laurent 2681  – GM Vahidov Tair 2487
37 GM Kayumov Sergey 2486  – GM Inarkiev Ernesto 2681
38 GM Laznicka Viktor 2679  – GM Debashis Das 2484
39 GM Glek Igor 2455  – GM Zhigalko Sergei 2679
40 GM Efimenko Zahar 2677  – GM Shyam Sundar M. 2447
41 IM Tissir Mohamed 2419  – GM Meier Georg 2677
42 GM Onischuk Vladimir 2675  – GM Sriram Jha 2418
43 GM Taleb Moussa 2406  – GM Van Wely Loek 2674
44 GM Guseinov Gadir 2671  – IM Al Qudaimi Basheer 2397
45 Hilwani Talal 2395  – GM Yu Yangyi 2668
46 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2665  – IM Vakhidov Jahongir 2368
47 IM Nezad Husein Aziz 2350  – GM Milov Vadim 2664
48 GM Safarli Eltaj 2662  – IM Omar Noaman 2310
49 FM Breckenridge Steven James 2310  – GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2660
50 GM Lenic Luka 2659  – FM Byambaa Zulzaga 2281
51 FM Othman A. Moussa 2275  – GM Maletin Pavel 2658
52 GM Najer Evgeniy 2657  – CM Faisal Abdulla 2247
53 FM Alhuwar Jasem 2246  – GM Bologan Viktor 2656
54 GM Fedoseev Vladimir 2656  – FM Saeed Ishaq 2246
55 Hj Azahari Md Aliuddin 2136  – GM Kuzubov Yuriy 2656
56 GM Polgar Judit 2656  – Alahakoon Isuru 2094
57 Al-Hajiri Bader 2026 0 bye

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