The Chess World Cup 2017 was a 128-player

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

tournament, held in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, from 2 to 27 September 2017. It was won by Armenian grandmaster

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenians, Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A ches ...

. This was the second time he had won the Chess World Cup, 12 years after his first win in 2005. It was the 7th edition of the Chess World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, Aronian and

Ding Liren Ding Liren (; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the highest rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachi ...

, qualified for the

Candidates Tournament 2018 The Candidates Tournament 2018 was an eight-player double round-robin chess tournament, which was held in Berlin, Germany, between 10–28 March 2018. The winner, Fabiano Caruana, earned the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus ...

for the

World Chess Championship 2018 The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and the challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by F ...

.Rules & regulations for the Candidates Tournament of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2016-2018

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

Bidding process

At the 85th FIDE Congress held during the

41st Chess Olympiad The 41st Chess Olympiad ( no, Den 41. Sjakkolympiade), organised by the FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took pla ...

, FIDE received bids to host the World Cup 2017 and 2018 Olympiad from the national federations of Georgia and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. South Africa proposed Sun City and

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

as venues, while Georgia proposed

and

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

respectively. Although

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by ...

expressed support for the South African bid during his FIDE presidential campaign, Georgia's bid won, receiving 93 votes to South Africa's 58.

Format

The tournament was a knock-out format, with the exception that there was a provision for the two semi-final losers to play off for third place if necessary (see #Candidates qualification). Matches consist of two regular time limit games (except for the final, and playoff for third if required, which consist of four regular time limit games). For these two games, players have 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an

increment Increment or incremental may refer to: * Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) * Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming * Incremental computing * Incremental backu ...

of 30 seconds per move from the start of the game. If a match is tied after the regular games, tie breaks will be played the next day. The format for the tie breaks is as follows: * Two rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 seconds

). * If the score is tied after two rapid games, further two rapid games (10 minutes plus 10 seconds increment) are played. * If the score is tied after four rapid games, the opponents play two

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

games (five minutes plus three seconds increment). * If the score is tied after a pair of blitz games, an

armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

game (in which a draw counts as a win for Black) is played. White has 5 minutes and Black has 4 minutes, with an increment of 3 seconds/move starting from move 61.

Candidates qualification

The tournament qualified two players for the 2018 Candidates Tournament. However

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

(world champion) and

Sergey Karjakin Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, . (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (formerly representing Ukraine). A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, (until it was eventually taken b ...

(already seeded to the Candidates) had no need for qualification, and both participated in the tournament (even though it is highly unusual for the defending champion to do so). So the rules were actually that the top two finishers other than Carlsen and Karjakin would qualify for the Candidates. This meant there was provision for a match for third place, between the two semi-final losers, if necessary. As it turned out, both Carlsen and Karjakin were eliminated in the first three rounds, so the two Candidates qualifiers were simply the two finalists: Armenia's

and China's

Schedule

Each of the first six rounds takes three days: one day each for the two regular time limit games, then a third day for tie breaks, if required. The final round has four days of regular time limit games, then a fifth day for tie breaks, if required. * Round 1: September 3–5 * Round 2: September 6–8 * Round 3: September 9–11 * Round 4: September 12–14 * Round 5: September 15–17 * Rest day: September 18 * Round 6: September 19–21 * Rest day: September 22 * Final (and play-off for third place if required): September 23–27 All rounds begin at 15:00

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

(11:00 UTC).

Prize money

According to the regulations, all players have to pay their own expenses for travel, and 20% of each player's prize money goes to FIDE."Regulations for the FIDE World Chess Cup 2017"
(PDF). FIDE.

