WORLD BLITZ CHAMPIONSHIP 2007
Moscow, Russia, 19 – 22 November
REGULATIONS
1. Format
The Championship will be held in two phases:
a) Qualification tournament (Swiss system, 11 double rounds) will take place 19 – 20 November. Entitled to participate are players with a rating of 2625 and higher. There will also be about 10 wild cards.
Venue: Gogolevsky bld., 14, Central House of Chessplayer, named after Mikhail M. Botvinnik;
b) The final tournament is round-robin with 18 participants playing each other with white and black pieces (a double round-robin tournament).
Composition:
10 participants of the Tal Memorial Tournament 2007;
2 wild cards: V. Anand and A. Karpov;
6 players who qualified from the first-phase event.
Venue: GUM, Red Square, 2.
2. Substitutes – to be determined by the Organizers.
3. Accommodation
Non-Moscow residents will, as far as possible, be accommodated at a hotel near the centre of Moscow. The participants of the Final Tournament will be accommodated with full board at an hotel (of at least 4 star category) in the centre of Moscow.
4. Priorities for qualifying
4.1. Qualification tournament will be played according to the Swiss system in 11 double rounds (altogether – 22 games). The final standing order of players is determined by the number of points scored. Should two or more players tie for a qualifying place, the tie is resolved by
Median Buchholz score (i.e. Buchholz score without the best and the worst results);
Buchholz score;
Number of wins;
Results between the players involved;
“Sudden death” game 5’ – 4’ (if more that two players – a tournament).
4.2. Final Tournament to be held 21 – 22 November. A double round-robin event (34 games to play in two days). The final standing of players is determined by the number of points scored. If there is a tie, it is broken by
Sonneborne – Berger score;
Number of wins;
Results between the players involved;
“Sudden death” game 5’ – 4’.
If several players tie for the first place, then the above priorities will be used to determine the first and the second players and the title will be decided in a sudden death game between them.
Lots will be drawn before the game, the winner choosing the color of his pieces in this last game. If the game is drawn, the player who has the Black pieces is declared the World Blitz Champion.
5. Rate of play (4 minutes per game to each player plus 2 seconds per move starting from move one).
6. Prizes
1st place: US $ 25.000;
2nd place: US $ 15.000;
3rd place: US $ 10.000;
4th place: US $ 7.250;
5th place: US $ 6.250;
6th place: US $ 5.500;
7th place: US $ 4.500;
8th place: US $ 4.000;
9th place: US $ 3.500;
10th place: US $ 3.000;
11th-14th places: US $ 2.500 each
15th-18th places: US $ 1.500 each
If there are ties in the final standing order, then all respective prizes, excepting the first one, are equally shared between the players who tied.
The players who are the first, second and third in the final standing order will be awarded, respectively, with gold, silver and bronze medals.
Attention!
The organizing Committee of the World Blitz championship 2007 decided, at the request of FIDE, to increase the number of participants of the Final Tournament from 18 to 20 by including both the finalists of the 2006 World Blitz Championship in Israel GM A. Grischuk (winner) and GM P. Svidler (2nd place).
Director of the Championship
A. Bakh
Chief Arbiter
Here is the list of players in the qualifiers: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df2bphbq_62fk74rh
Here are the list of participants in the final:
1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2801
2 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2787
3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2785
5 Leko, Peter g HUN 2755
6 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2755
7 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyaz g AZE 2752
10 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2739
11 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2736
12 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2732
13 Adams, Michael g ENG 2729
15 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2715
16 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2714
17 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2714
21Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2705
23 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2695
29 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam g UZB 2690
35 Rublevsky, Sergei g RUS 2676
43 Karpov, Anatoly g RUS 2670
— Dreev, Alexey g RUS 2607
— Savchenko, Boris g RUS 2583
strage. All participants of the main tournament are in by default (without the candidate’s tournament). Why Alekseev and Jakovenko aren’t?
these games should all be live on the internet and be filmed for tv. This has to be exciting chess. Some of the games will be great to watch. A good tv producer should be able to make this into a great tv program.
I want to see Nakamura in this tournament. He is a great blitz player.
Hikaru is not in the same league. He’s only a decent online blitz player. Kramnik would destroy him OTB.
then Naka should have come and played in the qualification swiss
“He’s only a decent online blitz player.”
I’m no Naka worshipper, but to say something like this clearly shows a negative bias.
Someday – hopefully soon – we’ll have the data to validate where he might actually stand. Even if his results are fantastic, rhetoric like this will still fly due to his history, as it did when he broke into the top100.
Anand will smoke them all.
the participants of the main tourney have little chances cause for them it’s a supplementary event
Anand or Grischuk or Moro will win the blitz
Morozevich will NOT participate.
Jakovenko doesn’t want to play
and is replaced by Rublevsky (7th in qualifications).
go naka
Go Go gadget chess piece!
It seems that everyone who doubts Nakamura’s ability seems to have forgotten that he just won a type of blitz tourney just weeks ago….beating Kasim ( who just finished first in the qualifier) and Bareev along the way.
Lest I forget Naka also beat Loek Van Wely
I would agree Nakamura seems a natural pick for an event like this.
Blitz is a very particular skill, and one in which Nakamura has excelled.I believe he could surprise a lot of players in that field.
It would add huge appeal to the tournament for American chess enthusiasts.