Announcement on Grand Prix

 

Announcement on Grand Prix

FIDE and AGON are pleased to announce the full details of the new Grand Prix cycle 2012/2013. Regulations for the Series as well as Players contracts can be found below. Each player will be assigned to play in four of the six cities and his best three results will be accumulated for his overall ranking at the end of the series. The top two overall placed in the Grand Prix will qualify for the Candidates event in 2014.
From the Regulations, the 18 players qualifying to participate in the series are as follows:

Art. 3.1 Current World Champion and ChallengerViswanathan Anand (IND)
Boris Gelfand (ISR)
3.2 World CupPeter Svidler (RUS)
Alexander Grischuk (RUS)
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)
Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR)
3.3 FIDE President NomineeThe FIDE President may nominate one player who must be rated at least 2700 as per the January 2012 rating list.
3.4 Organiser Nominees
Six players may be nominated by AGON and must be rated not less than 2700 in the January 2012 rating list or have been a former World Chess Champion.
3.5 Rating
Five players plus reserves as may be required:

Name	Title	Country	Jan-12	Jul-11	Average
Carlsen, Magnus	GM	NOR	2835	2821	2828.0
Aronian, Levon	GM	ARM	2805	2805	2805.0
Kramnik, Vladimir	GM	RUS	2801	2781	2791.0
Karjakin, Sergey	GM	RUS	2769	2788	2778.5
Topalov, Veselin	GM	BUL	2770	2768	2769.0
Nakamura, Hikaru	GM	USA	2759	2770	2764.5	1st Reserve
Gashimov, Vugar	GM	AZE	2761	2760	2760.5	2nd Reserve
Radjabov, Teimour	GM	AZE	2773	2744	2758.5	3rd Reserve
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	GM	AZE	2747	2765	2756.0	4th Reserve
Kamsky, Gata	GM	USA	2732	2741	2736.5	5th Reserve
Jakovenko, Dmitry	GM	RUS	2729	2736	2732.5
Vitiugov, Nikita	GM	RUS	2726	2733	2729.5
Morozevich, Alexander	GM	RUS	2763	2694	2728.5
Wang, Hao	GM	CHN	2733	2718	2725.5
Dominguez, Leinier	GM	CUB	2730	2719	2724.5
Tomashevsky, Evgeny	GM	RUS	2740	2707	2723.5
Caruana, Fabiano	GM	ITA	2736	2711	2723.5
Nepomniachtchi, Ian	GM	RUS	2735	2711	2723.0
Almasi, Zoltan	GM	HUN	2717	2726	2721.5
Adams, Michael	GM	ENG	2724	2715	2719.5

3.6 Replacements
Any replacement for the initial selection, will be selected on the basis of Article 3.5 which takes into account the average rating and greater number of games, if of equal rating.

All the players qualified above (including the five reserves) must download and sign the Players Agreement and return it by email to office@fide.com and also by mail (postdated not later than 1st June 2012) to FIDE Office, 9 Syggrou Avenue, 11743 Athens, Greece.
The six cities and dates for the Grand Prix series are:

2012
Grand Prix	Chelyabinsk	September 19 – October 3
Grand Prix	Tashkent	November 21 – December 4
2013
Grand Prix	Lisbon	April 10 – April 24
Grand Prix	Madrid	May 22 – June 4
Grand Prix	Berlin	July 3 – July 17
Grand Prix	Paris	September 18 – October 2

Players must also submit, along with their signed agreement, the six cities ranked in order or preference of participation. FIDE and AGON will consider the players’ requests and allocate the players to the various tournaments taking into consideration the players’ preferences, average rating and other parameters.

Links

• Grand Prix regulations (PDF)
• Grand Prix Player Agreement (PDF – new version on May 28)