World Cup Khanty Mansiysk 2011

Peter Svidler: High scoring with the black pieces

The FIDE World Cup is about to begin with most of the World's 2700-plus players involved. The event takes place from the 28th of August to the 20th of September and the venue will again be Khanty Mansiysk, a Siberian boom town which has already been the venue for many a top class chess event in recent years.

Here are the pairings for the first round that begins on Sunday the 28th of August:

Bd.	Seed	Title	Name/ Rating	Country	Vs.	Seed	Title	Name/ Rating	Country
1	1	GM	Sergey Karjakin 2788	RUS	-	128	IM	Mejdi Kaabi 2344	TUN
2	2	GM	Vassily Ivanchuk 2768	UKR	-	127	FM	Henry Robert Steel 2362	RSA
3	3	GM	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2765	AZE	-	126		Hatim Ibrahim 2402	EGY
4	4	GM	Ruslan Ponomariov 2764	UKR	-	125	IM	Robert Gwaze (Not Published)	ZIM
5	5	GM	Vugar Gashimov 2760	AZE	-	124	IM	Eric Hansen 2449	CAN
6	6	GM	Alexander Grischuk 2746	RUS	-	123	IM	Vladimir Genba 2452	RUS
7	7	GM	Teimour Radjabov 2744	AZE	-	122	GM	Frank De La Paz Perdomo 2477	CUB
8	8	GM	Gata Kamsky 2741	USA	-	121	IM	Diego Rafael Di Berardino 2480	BRA
9	9	GM	Peter Svidler 2739	RUS	-	120	GM	Darcy Lima 2493	BRA
10	10	GM	Dmitry Jakovenko 2736	RUS	-	119	GM	A.R. Saleh Salem 2493	UAE
11	11	GM	Nikita Vitiugov 2733	RUS	-	118	GM	Alexei Bezgodov 2503	RUS
12	12	GM	Zoltan Almasi 2726	HUN	-	117	GM	Essam El Gindy 2510	EGY
13	13	GM	Francisco Vallejo Pons 2724	ESP	-	116	GM	Jorge Cori 2514	PER
14	14	GM	David Navara 2722	CZE	-	115	GM	Nikolai Kabanov 2520	RUS
15	15	GM	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2722	FRA	-	114	GM	Ziaur Rahman 2528	BAN
16	16	GM	Leinier Dominguez Perez 2719	CUB	-	113	GM	Elshan Moradiabadi 2532	IRI
17	17	GM	Wang Hao 2718	CHN	-	112	GM	Alexander Ivanov 2538	USA
18	18	GM	Peter Leko 2717	HUN	-	111	GM	Samuel L Shankland 2539	USA
19	19	GM	Alexander Moiseenko 2715	UKR	-	110	GM	Baris Esen 2543	TUR
20	20	GM	Le Quang Liem 2715	VIE	-	109	GM	Susanto Megaranto 2544	INA
21	21	GM	Michael Adams 2715	ENG	-	108	GM	Mark Paragua 2545	PHI
22	22	GM	Alexei Shirov 2714	ESP	-	107	GM	Manuel Leon Hoyos 2548	MEX
23	23	GM	Baadur Jobava 2713	GEO	-	106	GM	Namig Guliyev 2549	AZE
24	24	GM	Fabiano Caruana 2711	ITA	-	105	GM	Aleksei Pridorozhni 2550	RUS
25	25	GM	Ian Nepomniachtchi 2711	RUS	-	104	IM	Isan Reynald Ortiz Suarez 2556	CUB
26	26	GM	Etienne Bacrot 2710	FRA	-	103	GM	Ray Robson 2560	USA
27	27	GM	Wang Yue 2709	CHN	-	102	GM	Alexandr Fier 2566	BRA
28	28	GM	Evgeny Tomashevsky 2707	RUS	-	101	GM	Zhao Zong-Yuan 2570	AUS
29	29	GM	Zahar Efimenko 2706	UKR	-	100	GM	Vlastimil Babula 2572	CZE
30	30	GM	Vladimir Malakhov 2706	RUS	-	99	GM	Ruben Felgaer 2573	ARG
31	31	GM	Emil Sutovsky 2700	ISR	-	98	GM	Evgeny E Vorobiov 2574	RUS
32	32	GM	Sergei Movsesian 2700	ARM	-	97	GM	Hou Yifan 2575	CHN
33	33	GM	Judit Polgar 2699	HUN	-	96	GM	Fidel Corrales Jimenez 2585	CUB
34	34	GM	Laurent Fressinet 2698	FRA	-	95	GM	Rinat Jumabayev 2589	KAZ
35	35	GM	Pavel Eljanov 2697	UKR	-	94	GM	Yaroslav Zherebukh 2590	UKR
36	36	GM	Ferenc Berkes 2696	HUN	-	93	GM	Sandro Mareco 2597	ARG
37	37	GM	Dmitry Andreikin 2696	RUS	-	92	GM	Murtas Kazhgaleyev 2597	KAZ
38	38	GM	Alexander Morozevich 2694	RUS	-	91	GM	Stelios Halkias 2600	GRE
39	39	GM	Sergei Zhigalko 2689	BLR	-	90	GM	Anton Filippov 2606	UZB
40	40	GM	Alexander Riazantsev 2688	RUS	-	89	GM	Mark Bluvshtein 2611	CAN
41	41	GM	Alexander Motylev 2685	RUS	-	88	GM	Yuri Drozdovskij 2614	UKR
42	42	GM	Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2683	POL	-	87	GM	Arman Pashikian 2616	ARM
43	43	GM	Vladimir Potkin 2682	RUS	-	86	GM	Yuri Shulman 2617	USA
44	44	GM	Peter Heine Nielsen 2681	DEN	-	85	GM	Evgeny Postny 2618	ISR
45	45	GM	Boris Grachev 2680	RUS	-	84	GM	Evgeny Romanov 2624	RUS
46	46	GM	Ernesto Inarkiev 2679	RUS	-	83	GM	Ivan Salgado Lopez 2626	ESP
47	47	GM	Rauf Mamedov 2679	AZE	-	82	GM	Abhijeet Gupta 2627	IND
48	48	GM	Mikhail Kobalia 2679	RUS	-	81	GM	Igor Lysyj 2629	RUS
49	49	GM	Viktor Bologan 2678	MDA	-	80	GM	Bartosz Socko 2631	POL
50	50	GM	Bu Xiangzhi 2675	CHN	-	79	GM	Ahmed Adly 2631	EGY
51	51	GM	Alexander Onischuk 2675	USA	-	78	GM	Ivan Ivanisevic 2633	SRB
52	52	GM	Lazaro Bruzon Batista 2673	CUB	-	77	GM	Yuniesky Quesada Perez 2635	CUB
53	53	GM	Yu Yangyi 2672	CHN	-	76	GM	Mircea-Emilian Parligras 2636	ROU
54	54	GM	Anton Korobov 2671	UKR	-	75	GM	Zhou Jianchao 2636	CHN
55	55	GM	Pentala Harikrishna 2669	IND	-	74	GM	Maxim Rodshtein 2637	ISR
56	56	GM	Li Chao b 2669	CHN	-	73	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2637	VIE
57	57	GM	Rustam Kasimdzhanov 2669	UZB	-	72	GM	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2641	ROU
58	58	GM	Vladimir Akopian 2667	ARM	-	71	GM	Parimarjan Negi 2642	IND
59	59	GM	Sebastien Feller 2666	FRA	-	70	GM	Viorel Iordachescu 2646	MDA
60	60	GM	Artyom Timofeev 2665	RUS	-	69	GM	Sergei Azarov 2648	BLR
61	61	GM	Ni Hua 2662	CHN	-	68	GM	Ildar Khairullin 2649	RUS
62	62	GM	Daniel Fridman 2659	GER	-	67	GM	Constantin Lupulescu 2650	ROU
63	63	GM	Evgeny Alekseev 2659	RUS	-	66	GM	Markus Ragger 2651	AUT
64	64	GM	Wesley So 2658	PHI	-	65	GM	Ding Liren 2654	CHN

