World Blitz Chess Championship Almaty 2008
07.11.2008 – This 16-player round robin will take place in the Republic of Kazakhstan on November 7 and 8, at five-minute time controls without increment. The prize fund is almost $300,000, with first place picking up $68,000. The contenders are Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Mamediarov, Kamsky and Svidler. But don't count out blitz expert Grischuk. You can watch live on the official site and on Playchess.
World
Blitz Chess Championship
Almaty 2008
The World Chess Blitz Championship will take place from November 7th to 8th
in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan. Sixteen players will participate in a round
robin tournament with classical plain vanilla time controls: five minutes for
the whole game for each opponent, no increment. The total prize fund is 350,000
Swiss Francs (= 235,000 Euros = US $297,000), with the winner taking 80,000
SFr (€54,000 or $68,000). The prize money is donated by the Chess Federation
of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of the "Alliance Bank".
Participants
# |
Player |
Country |
Rating |
Rank |
1 |
Alexander Morozevitch |
Russia |
2787 |
2 |
2 |
Vassiliy Ivanchuk |
Ukraine |
2786 |
3 |
3 |
Teimur Radjabov |
Azerbaijan |
2751 |
8 |
4 |
Shakhriar Mamediarov |
Azerbaijan |
2731 |
14 |
5 |
Gata Kamsky |
USA |
2729 |
16 |
6 |
Peter Svidler |
Russia |
2727 |
17 |
7 |
Boris Gelfand |
Israel |
2719 |
20 |
8 |
Lenier Dominguez Perez |
Cuba |
2719 |
21 |
9 |
Alexander Grischuk |
Russia |
2719 |
23 |
10 |
Judith Polgar |
Hungary |
2711 |
27 |
11 |
Sergey Rublevsky |
Russia |
2702 |
32 |
12 |
Krishnan Sashikiran |
India |
2694 |
35 |
13 |
Vladislav Tkachev |
France |
2664 |
58 |
14 |
Murtas Kazhgaleyev |
Kazakhstan |
2640 |
|
15 |
Rafael Vaganian |
Armenia |
2590 |
|
16 |
Amin Bassem |
Egypt |
2560 |
|
Location
Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with
a population of 1.2 million. It is not the capital of the country (Astana is),
but the major commercial center of Kazakhstan.
The Svyato-Voznesensky Cathedral, built in 1904, entirely of wood and without
nails
The Central Mosque of Almaty [photo: Marek Rafalowicz]
|