The difference between the 'youngest and strongest' Sergei Karjakin rated 2739 and the 'oldest and weakest' Ivan Sokolov on 2654 is relatively little compared to most closed tournaments. This should lead to a tight tournament where the eventual winner will be hard to predict in advance.
| Name | Country | Rating | World ranking | Age |
| Sergey Karjakin | Russia | 2739 | 14 | 20 |
| Dmitry Jakovenko | Russia | 2725 | 21 | 26 |
| Baadur Jobava | Georgia | 2715 | 26 | 26 |
| Nikita Vitiugov | Russia | 2707 | 32 | 23 |
| Sergei Rublevsky | Russia | 2704 | 33 | 35 |
| Alexander Motylev | Russia | 2704 | 34 | 30 |
| Alexander Onischuk | USA | 2699 | 38 | 34 |
| Arkadij Naiditsch | Germany | 2686 | 47 | 24 |
| Victor Bologan | Moldavia | 2668 | 64 | 38 |
| Alexander Riazantsev | Russia | 2674 | 58 | 24 |
| Emil Sutovsky | Israel | 2661 | 75 | 32 |
| Ivan Sokolov | Bosnia-Herzegovina | 2654 | 83 | 41 |
A couple of curious statistics: Jobava is 26-years-old and 26th in the world, whereas Vitiugov is 32nd at the age of 23!
All the players are in the World's top 100.
You can follow the games live on Live games from 10am (London time).
You may also like to investigate the official tournament site. However it is in Russian!
The first round results follow later.
