The Chess World Cup 2019 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 9 September to 4 October 2019.FIDE Calendar 2019. FIDE. It was won by Azerbaijani grandmaster Teimour Radjabov. He and the runner-up, Ding Liren, both qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2021. It was the 8th edition of the Chess World Cup.

Levon Aronian, the winner of the Chess World Cup 2017, advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on tiebreaks. Vachier-Lagrave was eliminated by Radjabov in the semi-finals, but defeated Yu Yangyi to claim 3rd place.

Bidding process There was only one bid received for the combined FIDE World Cup and Olympiad events, which was done by the Yugra Chess Federation.

Format The tournament was a 7-round knockout event. The matches from round 1 to round 6 consisted of two classical games with a time control of 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move. The finals and the match for the third place consisted of four classical games.

If the score is tied after the classical games, rapid and, if necessary, blitz tiebreaks are played the next day. Two games are played with a time control of 25 minutes per game plus 10 seconds increment. In the case of a tie, they are followed by two games with a time control of 10 minutes per game plus 10 seconds increment. If the score is still tied, two blitz games follow (5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment). If the score is tied 4–4 after all these games, a single "Armageddon" game is played: the player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the colour; White has 5 minutes per game and Black has 4 minutes, with an increment of 2 seconds per move starting from move 61, and White needs a win to advance to the next round; Black advances if they win or the game is drawn.

The two top finishers qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The rules in fact specified that it would be the top two finishers other than Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, because Carlsen as World Champion did not play in the Candidates, and Caruana had already qualified for the Candidates. The rule was introduced because the World Champion and the previous challenger unexpectedly signed up for the previous edition Chess World Cup 2017. This time, though, Carlsen and Caruana both declined their invitations to the World Cup, so the qualifiers are simply the two finalists.

Schedule Each of the first six rounds took three days: one day each for the two regular time limit games and then a third day for tiebreaks, if required. The final round has four days of regular time limit games and then a fifth day for tiebreaks, if required. Round 1: 10 September – 12 September Round 2: 13 September – 15 September Round 3: 16 September – 18 September Rest day: 19 September Round 4: 20 September – 22 September Round 5: 23 September – 25 September Round 6: 26 September – 28 September Rest day: 29 September Final and play-off for third place: 30 September – 4 October

Prize money The total prize fund was US$1,600,000, with the first prize of US$110,000. Round (US$) Prize received (US$)Total Round 1 64 × 6,000 384,000 Round 2 32 × 10,000 320,000 Round 3 16 × 16,000 256,000 Round 4 8 × 25,000 200,000 Round 5 4 × 35,000 140,000 4-th place 50,000 50,000 3-rd place 60,000 60,000 Runner-up 80,000 80,000 Winner 110,000 110,000 Total (US$) 1,600,000

