London Chess Grand Prix 2012/13 Begins Tomorrow at Simpson's-in-the-Strand

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

 

The first edition in the Fide Grand Prix Series 2012/13 begins in London on September 20 with the games from September 21. The tournament runs until October 4. The venue for this event is the historic site of Simpson’s on the Strand which was originally one of the leading chess clubs in the 19th century. Twelve players will compete in the round robin tournament, which is concluding on 3rd October.

A total of 18 players participate in the Grand Prix series (6 tournaments), qualifying from the previous World Championship, the World Chess Cup, by the highest average ratings of July 2011 and January 2012, as FIDE President and AGON nominees. The organisers have had to effect a last minute replacement as GM Peter Svidler has had to withdraw from this leg due to family reasons. He has been replaced by UK number one player GM Michael Adams. Access the official website at this link.

London GP participants:
Hikaru Nakamura USA 2783

Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2769

Alexander Grischuk RUS 2754

Veselin Topalov BUL 2752

Wang Hao CHN 2742

Boris Gelfand ISR 2738

Peter Leko HUN 2737

Anish Giri NLD 2730

Shakriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2729

Leinier Dominguez Perez CUB 2725

Michael Adams ENG 2722

Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2684

The remaining players who are in the cycle and will participate in latere events are: Sergey Karjakin (RUS), Teimour Radjabov (AZE), Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR), Fabiano Caruana (ITA), Alexander Morozevich (RUS) and Vugar Gashimov (AZE).

The Chief Arbiter for the London event will be International Arbiter Ms. Carol Jarecki who will be assisted by International Arbiter Mr. Stewart Reuben. Chairman of Appeals Committee will be Mr Lakhdar Mazouz, who is also President of African Chess Union. FIDE Press officer and Representative is Mr Geoffrey Borg, FIDE Chief Executive Officer.

The first Grand Prix was originally set to take place in Chelyabinsk. London is set to see three highly prestigious tournaments within only seven months – FIDE Grand Prix, London Chess Classic (in December) and FIDE Candidates Tournament (in March 2013).

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