FIDE is pleased to announce that, under the aegis of the General Sports Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the 2017 King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between the 26th and 30th December 2017.

The first two Rapid Championships (Open and Women) will be on the 26th to 28th December and the Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will follow on the 29th and 30th December. The events offer a record breaking prize fund of US$2,000,000 with the Open events having individual prize funds of US$750,000 and each women event having a prize fund of US$ 250,000. 30 prizes shall be offered in each event. A payment of 20% from the above total prize fund shall be made to FIDE.

The number of players participating in the World Championships is set at a maximum number of 250 players for the Open events and 150 players for the Women events. All players rated at least 2600 for the Open and 2300 for the Women, in any of the FIDE rating lists (Standard, Blitz or Rapid) from September 2017 to October 2017 are eligible to register to play in the King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017. Early registration is appreciated to facilitate confirmation of selection as well as arrangement of invitation letters for visa.

The qualified players will be offered free accommodation in Riyadh, as well as travel expenses as per regulations, if they confirm and sign their participation by the deadline of 30 November 2017.

Kindly send an email to certificates@fide.com along with a scanned passport copy. Photographs of passports will not be accepted for processing. All participants receiving conditions are required to obtain written approval from FIDE for all flight bookings and to send the player’s agreement signed and scanned.

Should any participant have any queries they may contact FIDE Chief Executive Officer at Geoffrey.borg@fide.com

Full regulations will be published shortly and will be found also on the FIDE Handbook.

Some of the top players:

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Some of the top women:

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More here: http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/10496-world-rapid-and-blitz-announcement.html