World Blitz Chess Championship Almaty 2008

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11/7/2008 – This 16-player round robin will take place in the Republic of Kazakhstan on November 7 and 8, at five-minute time controls without increment. The prize fund is $300,000, with first place picking up $68,000. The contenders are Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Mamediarov, Kamsky and Svidler. But don't count out blitz expert Grischuk. You can watch live on the official site and on Playchess.

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World Blitz Chess Championship
Almaty 2008

The World Chess Blitz Championship will take place from November 7th to 8th in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan. Sixteen players will participate in a round robin tournament with classical plain vanilla time controls: five minutes for the whole game for each opponent, no increment. The total prize fund is 350,000 Swiss Francs (= 235,000 Euros = US $297,000), with the winner taking 80,000 SFr (€54,000 or $68,000). The prize money is donated by the Chess Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of the "Alliance Bank".

Participants

#	Player	Country	Rating	Rank
1	Alexander Morozevitch	Russia	2787	2
2	Vassiliy Ivanchuk	Ukraine	2786	3
3	Teimur Radjabov	Azerbaijan	2751	8
4	Shakhriar Mamediarov	Azerbaijan	2731	14
5	Gata Kamsky	USA	2729	16
6	Peter Svidler	Russia	2727	17
7	Boris Gelfand	Israel	2719	20
8	Lenier Dominguez Perez	Cuba	2719	21
9	Alexander Grischuk	Russia	2719	23
10	Judith Polgar	Hungary	2711	27
11	Sergey Rublevsky	Russia	2702	32
12	Krishnan Sashikiran	India	2694	35
13	Vladislav Tkachev	France	2664	58
14	Murtas Kazhgaleyev	Kazakhstan	2640
15	Rafael Vaganian	Armenia	2590
16	Amin Bassem	Egypt	2560

Location

Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1.2 million. It is not the capital of the country (Astana is), but the major commercial center of Kazakhstan.

The Svyato-Voznesensky Cathedral, built in 1904, entirely of wood and without nails

The Central Mosque of Almaty [photo: Marek Rafalowicz]

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.