World Cup 2007 preview

Extremely strong event in extreme weather conditions

The Chess World Cup 2007 will take place from the 23rd of November to 17th of December in Khanty-Mansiysk. 128 of the world's top chess players will take part in the competition, which will be a 7 rounds knock out event. The first six rounds will consist of two games each, while the final will be a four games match. Every day will be played only one game, thus the first rounds will take two days, while the final one will be four days long.
The total prize fund of the competition is 1,92 million USD. The winner of the World Cup will meet Veselin Topalov in a semi final match for the WCC title.
Particiapnts

The World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk will collect the world chess elite players. Top seeded is Vasily Ivanchuk, followed by Mamedyarov, Radjabov, Aronian, Shirov, Svidler, Adams, Alekseev, Grischuk, Carlsen, Kamsky, Akopian, Jakovenko, Ponomariov, etc. Besides, we will see all the other World Chess Championship participants, the 2006 Women World Champion Xu Yuhua (CHN), and the 2006 Junior Champion Andriasian (ARM), and the 20 players with highest average rating from the 7/2006 and 1/2007 lists. They will be joined by 45 players from the European Championships 2006 and 2007 (Kozul, Kiril Georgiev, A. Naiditsch, E. Inarkiev, P. Nikolic, V. Tkachiev, I. Cheparinov, M. Roiz, S. Tiviakov, etc.). 19 players enter the World Cup from the Zonals and Continetal of Americas - Shalabov, Onishchuk, Kaidanov, Becera, Granda Zuniga, Leitao, Bruzon, Akobian, etc. 19 players are from the Zonals and Continental of Asia/Oceania and 6 players from the Continent of Africa.

World Cup participants - full list
Pairings

Round 1 World Cup pairings do not produce any star clashes, however, there will be several very interesting battles. Gata Kamsky will take on Ahmed Adly, the winner of the World Junior Chess Championship. Mikhail Gurevich will have his first match against Gregory Kaidanov, and Tkachiev against Csaba Balogh. Among the possible matches are Roiz - Bacrot, Bareev - Van Wely, Aronian - Rodshtein, Vallejo - Inarkiev, Jakovenko - Khalifman, Shirov - Leitao, Radjabov - Laznicka, Ponomariov - Lang Hao, Rublevsky - Navara, Georgiev - Adams. Top 20 players do not have the possibility to face each other until round 3. However, having in mind the format of the competition and the length of the event it is very possible that it turns into a battle of psychology and physical endurance.
Khanty Mansiysk

Khanty-Mansiysk is a town in Russia, the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, with a population of about 50 000 people. It is a well know event for ski events such as the 2003 Biathlon World Championships and the first Mixed Biathlon Relay in 2005. However, now the government of the town is directing all efforts towards chess. The town hosted the 2005 World Chess Cup and will host this year's edition as well. It will also be the center of the Chess Olympiad in 2010. One thing that players and visitors should beware. At this moment the temperature in Khanty Mansiysk is minus 10 degrees Celsius. Until the competition starts it is expected to drop more.

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