There are 32 players rated 2700 or more and 68 of the World's Top 100 are competing.

For more information go to the official site: http://chess.ugrasport.com/

Live games: http://chess.ugrasport.com/?cat=12

If you want to follow the live games then note the following:

The local starting time is 3pm and 3pm Khanty Mansiysk = 11am Paris = 10am London = 5am New York = 2am Los Angeles

The playing schedule for the event:

28 August: Round 1 - Game 1

29 August: Round 1 - Game 2

30 August: Tie-breaks

31 August: Round 2 - Game 1

01 September: Round 2 - Game 2

02 September: Tie-breaks

03 September: Round 3 - Game 1

04 September: Round 3 - Game 2

05 September: Tie-breaks

06 September: Round 4 - Game 1

07 September: Round 4 - Game 2

08 September: Tie-breaks

09 September: Round 5 - Game 1

10 September: Round 5 - Game 2

11 September: Tie-breaks

12 September: Round 6 (semi-finals) - Game 1

13 September: Round 6 (semi-finals) - Game 2

14 September: Tie-breaks

15 September: Free Day

16 September: Round 7 (final) - Game 1

17 September: Round 7 (final) - Game 2

18 September: Round 7 (final) - Game 3

19 September: Round 7 (final) - Game 4

20 September: Tie-breaks

The time control in the classical games is 90' for 40 moves (+30"), then 30' (+30") KO.

All rounds and tiebreaks begin at 15:00 local time (except the eventual tie-breaks on the 20.09.2011 which will start at 11:00).

Prize Fund

The total prize fund is of $1.600.000 (about 1.100.000€):

First round losers win $6.000 (about 4.100€);

Second round losers win $10.000 (or roughly 6.900€);

Third round losers $16.000 (or 11.000€);

Fourth round $25.000 (or 17.000€);

Fifth round (Quarter-finals) $35.000 (or 24.000€);

Sixth round (Semi-final) $50.000 (or 34.500€);

Losing finalist $80.000 (or 55.000€);

The winner receives $120.000 (or 82.500€).