FIDE World Cup 2021 – The Biggest Event on the Chess Calendar
The Chess World Cup 2021 is a one of its kind event held in Sochi, Russia, between 10th July and 8th August.
This prestigious event is the 9th edition of the Chess World Cup and has 206 players taking part from across the world. Thi tournament is a single-elimination event, and the top two champions from this event, apart from Magnus Carlsen, will play in the Candidates Tournament 2022.
Simultaneously alongside the FIDE World Cup, the first-ever FIDE Women’s World Cup takes place with 103 participants. The World Cup is the biggest event on the chess calendar.
Participants
Some of the best participants in the world are taking part in this event, including the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2847), Fabiano Caruana (2806), Levon Aronian (2782) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2782).
In the Women’s World Cup, we had Aleksandra Goryachkina (2597) and Kateryna Lagno (2559) as the top two players.
Regulations
The Governing body of the Chess World Cup is the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
The tournament is a knock out tournament with 8 rounds. All rounds are played with two matches. The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Each match consists of 2 classical games with reversed colours and time control 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, plus a 30-second increment from move 1.
In case of a tie, tiebreaks are played on the 3rd day of the round; two 25+10 rapid games followed, if needed, by two 10+10 games, then two 5+3 games, and finally, an Armageddon game. No draw offers are allowed until after move 30.
Qualifications
- Reigning World Champion.
- Winner, runner-up and two other semi-finalists of the FIDE World Cup 2019 – four players.
- Reigning Women’s World Champion GM Ju Wenjun.
- World Junior Champion U-20 2019 – one player.
- Qualifiers from the Continental events eighty players.
- Highest rated players from the average of the twelve standard FIDE rating lists – thirteen players who have not qualified by any path from mentioned.
- One hundred Federations are selected according to the average rating of their ten highest-rated players. These Federations must nominate any player of their choice who is registered to their Federation by June 5th, 2021 – one hundred players.
- Nominees of the FIDE President – four players.
- Nominees of the Organiser – two players.
Prize Money
The sum of all the prize money is 1,892,500 USD, with 20% of every prize being retained by FIDE. The first-place wins 110,000 USD, second place wins 80,000 USD, and third place wins 60,000 USD.
Schedule
Each round will take three days, two days for classical time limit games and the third day if needed for tie breaks. Day 12 and 22 will be rest days. Games begin at 3 PM local time.
Live Broadcast
All the games are broadcasted live, and you can watch the games at: https://worldcup.fide.com/stream
