FIDE Grand Prix in Beijing (China) will start in a few days

FIDE Grand Prix in Beijing (China) will start in a few days

FIDE and Chinese Chess Association are pleased to announce the fifth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series will be held in Beijing (China) between the 3rd and 17th of July 2013. New Century Grand Hotel will host the players and the playing venue will be at the premises of the Chinese Chess Association.

The opening ceremony will take place at the New Century Grand Hotel at 8 p.m. on the 3rd of July. The games start at 3 p.m. local time except the last round. The prize fund to be shared by the players in Beijing is 170,000 EUR, while a further 70,000 EUR is being provided to the accumulated prize fund for the overall Grand Prix series standings.

The players list in Beijing is impressive with former World Champion Veselin Topalov trying to repeat his performance in Zug, Switzerland earlier this year and clinching one of the two places for the forthcoming Candidates tournament in 2014.

He will be challenged by several world class players. Boris Gelfand, coming hot from his recent epic victory in Moscow Tal memorial will be one of the prime challengers as will be Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who has had a very good month of June starting with winning the world Rapid Championship in Khanty Mansiysk. Also not to forget world top ten players such as Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk as well as former Candidates players Vasily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko.

GM Teimur Radjabov has withdrawn from the Beijing Grand Prix for personal reasons and has been replaced by GM Wang Yue from China. The top Chinese player Wang Hao, who placed fourth in overall Grand Prix at the moment, will also play in Beijing.

There will be a systematic renewal of images, reports and press-conferences with the players on the official page of the tournament beijing2013.fide.com.

Time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes after the second time control and an increment of 30 seconds per move will be allowed from move 61 onwards.

The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years (2012-2013). 18 top players participate in 4 of these 6 tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.

Pictures of players: http://beijing2013.fide.com/images/stories/gallery/Players%20Beijing/index.html