Official World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships will be held in the capital city of Kazakhstan, Astana, on July 1-11, 2012. It is worth noting that the Rapid Chess Championship will be held for the first time in the history of the FIDE!

Famous sportsmen, world champions are among 16 participants of the finals of the World Championships.

The top ten players of the current FIDE rating list have the personal right to take part in the championships.

The names of Kazakhstani grandmasters nominated from the Kazakh side are already known. These are Murtas Kazhgaleyev and Anuar Ismagambetov in rapid chess and Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Dzhumabayev in blitz.

Qualifiers are planned to be held prior to the finals. Chess players from all over the world will have a chance to advance to the main event. The only requirement for participants is their international ratings should be not less than 2300. Three winners of every qualifier will take part in the finals and be able to win prizes.

The fact that this international event coincided with the Day of the Capital of Kazakhstan is symbolic and not occasional.

Apart from the serious intellectual battles, the guests of Astana will be able to attend different festive events, enjoy the hospitality of Kazakhstanis, familiarize with the modern metropolis – new capital city of Kazakhstan.

www.fide.com

Qualifiers by rating for finals (6-10 July)

01. Magnus Carlsen 2835
02. Teimour Radjabov 2784
03. Sergey Karjakin 2779
04. Alexander Morozevich 2769
05. Vassily Ivanchuk 2764
06. Alexander Grischuk 2761
07. Veselin Topalov 2752
08. Peter Svidler 2741
09. Boris Gelfand 2727
10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2726


There will be no Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Nakamura, Caruana, Kamsky, and some other big names.

Nominee of FIDE President
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami 2578

Two players for each event are nominated by the host organisers – Kazakhstan Chess Federation

RAPID
Kazhgaleyev, Murtas 2595
Ismagambetov, Anuar 2478

BLITZ
Jumabayev, Rinat 2556
Kotsur, Pavel 2548

Three other players will qualify for the respective Blitz or Rapid Finals from the Semi Finals to be held between the 1st and 4th July 2012.

Welcome address Kazakhstan Chess Federation President Asset Issekeshev

Dear friends!

On behalf of Kazakhstan Chess Federation I welcome all the participants of the tournament, guests and fans of the game of chess who gathered these days in our young capital city for the World Rapid and Blitz Championships!

This is the second time when Kazakhstan jointly with the FIDE hosts chess tournament of such a high level attended by the world outstanding grandmasters. The main peculiarity of today’s event is the Rapid Chess Championship which is held for the first time in the history of this major chess tournament. Certainly, this fact will go down in history of this game.

I express my sincere gratitude to organizers of the event – Kazakhstan Chess Federation, International Chess Federation FIDE and its President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who has presided in it for 17 years and the title sponsor “Sat&Company”.

I wish the participants interesting and fair competition and I hope the viewers of the Championship will enjoy beautiful combinations and unexpected moves!

President of Kazakhstan Chess Federation
A. Issekeshev

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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