10 September 2015
World Cup Starts in Baku
The opening ceremony takes place on September 10.
The World Cup is played in the Fairmont Hotel in Baku from September 10 to October 5. This is a knock-out event with 128 players, with a $1,600,000 prize fund. The two finalists of the World Cup also receive the right to play in the Candidates tournament.
Only the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the former champion Vishy Anand are skipping the event in Baku. All other top grandmasters are present, including three players rated above 2800 - Veselin Topalov (2816), Hikaru Nakamura (2814), and Fabiano Caruana (2808).
Russia is represented by 22 players. The highest rated Russian players are Vladimir Kramnik (2777), Alexander Girschuk (2771), Sergey Karjakin (2762), and Evgeny Tomashevsky (2758).
The playing days are September 10-25, September 27-29, and October 1-5. There are two scheduled rest days - September 26 and September 30. All games begin at 1 pm msk.
A press-conference with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Sport Minister of Azerbaijan Azad Ragimov, Head of the Chess Federation of Azerbaijan Elman Rustamov, World Cup tournament director Mair Mamedov, and Chief Arboter of the World Cup Faik Gasanov took place on September 9 in Baku.
