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The Arctic Circle is one of the major circles of latitude, running 66.56° north of the Equator. It marks the southern extremity of the "polar day", which is when the sun is visible for 24 hours (usually referred to as the "midnight sun") at least once per year, and polar night, when the sun does not appear above the horizon for 24 hours. The midnight sun can be seen in summer for many days, weeks or months, depending on how far north of the arctic circle a place is located.
The Arctic Circle [Graphic by Swinburne University]
The places where people can see the midnight sun are Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and some extremities of Russia.
The city of Tromsø lies in the northern-most
region of Norway,
69° 40' 33" N, 18° 55' 10" E, almost 400 km inside the Arctic Circle
| Date |
Sunrise
|
Sunset
|
Length of day |
Altitude
|
| 10 Aug 2013 |
03:18
|
22:16
|
18h 57m 28s |
35.8°
|
| 15 Aug 2013 |
03:45
|
21:48
|
18h 03m 48s |
34.2°
|
| 20 Aug 2013 |
04:09
|
21:23
|
17h 13m 50s |
32.6°
|
| 25 Aug 2013 |
04:31
|
20:58
|
16h 26m 23s |
30.9°
|
| 30 Aug 2013 |
04:53
|
20:33
|
15h 40m 43s |
29.2°
|
| 03 Sep 2013 |
05:09
|
20:14
|
15h 05m 07s |
27.7°
|
So the "night" in Tromsø will on the arrival of the players last just five hours, with much of it bathed in the twilight of the set sun just below the horizon. On departure the players will enjoy fifteen hours of daylight and nine hours of night.
The island city of Tromsø as seen in Google Earth
In Tromsø there are remains of settlement that go back to the end of the ice age. The first church was built in 1252, and in the 19th century it became a major centre for Arctic hunting. During World War II it served briefly as the seat of Norwegian government, and the German battleship Tirpitz was sunk off the Tromsø Island in 1944. Today there are over 100 nationalities in the town's population.
A note on the name: in Europe it is known as "Tromsö", but the Norwegians pronounce it "Troom-sa", the first vowel as in "rook" and the second consisting of a special Norwegian schwa which is not easy to transcribe, describe or even vocalise. But these Nordic people are generous and will accept various pronunciations.
You can find all details and links to many ChessBase articles on Tromsø here.
The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players. The participants have qualified to play based on the following criteria: the World Champion (Anand), the Women's World Champion (Ushenina, Hou Yifan), the World Junior U-20 Champions 2011 & 2012 (Swiercz, Ipatov), the four 2011 World Cup semi-finalists (Svidler, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov), 18 players according to ratings, 92 players from Continental Championships, six FIDE President nominees and four organiser nominees. The winner and the runner-up of the World Cup 2013 will qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the next World Championship cycle.
If you look at the FIDE rating list you will find that four players from the top are missing: local hero Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Viswanathan Anand, Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov and Ding Liren of China. Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik are playing, because they are trying to qualify for the 2014 Candidates Tournament and did not play in the FIDE Grand Prix.
| a) 2011 World Cup semi-finalists 01. P. Svidler (RUS) 02. A. Grischuk (RUS) 03. V. Ivanchuk (UKR) 04. R. Ponomariov (UKR) b) 2012 Women's World Champion c) 2011 and 2012 Junior World Champions d) 18 players based on e) 46 players from the European Championships |
66. I. Popov (RUS) 2013 f) 20 players from the Americas g) 20 players from Asia/Oceania h) 6 players from Africa i) 6 nominees of the FIDE President j) 4 nominees of the local organising committee Total = 128 players |
You can view the pairings in PDF here, or go to the score tables of round one here.
The rate of play is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. Two games are played. If the score is equal there are two rapid chess tiebreak games, played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still tied two accelerated games will be played, with time controls of 10 min + 10 sec. If the score is still tied two more games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec. If there is still no decision a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).
| Round | Prize | Subtotal |
| Round 1 losers: | 64 x US $6,000 | US $384,000 |
| Round 2 losers: | 32 x US $10,000 | US $320,000 |
| Round 3 losers: | 16 x US $16,000 | US $256,000 |
| Round 4 losers: | 8 x US $25,000 | US $200,000 |
| Round 5 losers: | 4 x US $35,000 | US $140,000 |
| Round 6 losers: | 2 x US $50,000 | US $100,000 |
| Runner-up: | 1 x US $80,000 | US $80,000 |
| World Cup winner: | 1 x US $120,000 | US $120,000 |
| Total | US $1,600,000 |
The World Cup starts on August 9th, 2013 with the arbiters' meeting. On the 10th is the players' meeting and the opening ceremony. The first round is on Sunday, August 11th to Tuesday, August 13. Each round is held over three days. Thursday August 29 is a free day. The final will consist of four classical games and takes place from August 30 to September 3rd (tiebreaks, closing ceremony). A detailed schedule can be found here.
Links
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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