Chess World Cup 2023

The Chess World Cup 2023 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 July to 24 August 2023. It was the 10th edition of the Chess World Cup. The top three finishers in the tournament qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The tournament was held in parallel with the Women's Chess World Cup 2023.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the defending champion. He lost in the fifth round (last 16) to Fabiano Caruana.

Format

The tournament was an eight-round knockout event, with the top 50 seeds having been given a bye directly into the second round. The losers of the two semi-finals played a match for third place.
The players who finished first, second, and third qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2024, a tournament to decide the challenger for the upcoming World Championship.

Each round consisted of classical time limit games on the first two days, plus tie-breaks on the third day if they were required. The time limits were as follows:

Two classical time limit games: 90 minutes, plus a 30-minute increment on move 40, plus a 30-second increment per move from move 1, per player.
If the match was tied after the classical games, players played two rapid chess games, with 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, per player.
If the match was tied, players played two more rapid chess games, with 10 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, per player.
If the match was still tied, players played two blitz games, with five minutes plus a three-second increment per move, per player.
If the match was still tied, a single blitz game, with three minutes plus a two-second increment per move, was played to decide the match. A drawing of lots determined which player had white. If the game was drawn, the players switched colors and played again, and this process was repeated until a decisive result was obtained.

Schedule

Each round lasted three days: two for classical time control games and a third, if necessary, for tie-breaks. Rounds 1 to 3 ran from July 30 to August 7; August 8 was a rest day; Rounds 4 to 6 ran from August 9 to 17; August 18 was a rest day; and the last two rounds ran from August 19 to 24.

Prize money

The total prize fund is US$1,834,000, with the first prize of US$110,000.

Participants

The participants are seeded here by their FIDE rating of July 2023. All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise.

{{columns-list, colwidth=30em,
{{seeds, 1, 1 {{flagathlete, Magnus Carlsen, NOR, 2835 (WC)
{{seeds, 2, 16 {{flagathlete, Hikaru Nakamura, USA, 2782 (Z2.1)
{{seeds, 4, 8 {{flagathlete, Ian Nepomniachtchi, FIDE, code=RUS, 2779 (R)
{{seeds, 5, 5 {{flagathlete, Anish Giri, NED, 2775 (R)
{{seeds, 6, 12 {{flagathlete, Wesley So, USA, 2769 (Z2.1)
{{seeds, 7, 13 {{flagathlete, Teimour Radjabov, AZE, 2747 (R)
{{seeds, 8, 4 {{flagathlete, Gukesh D, IND, 2744 (R)
{{seeds, 9, 3 {{flagathlete, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, AZE, 2742 (R)
{{seeds, 10, 14 {{flagathlete, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, FRA, 2739 (R)
{{seeds, 11, 11 {{flagathlete, Leinier Domínguez, USA, 2739 (Z2.1)
{{seeds, 12, 6 {{flagathlete, Alexander Grischuk, FIDE, code=RUS, 2736 (R)
{{seeds, 13, 7 {{flagathlete, Yu Yangyi, CHN, 2735 (R)
{{seeds, 14, 10 {{flagathlete, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, POL, 2732 (WC)
{{seeds, 15, 15 {{flagathlete, Lê Quang Liêm, VIE, 2728 (R)
{{seeds, 16, 2 {{flagathlete, Wei Yi, CHN, 2726 (R)
{{seeds, 17, 2 {{flagathlete, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, UZB, 2725 (R)
{{seeds, 18, 15 {{flagathlete, Nikita Vitiugov, FIDE, 2720 (R)
{{seeds, 19, 10 {{flagathlete, Parham Maghsoodloo, IRI, 2719 (R)
{{seeds, 20, 7 {{flagathlete, Vidit Gujrathi, IND, 2719 (R)
{{seeds, 21, 6 {{flagathlete, Daniil Dubov, FIDE, code=RUS, 2716 (R)
{{seeds, 22, 11 {{flagathlete, Sam Shankland, USA, 2711 (FN)
{{seeds, 23, 14 {{flagathlete, Arjun Erigaisi, IND, 2710 (PN)
{{seeds, 24, 3 {{flagathlete, Wang Hao, CHN, 2709 (R)
{{seeds, 25, 4 {{flagathlete, Francisco Vallejo Pons, ESP, 2706 (FN)
{{seeds, 26, 13 {{flagathlete, Bassem Amin, EGY, 2694 (AF22)
{{seeds, 27, 12 {{flagathlete, Kirill Shevchenko, ROM, 2694 (E23)
{{seeds, 28, 5 {{flagathlete, Jorden van Foreest, NED, 2693 (FN)
{{seeds, 29, 8 {{flagathlete, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, ROM, 2693 (E21)
{{seeds, 30, 9 {{flagathlete, David Antón Guijarro, ESP, 2691 (E22)
{{seeds, 31, 16 {{flagathlete, R Praggnanandhaa, IND, 2690 (AS22)
{{seeds, 32, 1 {{flagathlete, Vincent Keymer, GER, 2690 (E21)
{{seeds, 33, 1 {{flagathlete, Amin Tabatabaei, IRI, 2689 (FN)
{{seeds, 34, 16 {{flagathlete, David Navara, CZE, 2689 (E21)
{{seeds, 35, 9 {{flagathlete, Ray Robson, USA, 2689 (Z2.1)
{{seeds, 36, 8 {{flagathlete, Nihal Sarin, IND, 2688 (FN)
{{seeds, 37, 5 {{flagathlete, Peter Svidler, FIDE, 2688 (PN)
{{seeds, 38, 12 {{flagathlete, Alexey Sarana, SRB, 2685 (E21)
{{seeds, 39, 13 {{flagathlete, Nils Grandelius, SWE, 2684 (E23)
{{seeds, 40, 4 {{flagathlete, Andrey Esipenko, FIDE, 2683 (E23)
{{seeds, 41, 3 {{flagathlete, David Howell, ENG, 2677 (FN)
{{seeds, 42, 14 {{flagathlete, Vladimir Fedoseev, SLO, 2676 (WC)
{{seeds, 43, 11 {{flagathlete, Radosław Wojtaszek, POL, 2676 (FN)
{{seeds, 44, 6 {{flagathlete, Andrei Volokitin, UKR, 2674 (FN)
{{seeds, 45, 7 {{flagathlete, Matthias Bluebaum, GER, 2672 (E21)
{{seeds, 46, 10 {{flagathlete, Alexander Donchenko, GER, 2668 (E23)
{{seeds, 47, 15 {{flagathlete, Boris Gelfand, ISR, 2668 (E23)
{{seeds, 48, 2 {{flagathlete, Anton Korobov, UKR, 2667 (E23)
{{seeds, 49, 2 {{flagathlete, Vasyl Ivanchuk, UKR, 2667 (PN)
{{seeds, 50, 15 {{flagathlete, Ruslan Ponomariov, UKR, 2664 (E22)
{{seeds, 51, 10 {{flagathlete, Ivan Cheparinov, BUL, 2663 (E22)
{{seeds, 52, 7 {{flagathlete, Etienne Bacrot, FRA, 2662 (E23)
{{seeds, 53, 6 {{flagathlete, Salem Saleh, UAE, 2661 (FN)
{{seeds, 54, 11 {{flagathlete, Gadir Guseinov, AZE, 2661 (E22)
{{seeds, 55, 14 {{flagathlete, Javokhir Sindarov