Participants

The participants are seeded by their FIDE rating of August 2017. All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise. # , 2822 (World Champion) # , 2810 (R) # , 2807 (R) # , 2803 (R) # , 2799 (R) # , 2797 (R) # , 2792 (R) # , 2789 (R) # , 2783 (R) # , 2783 (R) # , 2777 (R) # , 2773 (WC) # , 2772 (WC) # , 2753 (AS16) # , 2751 (R) # , 2751 (WC) # , 2745 (E16) # , 2744 (R) # , 2744 (R) # , 2743 (R) # , 2742 (ON) # , 2739 (AS16) # , 2738 (R) # , 2737 (E16) # , 2734 (WC) # , 2731 (E17) # , 2729 (R) # , 2728 (E17) # , 2728 (ACP) # , 2724 (E16) # , 2717 (E16) # , 2715 (E17) # , 2710 (AS17) # , 2710 (R) # , 2707 (E16) # , 2707 (E17) # , 2706 (R) # , 2702 (AS17) # , 2702 (E16) # , 2702 (E17) # , 2696 (E16) # , 2695 (E17) # , 2693 (AS17) # , 2692 (E17) # , 2692 (PN) # , 2687 (E16) # , 2687 (E16) # , 2682 (Z2.1) # , 2680 (AF) # , 2677 (PN) # , 2675 (R) # , 2675 (E17) # , 2666 (E16) # , 2665 (E17) # , 2662 (Z2.1) # , 2660 (E17) # , 2654 (E17) # , 2654 (E16) # , 2652 (E17) # , 2652 (PN) # , 2652 (E17) # , 2650 (E16) # , 2650 (Z2.5) # , 2648 (E16) # , 2648 (AM17) # , 2646 (E17) # , 2646 (E17) # , 2645 (E16) # , 2644 (E16) # , 2644 (E16) # , 2643 (AM17) # , 2642 (E17) # , 2641 (Z2.4) # , 2641 (AM16) # , 2640 (E16) # , 2640 (E17) # , 2633 (J16) # , 2629 (AM16) # , 2629 (Z3.3) # , 2628 (E17) # , 2627 (Z2.1) # , 2627 (E16) # , 2620 (AM17) # , 2618 (AS16) # , 2615 (E17) # , 2614 (AM17) # , 2606 (E16) # , 2596 (E17) # , 2591 (E16) # , 2590 (ON) # , 2589 (AS16) # , 2586 (E16) # , 2585 (ON) # , 2580 (E17) # , 2580 (J15) # , 2580 (AM16) # , 2579 (AM17) # , 2579 (Z3.7) # , 2577 (PN) # , 2576 (AS16) # , 2575 (AS17) # , 2573 (E16) # , 2573 (AM17) # , 2565 (AM16) # , 2556 (N) # , 2555 (AS17) # , 2551 (E17) # , 2545 (PN) # , 2543 (Z2.3) # , 2537 (Z2.5) # , 2533 (Z3.1) # , 2531 (Z2.4) # , 2529 (Z3.4) # , 2525 (E16) # , 2522 (Z2.2) # , 2519 (ON) # , 2508 (Z3.6) # , 2487 (Z4.1) # , 2478 (Z3.3) # , 2455 (Z4.2) # , 2455 (Z3.4) # , 2454 (Z3.2) # , 2451 (Z3.5) # , 2449 (AF) # , 2427 (Z3.5) # , 2398 (Z4.3) # , 2377 (Z2.3) # , 2255 (Z4.4)

Qualification paths

*World Champion (1) *WC: Semi-finalists of the

Chess World Cup 2015 The Chess World Cup 2015 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, single-elimination chess tournament held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 10 September to 5 October 2015. Sergey Karjakin won the competition on tie-breaks after a four-game final ...

(4) *J15 and J16: World Junior Champions 2015 and 2016 (2) *R: Rating (average of all published ratings from February 2016 to January 2017 is used) (19) *E16 and E17: European Individual Championships 2016 (23) and 2017 (22) *AM16 and AM17: American Continental Championships 2016 (4) and 2017 (6)Guadalupe, Franc (2017-06-19)
"GM Samuel Sevian wins Continental Championship"
''US Chess''. *AS16 and AS17:

Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is a chess tournament open to all players from Asian chess federations ( FIDE zones from 3.1 to 3.7). It's held with the Swiss system and consists in two divisions, Open and Women's, the latter of which is reserved to f ...

s 2016 (5) and 2017 (5) *AF:

African Chess Championship The first African Chess Championship was played in 1998. Ibrahim Hasan Labib and Mohamed Tissir both shared first place with 7/10, but the former took the title. The 2007 championship was the FIDE Zone 4 qualifier for the Chess World Cup 2007, th ...

