Find the right combination! ChessBase 15 program + new Mega Database 2020 with 8 million games and more than 80,000 master analyses. Plus ChessBase Magazine (DVD + magazine) and CB Premium membership for 1 year!

The Budapest Gambit is an exciting and fun way to play against 1.d4 and 2.c4 - replying with 1...Nf6 and 2...e5. In this video you will learn how to pose problems for White with this fascinating opening.

9/11/2015 – The 2015 World Cup is upon us. Being hosted in the North Flame Tower (Fairmont Hotel) in Baku, the massive 128 player Knock Out event brings some of the best in the world, as well as qualifiers from every region of the globe. The top seeds will have relatively easy games, but the middle matches will be extremely close. We bring you the regulations, pairings, and some opening impressions.

World Cup starts in hours 10th September – 5th October Baku, Azerbaijan

Posted by Baku World Cup 2015 on Tuesday, September 1, 2015

The 2015 FIDE World Chess Cup is here! The massive 128 player KO gathers some of the top players in the World, as well as qualifiers from every region and every continent. The winner will take home a massive USD$120,000 (minus the usual 20% FIDE tax). Both the winner and the runner-up will directly qualify to next year's Candidates Tournament.

The playing hall is in the Fairmont Baku Hotel, the north "Flame Tower"

The format is rather simple. The player's will play two games against each other, one with white and one with black. In case of a tie, a third day will be used for tiebreaks: colors will be drawn and the day will start with two rapid games (25+10). If still tied, colors will be redrawn and two quick games (10+10) will be played. If still tied, colors will be redrawn and two blitz games will be played (5+3).

If this is still drawn the the players shall play a single decisive sudden death game. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the opponent with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds for each move from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

The action starts at 15:00 Baku time, which is 6 a.m. New York and 11:00 in London.

The prize fund is as follows:

Round 1 losers: 64 x USD 6,000 (net 4,800) USD 384,000

Round 2 losers: 32 x USD 10,000 (net 8,000) USD 320,000

Round 3 losers: 16 x USD 16,000 (net 12,800) USD 256,000

Round 4 losers: 8 x USD 25,000 (net 20,000) USD 200,000

Round 5 losers: 4 x USD 35,000 (net 28,000) USD 140,000

Round 6 losers: 2 x USD 50,000 (net 40,000) USD 100,000

Runner-up: 1 x USD 80,000 (net 64,000) USD 80,000

World Cup winner: 1 x USD 120,000 (net 96,000) USD 120,000

Total: USD 1,600,000

Round One Pairings

The tournament has already had a couple of hiccups, but nothing that the organizers could control! Due to the ongoing Lufthansa strike in Germany, many players were unable to catch their flights. Some had to buy new flights, for example Samuel Sevian reportedly arrived in Europe from America and had to buy a new flight through Turkish Airlines for himself and his mother who is accompanying him.

Le Quang Liem arrived at 2 a.m. Baku time without luggage, but at leaset he was able to make the tournament. The organizers briefly considered postponing the first round but it seems that everything is now in order. Incidentally, the Vietnamese player will be playing Vasif Durarbayli, his roommate at Webster University in Saint Louis!

Other people played it rather safe, like Fabiano Caruana who arrived in Baku basically as soon as he was done with the Sinquefield Cup.

Caruana posted a nice view from his hotel room on his Instagram

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was held a couple of hours after the player's meeting. Security is very tight in Baku to avoid cheating, though perhaps a little too tight: watches and pens will not be allowed in the playing hall! The players will have to use the official pens to fill in their scoresheets.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov opened the tournament

He also picked the color: White king means Topalov (seed one) is white, Nakamura (seed two) is black in game one

президент ФИДЕ Кирсан Илюмжинов и министр молодежи и спорта Азад Рагимов осмотрели зал для соревнований и сыграли в быстрые шахматы. Партия завершилась вничью. Posted by Baku World Cup 2015 on Wednesday, September 9, 2015

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov blitzing out making sure the DGT boards are in working order

Make sure to follow with live commentary on www.playchess.com!

Top Ten Match-Ups on Round One

by Sagar Shah

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2678) - Anton Guijarro (2628)

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is a great attacker and original player but so is his 20-year-old opponent. This promises to be highly creative match-up.

Teimour Radjabov (2738) - Samuel Sevian (2556)

On one hand you have a person with loads of experience having played in the most elite tournaments against top ten players of the world, and on the other you have a 15-year-old prodigy who is one of the most talented players in the world today. Though Radjabov is the favourite it will be interesting to see how Samuel Sevian fares.

Denis Khismatullin (2651) – Alexander Areschenko (2661)

Two battle hardened fighters. Khismatullin’s games in the Russian championships were nothing but a show of a creative genius at work - always aiming for unconventional positions. He meets Areshchenko who loves to play sound and correct chess. Will Khismatullin’s ideas breakthrough or the pragmatism of the Ukrainian Areshchenko prevail?

Wei Yi (2734) – Salem Saleh (2610)

Wei Yi has taken the chess world by storm. He is the youngest guy to cross 2700 in the history of the game, and people are already predicting that he will soon be challenging Magnus Carlsen for the highest title. His opponent is not a guy to be messed around with. Trained by great players like Ivan Sokolov and Alexey Dreev, Salem is in great form winning the Asian Continental championships and beating players like Yuriy Kryvoruchko and Yuriy Kuzubov in the Abu Dhabi Masters. Wei Yi looks like the favourite but we can expect some surprise here.

Granda Zuniga Julio (2667) – Alexandr Fier (2624)

Two of the strongest players of South America face off against each other - the experienced Granda Zuniga from Peru against Alexandr Fier from Brazil. People will remember Granda’s fine run in the 2013 world cup where he knocked out strong players like Hrant Melumyan, Peter Leko and Anish Giri.