Participants The participants"World Cup 2019 Pairings". FIDE. 10 August 2019. were seeded by their FIDE rating of August 2019. All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. +NumberNameCountryRatingQualification path1Ding Liren2805WC2Anish Giri2779R3Maxime Vachier-Lagrave2778WC4Wesley So2776WC5Ian Nepomniachtchi2774R6Levon Aronian2765WC7Shakhriyar Mamedyarov2764R8Leinier Domínguez2763Z2.19Alexander Grischuk2759R10Teimour Radjabov2758R11Vladislav Artemiev2757E1912Yu Yangyi2752R13Sergey Karjakin2750R14Hikaru Nakamura2743Z2.115Dmitry Andreikin2743R16Radosław Wojtaszek2739E1817Pentala Harikrishna2738R18Jan-Krzysztof Duda2730R19Peter Svidler2729R20Nikita Vitiugov2728R21Wei Yi2727AS1822Lê Quang Liêm2726AS1823David Navara2724E1824Bu Xiangzhi2721R25Wang Hao2720R26Sam Shankland2713AM1827Maxim Matlakov2710E1828Evgeny Tomashevsky2706R29Vidit Gujrathi2705R30Dmitry Jakovenko2704R31Jeffery Xiong2703Z2.132Alireza Firouzja2702AS1933Daniil Dubov2699E1934Bassem Amin2692AF35Gawain Jones2692E1836Nils Grandelius2691E1837Michael Adams2690R38Boris Gelfand2686E1939Jorge Cori2686AM1840Maxim Rodshtein2684E1941Ernesto Inarkiev2682E1842Luke McShane2682E1843Anton Korobov2679E1844David Antón Guijarro2678E1845Arkadij Naiditsch2675R46Ruslan Ponomariov2675E1947Tamir Nabaty2673E1848Vladimir Fedoseev2671R49Kirill Alekseenko2668ON50Ferenc Berkes2666E1951Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu2666E1952Samuel Sevian2665Z2.153Baskaran Adhiban2665ACP54Ivan Cheparinov2663E1855Sanan Sjugirov2662E1856Ivan Šarić2660E1857Kacper Piorun2660E1958Rustam Kasimdzhanov2657Z3.459Parham Maghsoodloo2656J1860Alexey Sarana2655E1861Anton Demchenko2655E1862Igor Kovalenko2654PN63Benjamin Gledura2654E1964Sergei Movsesian2654E1965Grigoriy Oparin2654E1966Evgeniy Najer2653E1867Constantin Lupulescu2652E1968Robert Hovhannisyan2650E1869Alexandr Predke2650E1970Maksim Chigaev2643ON71Evgeny Bareev2643Z2.272Nijat Abasov2640E1873Benjamin Bok2640E1874Sandro Mareco2640Z2.575Ahmed Adly2636Z4.276Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli2635AM1977Aryan Tari2634J1778Mircea Pârligras2633E1879Rinat Jumabayev2633Z3.480Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn2631AS1881Surya Shekhar Ganguly2630AS1882S. P. Sethuraman2630AS1983Andrey Esipenko2625E1984Niclas Huschenbeth2620E1985S.L. Narayanan2618AS1986Abhijeet Gupta2616AS1987Neuris Delgado Ramirez2612AM1988Karthikeyan Murali2612AS1989Mateusz Bartel2612E1990Nihal Sarin2610PN91Lu Shanglei2610Z3.592Aravindh Chithambaram2607Z3.793Aleksandr Rakhmanov2606E1994Diego Flores2604AM1895Amin Tabatabaei2601AS1896Emilio Cordova2599AM1897Arman Pashikian2599E1898Igor Lysyj2596E1999Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara2596Z2.4100Alan Pichot2596AM19101Nikita Petrov2595E19102Nodirbek Abdusattorov2594PN103Eltaj Safarli2593E18104Aleksei Pridorozhni2591ON105Xu Xiangyu2584Z3.5106Daniil Yuffa2571E18107Aleksej Aleksandrov2571E19108Miguel Santos Ruiz2567E18109Frode Urkedal2566PN110Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera2566Z2.3111Cristobal Henriquez Villagra2562Z2.5112Yuri Gonzalez Vidal2554AM19113Johan-Sebastian Christiansen2554E19114Krikor Mekhitarian2554Z2.4115Bilel Bellahcene2550Z4.1116Susanto Megaranto2545Z3.3117Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami2539Z3.1118Ilia Iljiushenok2533ON119Helgi Dam Ziska2533PN120Paulius Pultinevičius, IM2485E19121Alder Escobar Forero2477Z2.3122Fy Antenaina Rakotomaharo, IM2438Z4.3123Essam El Gindy2423AF124Sugar Gan-Erdene, no title2408Z3.3125Sergio Duran Vega, IM2395AM19126Daniel Anwuli, IM2284Z4.4127Mohammad Fahad Rahman, FM2250Z3.2128Shaun Press, FM1954Z3.6

Qualification paths

Replacements Players from the list of qualifiers"List of the Qualifiers" (PDF). FIDE. 2019-07-24. who declined to play: (World champion) (WWC) (decided to instead participate in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019–20) (who decided to instead focus on qualifying for the Candidates via the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019) (retired from top level chess in January 2019)

(R) Their replacements, all from the ratings list, were:

(R) Other replacements: (Z2.1) → replaced by (AM19) (the next player in Z2.1 did not attain the required score of 50%, so the position passed on to the AM19) (Z3.6) (retired) → replaced by (Z3.6). This made Press the lowest rated player to play in a Chess World Cup.Big Beasts Still Alive After First Round of World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Ian Rogers, Lichess, 12-Sep-2019 (PN) → replaced by (PN)

Results, rounds 1–4

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Results, rounds 5–7

Third place SeedNameAug 2019 rating1234R1R2Total 12 Yu Yangyi 2752½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 2 3 2778½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 4

Finals SeedNameAug 2019 rating1234R1R2R3R4B1B2Total 1 Ding Liren 2805 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 4 10 Teimour Radjabov 2758 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 6

References

External links

Pairings tree (PDF). FIDE. 10 August 2019. FIDE World Cup 2019 (Games and Results) at The Week in Chess