2017 (2) *

Nordic Chess Championship The Nordic Chess Championship (''Nordiska Schackkongressen'') is a biennal chess tournament which determines the champion of the Nordic countries. The first edition took place in Stockholm in 1897. History The winners in the Nordic Championship in ...

(N), Z2.1 (3), Z2.2 (1), Z2.3 (2), Z2.4 (2), Z2.5 (2), Z3.1 (1), Z3.2 (1), Z3.3 (2), Z3.4 (2), Z3.5 (2), Z3.6 (1), Z3.7 (1), Z4.1 (1), Z4.2 (1), Z4.3 (1), Z4.4 (1): Zonal tournaments * ACP: highest-placed participant of the ACP Tour who has not qualified with the previous criteria (1) *PN: FIDE President nominee (5) *ON: Organizer nominee (4)

Results, rounds 1–4

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Results, rounds 5–7

Finals

Dress code controversy

Shortly before the third-round game between

Anton Kovalyov Anton Kovalyov (born 4 March 1992) is a Ukrainian-born Canadian (formerly representing Argentina) chess grandmaster. Chess career In 2004, he finished equal first at the Pan American Under-12 Championship and thanks to this result he was awarded ...

and

Maxim Rodshtein Maxim Rodshtein ( he, מקסים רודשטיין, russian: Максим Эдуардович Родштейн, translit=Maksim Eduardovich Rodshtein; born 19 January 1989) is an Israeli chess grandmaster. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 20 ...

was due to start, Kovalyov was questioned by the arbiter about the knee-length Bermuda shorts he was wearing, the same pair he wore in the first two rounds. Tournament organizer

Zurab Azmaiparashvili Zurab Azmaiparashvili ( ka, ზურაბ აზმაიფარაშვილი; born 16 March 1960) is a chess grandmaster from Georgia. His peak Elo rating was 2702, achieved in July 2003. Career Azmaiparashvili became a Grandmaster i ...

then approached Kovalyov, stating that his attire violated the FIDE dress code and that he would be punished financially if he did not change what he was wearing."Chess federation fuming over treatment of Canadian grandmaster who was berated over wearing shorts at tournament"
'' TheStar.com''. 2017-09-11. Kovalyov explained that he also wore shorts in the 2015 World Cup without incident, but Azmaiparashvili objected and said that Kovalyov's clothing made him "look like a

gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

.""Dress Code Incident At World Cup: Kovalyov Forfeits"
''Chess.com''. 2017-09-09. Kovalyov interpreted this as a racial slur. Kovalyov then left the tournament hall and did not return, thus forfeiting the game. He also checked out of his hotel and booked a flight for

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, where he is studying for a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Computer Science technology at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. The

Chess Federation of Canada The Chess Federation of Canada or CFC ( French name: ''Fédération canadienne des échecs'') is Canada's national chess organization. Canadian Chess Association, founded in 1872, was replaced in 1932 by the Canadian Chess Federation (CCF), which ...

filed a formal complaint about the incident. FIDE issued a report on the incident on October 1.The Kovalyov Report
Chessbase, October 1, 2017

Notes

In the 2017 US Zonal, which normally awards five spots for the World Cup, only three players, other than those who already qualified with the previous criteria, attained the required score of 50% or better. In accordance with the World Cup regulations, the two unused positions at the US Zonal Championship passed on to the American Continental Championship. The Women's World Champion,

Tan Zhongyi Tan Zhongyi (; born 29 May 1991) is a Chinese chess player who holds the title of grandmaster (GM). She is a former Women's World Champion, winning the 2017 knockout edition of the world championship in Iran where she defeated Anna Muzychuk i ...

, renounced her participation and, in accordance with the regulations, she was replaced from the average rating list. Zherebukh did not travel to the event because he was concerned that he would not be re-admitted to the USA afterwards.
FIDE World Cup 2017: 35 decisive games
Chessbase, 9/4/2017) Kovalyov forfeited after a dispute over the dress code and alleged racial slurs. See #Dress code controversy.

References

External links

Official websitePairings tree
(PDF). ''FIDE'', August 2017 {{Chess World Cups

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

2017 in Georgian sport International sports competitions hosted by Georgia (country) Sports competitions in Tbilisi 2010s in Tbilisi September 2017 sports events in Europe Clothing controversies