Eltaj Safarli (2657) – Balogh Csaba (2659)

Local boy and one of the most talented players of Azerbaijan takes on Hungarian number five. Anything can happen!

Mateusz Bartel (2623) – Gabriel Sargissian (2679)

Bartel had a very strong result at the European Individual Championships 2015 by taking the bronze medal and beat Nepomniachtchi in the last round. Gabriel Sargissian is famed for his amazing performances in team events. Who is the favourite here is quite unclear.

Samuel Shankland (2656)- Ivan Popov (2661)

Samuel Shankland has been having quite a torrid year in 2015. But he would be highly pumped up to win the first round and meet his country mate Hikaru Nakamura in round two. A product of the Russian chess school, Ivan Popov is no push over.

Michael Adams (2742) - Mariya Muzychuk (2528)

Of course, there is no doubt about who is the favourite in this match –it’s definitely Michael Adams. But if someone has some first-hand experience of playing in knock-out matches in extremely high pressure scenarios, then it has to be the World Women’s Champion Mariya Muzychuk. She won the world women's title by emerging victorious at the Women’s World Cup (a 128 player knock-out event) just six months ago. Will she be able to weave her magic again?

Vladimir Fedoseev (2659) – B.Adhiban (2674)

One word describes them the best – fighters. Vladimir Fedoseev loves to play long games never agreeing to a draw and Adhiban is currently on fire winning one open tournament after another. This is a match-up between a Russian and an Indian super-talent - who will prevail?

Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts V. Topalov (BUL) – – O. Adu (NGR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ivan Bukavshin (RUS) – – Sergei Zhigalko (BLR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Alexander Moiseenko (UKR) – – Shanglei Lu (CHN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Hao Wang (CHN) – – Milos Perunovic (SRB) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Peter Svidler (RUS) – – Emre Can (TUR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (GER) – – David Anton Guijarro (ESP) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Teimour Radjabov (AZE) – – Samuel Sevian (USA) 0 – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ilia Smirin (ISR) – – Romain Edouard (FRA) 0 – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ding Liren (CHN) – – Tomas Krnan (CAN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS) – – Yuniesky Quesada Perez (CUB) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts David Navara (CZE) – – Tamir Nabaty (ISR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Maxim Matlakov (RUS) – – Gadir Guseinov (AZE) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Levon Aronian (ARM) – – Michael Wiedenkeller (LUX) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Alexander Areshchenko (UKR) – – Denis Khismatullin (RUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Yi Wei (CHN) – – Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ray Robson (USA) – – Yuri Vovk (UKR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Anish Giri (NED) – – Arthur Ssegwanyi (UGA) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Alexander Motylev (RUS) – – Boris Grachev (RUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Peter Leko (HUN) – – Aleksey Goganov (RUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Igor Kovalenko (LAT) – – Yang Wen (CHN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Boris Gelfand (ISR) – – Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (CHI) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Julio Granda Zuniga (PER) – – Alexandr Fier (BRA) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL) – – Babu M.R. Lalith (IND) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Vladislav Artemiev (RUS) – – Surya Shekhar Ganguly (IND) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Wesley So (USA) – – Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Csaba Balogh (HUN) – – Eltaj Safarli (AZE) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) – – Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Le Quang Liem (VIE) – – Vasif Durarbayli (AZE) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS) – – Ziaur Rahman (BAN) 0 – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (VIE) – – Robert Kempinski (POL) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) – – Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez (CUB) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Gabriel Sargissian (ARM) – – Mateusz Bartel (POL) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Hikaru Nakamura (USA) – – Richmond Phiri (ZAM) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Samuel Shankland (USA) – – Ivan Popov (RUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Laurent Fressinet (FRA) – – Ante Brkic (CRO) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) – – Zhao Jun (CHN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Michael Adams (ENG) – – Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Viktor Laznicka (CZE) – – Varuzhan Akobian (USA) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Leiner Dominguez Perez (CUB) – – Federico Perez Ponsa (ARG) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Gata Kamsky (USA) – – Hrant Melkumyan (ARM) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Alexander Grischuk (RUS) – – Yusup Atabayev (TKM) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) – – B. Adhiban (IND) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Pavel Eljanov (UKR) – – Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) – – Alexander Ipatov (TUR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) – – Ilia Iljiushenok (RUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Ivan Saric (CRO) – – Amin Bassem (EGY) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) – – Ahmed Adly (EGY) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Maxim Rodshtein (ISR) – – Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (VEN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Fabiano Caruana (USA) – – Amir Zaibi (TUN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Evgeniy Najer (RUS) – – Rauf Mamedov (AZE) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Hua Ni (CHN) – – Sandro Mareco (ARG) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) – – Anton Kovalyov (CAN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts P. Harikrishna (IND) – – Max Illingworth (AUS) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Sanan Sjugirov (RUS) – – S.P. Sethuraman (IND) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) – – Pouya Idani (IRI) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Yifan Hou (CHN) – – Rafael Leitao (BRA) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) – – Deysi Cori T. (PER) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Lazaro Batista Bruzon (CUB) – – Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (IND) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Dmitry Andreikin (RUS) – – Jianchao Zhou (CHN) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Anton Korobov (UKR) – – Dragan Solak (TUR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Sergey Karjakin (RUS) – – Ermes Espinosa Veloz (CUB) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Alexander Onischuk (USA) – – Andrei Volokitin (UKR) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Yangyi Yu (CHN) – – Viorel Iordachescu (MDA) – – Player Rtg G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 Pts Igor Lysyj (RUS) – – Constantin Lupulescu (ROU) – –

Photos and information from the official website and their Facebook page