The 5th edition of Kings Tournament will take place in Medias – 11 – 22 June 2011
Tournament category XXI – ELO average 2758
http://www.turneulregilor.com/
Rate of play
Time control: 120 minutes for the first forty moves, 60 minutes for the next twenty moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes until the end. Starting with move 61 each player will receive an increment of 30 seconds per move.
Tournament rules
No draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30.
Any such draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter in the following cases:
• a triple-repetition of the position,
• a perpetual check,
• in theoretically drawn position.
The final standing of the players will be determined according to points. In case of sharing of places – the following criteria will be decisive for the tie-break:
• A greater number of wins.
• The result of the direct mini-matches between contenders.
• Berger.
• A tie-break match will be played in case of a tie for the first place in the tournament between the first two players in the final standing (according to points, or the additional criteria). The match will consist of two games with a time-control of 15 minutes per player + 3 seconds added for every move played. In case of a tie, another match of two blitz-games will be played with a time-control of 5 minutes per player + 3 seconds for every move played. In case of another tied result – there will be played a last “sudden-death” decisive game with a time-control 5 minutes for the whole game for the White-player and 4 minutes for the whole game for Black-player. The White-player will only need a victory in this game to win the tournament; whole the Black-player will win the tournament by just not losing that final decisive game.
• In case the first place might be shared by more than two players – the final standing will be determined according to the criteria that have been mentioned above.
The players:
Magnus Carlsen
Sergey Karjakin
Vassily Ivanchuk
Hikaru Nakamura
Teimour Radjabov
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Why is Nisipeanu there?
Nisipeanu is there because he is the Romanian champion. The Bazna Kings tournament is played in Romania. Nisipeanu has played in all 5 previous Bazna Kings tournaments. Last year, in the first few rounds, he gave everyone a run for their money, being the early leader. He finished 5th out of 6 players, and made a respectable showing. He has an interesting, aggressive style, loving to play the Blumenfeld for Black. Nisipeanu FIDE rating: 2662, 81st in the world, I think. That’s pretty darn good rating. NOBODY who is playing in this tournament is going to take him for granted.
The Bazna Kings is my favorite tournament. I just wish that Gelfand was going to be there again this year. He tied with Radjabov for 2nd-3rd place last year. Only Magnus Carlsen had a better score.