FIDE World Chess Cup
It's somewhat confusing, and I have no idea how FIDE's plan is supposed to fit with Topalov's "2700 + money = World Championship match" proclamation (see here, reason 2), but the first step of FIDE's 2005-2007 World Championship cycle starts today (Sunday). The FIDE World Chess Cup is a 132-player knock-out event (sort of) taking place in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia, and will continue until December 18.
The top 10 finishers here will move on to the Candidates' Matches, where they will meet Kasimjanov and the five highest-rated players not already seeded into the next round. (What happens if the players (e.g Kasparov and Kramnik) don't accept? Do they move down the rating list, or take more from the World Cup?) Of these 16, the final four move on to the actual championship event, where they will join Topalov, Anand, Svidler and Morozevich.
Will it all come to pass? How will this work with Topalov's "2700s welcome!" proposal/proclamation? How, if at all, will Kramnik fit into this? I have no idea, but at least we have some great chess to look forward to over the next three weeks!
The top 10 finishers here will move on to the Candidates' Matches, where they will meet Kasimjanov and the five highest-rated players not already seeded into the next round. (What happens if the players (e.g Kasparov and Kramnik) don't accept? Do they move down the rating list, or take more from the World Cup?) Of these 16, the final four move on to the actual championship event, where they will join Topalov, Anand, Svidler and Morozevich.
Will it all come to pass? How will this work with Topalov's "2700s welcome!" proposal/proclamation? How, if at all, will Kramnik fit into this? I have no idea, but at least we have some great chess to look forward to over the next three weeks!
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Sunday November 27, 2005 at 1:34am
Of course Kramnik doesn't have a place in FIDE's plans. He's just a random GM for them now, with no World Champion title at all. They seem to have defaulted Prague even officially by now. Maybe time for Kramnik to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport?
A "fun" detail about the Candidates Matches is that you can qualify to them by rating - using the average of July 2004 and January 2005! For matches played no earlier than 2006?! Yeah, makes sense. The rules