The third leg of the 2017 FIDE World Chess Grand Prix is set to take place from 5-16th July at the famous Hotel Le Richemond, in the heart of Geneva, Switzerland.
Top seed is Levon Aronian, who is in excellent form this year, having convincingly won the Grenke Classic and the Altibox Norway Chess to jump over 2800 elo again.
Also in the 2800+ club is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who has reached a career-high rating after winning the Gashimov Memorial and coming second in the Moscow Grand Prix
Twenty-four of the world’s top players are competing in the Grand Prix, with 18 playing in each tournament. (Each player competes in three of the four competitions.) Each stage has a prize fund of 130,000 euros.
The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year to select a challenger to the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen.
The Geneva Grand Prix follows the events that were previously held in Sharjah, UAE, and Moscow, Russia.
After two stages of Grand Prix Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is leading in overall Grand Prix Series with 280 points, Ding Liren is on the second place with 240 points. Alexander Grischuk and Maxime Vachire-Lagrave share the third place with 211,4 points.
The series is organized by Agon Limited, the commercial partner of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body. All the games are broadcast on WorldChess.com, the official site of the World Championship cycle.
Geneva Grand Prix participants:
1 Levon Aronian Armenia 2809
2 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Azerbaijan 2800
3 Anish Giri Netherlands 2775
4 Alexander Grischuk Russia 2761
5 Peter Svidler Russia 2749
6 Ian Nepomniachtchi Russia 2742
7 Pavel Eljanov Ukraine 2739
8 Harikrishna Pentala India 2737
9 Michael Adams England 2736
10 Li Chao China 2735
11 Boris Gelfand Israel 2728
12 Teimour Radjabov Azerbaijan 2724
13 Ernesto Inarkiev Russia 2707
14 Dmitry Jakovenko Russia 2703
15 Richard Rapport Hungary 2694
16 Hou Yifan China 2666
17 Alexander Riazantsev Russia 2654
18 Salem Saleh UAE 2638