FIDE Grand Prix 2008–10

The FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2010 was a series of six chess tournaments, which were aligned between April 2008 and May 2010. The two best players in the tournament series qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship in 2012. Organizer of the tournament was the World Chess Federation FIDE in collaboration with his marketing company Global Chess. His mode was inspired by the Chess World Cup 1988/89.

• 5.1 Baku April / May 2008
• 5.2 Sochi July / August 2008
• 5.3 Elista December 2008
• 5.4 Nalchik April 2009
• 5.5 Jermuk August 2009
• 5.6 Astrakhan May 2010

History and Planning

After it had been experimented in the recent past with different WM formats, resulted from the union of the 2006 World Cup the chance to establish a new KM system. At the same time there was also the need for it, as the knock-out system, which had been used in the FIDE World Chess Championship from 1999 to 2004 and as a qualification for the 2007 World Cup, has been accepted by the top players less and less.

First, a modified World Cup was being considered in group mode, which should secure the participation of top players and avoid the criticism of the knock-out system. The idea was to play in 16 groups of 8, whose winners then the finalists would play out in two groups of 8.

FIDE then, however, a different qualification system in June 2007 announced where the winner of the World Cup should play the challenger of the World Champion against the winner of the new Grand Prix series in eight games.

The planning included six two-year distributed round robin tournaments in " leading cities in the world ." For the years 2008 and 2009, a tournament in America, Asia and Europe was planned, and in April, August and December, to avoid conflicts with other major chess tournaments. It was planned that 21 players at the Grand Prix take part which play four tournaments. The Grand Prix was provided as an integral part of future cycles. Candidates who wanted to align each one tournament in the next three cycles were preferred.

With regard to the interest of potential organizer plans FIDE proved to be too optimistic. It succeeded obviously not to find an American prospective. Also, do not just leading cities were presented as organizer after the application deadline with Baku, Krasnoyarsk, Doha, Montreux, Elista and Karlovy Vary. As a reserve cities Istanbul and Tehran were provided. Krasnoyarsk was after a short time replaced by Sochi.

Qualification

For the Grand Prix seven players were set next to World Champion Viswanathan Anand and his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov and the semi-finalists of the World Cup in 2007, Gata Kamsky, Alexei Shirov, Carlsen and Sergei Karjakin.

Seven other players qualified through their Elo rating between January 2007 and October 2007: Vasyl Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov Shakriyar, Péter Lékó, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov and Gelfand.

The reserve list included Michael Adams, Peter Svidler, Judit Polgár, Alexander Grishchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Akopjan, Etienne Bacrot, Evgeny Alekseev, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Pawel Eljanow.

Each organizer had the right to nominate a player of his choice with an Elo of at least 2550. The FIDE President was in addition to a nomination of a player who was in the October ranking among the top 40. Other players each from a different country to be selected by him when seeded players would waive their participation.

Also as regards the interest of the top players, FIDE apparently was too optimistic in their planning. Of the seeded players Anand, Kramnik, Topalov and Shirov decided not to participate. Likewise renounced Morozevich, who in an interview so justified his refusal, all the planning was flawed because the cycle a total of four years EXTEND, which ranged between the announcement of the candidates and finalists of the World Cup 18 months.

From the President Pyotr Svidler, Ivan Tscheparinow, Etienne Bacrot and Wang Yue were nominated. These advanced Michael Adams and Alexander Grishchuk after from the reserve list. Judit Polgár, which would have had priority over Grishchuk, also opted not to participate.

The field was completed by the nominations of the Tournament Organizer:

• Baku: Vugar Gashimov
• Sochi: Dmitri Yakovenko
• Doha: Muhammad al- Mudiyahki
• Montreux: Yannick Pelletier
• Elista: Ernesto Inarkiew
• Carlsbad: David Navara

Regulate

To calculate the Grand Prix ranking FIDE devised a new system. The tournament rules are modeled on the rules tested at the tournament in Sofia.

Rating

To calculate the placements in the Grand Prix series, the FIDE decided for a complicated system: The winner of each tournament, you should get 180 points, the second 150 and the third 130 for the 4th to 14th place should be 110 to 10 points are awarded for every poorer place 10 points less. If players should have the same number of board points, the total points would be shared, so for example, were in the case of two players shared first place intended for both players each 165 points.

The order in the class finally surrendered to the following priority:

• The sum of the three highest Grand Prix points
• The lowest Grand Prix standings ( Results)
• The Board points total achieved
• The number of tournament victories
• The number of 2nd places
• The total number of won games

Similar to the Grand Prix points were the number of tournament victories and the 2nd places divided in the above Example, both players would thus 0.5 tournament victories.

Tournament Rules

For the first 40 moves each player were given 120 minutes to change your mind, for the next 20 moves further 60 minutes. For the rest of the game were 15 minutes thinking time plus an increment of 30 seconds from the 61st train available.

Draw agreements were not made ​​directly, but had to be requested from the referee. Permitted analogous to Sofia rule, such a request only when triple repetition of position, perpetual check, according to the 50 - move rule or a theoretical draw.

Difficulties in the course of the series

Having already had proven difficult to select the venues and the participating players, appeared during the series further problems:

About three weeks before the third Grand Prix, it was announced that this tournament would not take place in Doha, but in Elista, which was originally intended as an organizer for the fifth tournament. Also planned in Montreux in April 2009 tournament has been canceled.

Just three days later it was announced that the General Assembly of the FIDE had devised a comprehensive amendments to the World Cup cycle in Dresden. Thus, a tournament should be played with eight players instead of a candidate Finals. For this purpose, the two winners of the Grand Prix series should qualify.

The decision to change the rules mid-cycle made ​​for some indignation, especially since the General Assembly was formally not authorized to make changes to the championship regulations. On December 4, Magnus Carlsen decided consequently to withdrawal from the Grand Prix. A few days later, Michael Adams whose example. Levon Aronian also found in an open letter sharp words, played the Grand Prix but further.

Due to this development, the organizers of Carlsbad decided also not to orient their tournament. All planned events for 2009 were therefore vacant.

The nominated by the organizers from Doha, Montreux and Carlsbad Muhammad al- Mudiyahki, Yannick Pelletier and David Navara were removed from FIDE from the tournament series. The remaining players of the rating list also moved on in the field of participants. In doing so, however, showed the computational problem is that not all players were able to complete their four tournaments.

The fourth Grand Prix was eventually awarded to Nalchik, the fifth first to Yerevan and finally to Jermuk. For the sixth tournament for a long time was no organizer found; The end of 2009 it was announced the Grand Prix in Astrakhan. The two organizers reserve Istanbul and Tehran apparently were no longer up for grabs. Contrary to the original plan to play on different continents, now all six tournaments were held in the Caucasus region, whereby the Grand Prix is sometimes referred to as the Caucasus Cup.

Tournaments

The tournament series was completed in May 2010. The first five tournaments were part of category 19, which corresponds to an average rating, 2700-2725. The last tournament of the series reached the Category 20

Baku April / May 2008

The prelude to the Grand Prix series took place from April 21 to May 5, 2008 in Baku instead. The lead in this first tournament changed frequently. Alexander Gritschtschuk got off to a good start, but was then replaced by Vugar Gashimov as the front runner. Last but not least Gashimov shared the tournament victory with Wang Yue and Magnus Carlsen, who had first come into the tournament badly.

Sochi July / August 2008

The Grand Prix Tournament in Sochi took place between August 14 July 31. Here came with Vasyl Ivanchuk one of the top favorites for the first time, but experienced a classic false start, which he could only alleviate by defeating Aronian in the fourth game. In contrast, outsiders Ivan Tscheparinow led the field. Levon Aronian In the end, however, moved past the field and secured the sole tournament victory.

Elista December 2008

The tournament in Elista took place between the 14th and 28th December 2008. Had the lead changed often in the first two tournaments, the third tournament of the series was more evenly. The three-division champion, Radjabov, Yakovenko and Grishchuk demonstrated the greatest consistency in the tournament.

Nalchik April 2009

In the midst of the crisis region of Kabardino -Balkaria was held to 29 April 2009, the fourth Grand Prix of 14. In his second appearance, Levon Aronian again garnered a perfect score. In the last round he beat the remaining tie Péter Lékó and referred it to the 2nd place.

Jermuk August 2009

The fifth Grand Prix was held to 23 August 2009 in the Armenian Jermuk of 8. In this tournament, it was very close, some were four players on a par at the top. At the end of Vasyl Ivanchuk won alone and kept the chances of the candidates tournament. This Levon Aronian reached already by his 2nd place in the tournament. Péter Lékó other hand, missed the tournament victory, as in Nalchik by a defeat in the last round.

Astrakhan in May 2010

The sixth and final tournament took place between 25 May 2010 at the Russian Astrakhan only 9. The tournament was postponed by five months. It won the Ukrainians Pawel Eljanow, however to qualify for the Candidates Tournament no longer had reason to hope. This secured Teimour Radjabov.

Total Balance

Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov have regularly qualified for the Candidates Tournament, Magnus Carlsen's withdrawal Grishchuk due also.

Marked in green players are qualified for the Candidates Tournament.

Legend:

• Pl: Square
• 1, ..., 6 Result of a player at each tournament
• Turn:. Number of tournaments played
• Pts: total score
• ZW: Second Evaluation
• BP: Brett points
• 1.Pl.: Number of achieved first places
• 2.Pl.: Number of second places achieved

Future of the Grand Prix

The Grand Prix had missed him the expectations of the FIDE regarding the appeal for players, organizers and sponsors apparently. In addition to the last tournament of the current series, a new edition was endangered. The FIDE Bureau initially decided that in future no Grand Prix series will be played more, unless to October 2009, contracts were concluded with all operators. By the end of the series have not as to the new edition were still ahead of a new qualifying format. With the FIDE Grand Prix 2012-2013, there was then but a sequel.