2008 FIDE Grand Prix - Baku
April 20th - May 6th

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KHollister,

Player Standings



Official Site

You can download the games here.

So Wang Yue leading before the first rest day. Who would have guessed? Raise your hands please. Anybody?

Yes, you with the raised hand - You must be Chinese



Seriously, this tournaments proves what I have thought, but many observers on different forums and playchess chat fail to realise. There is not much difference in strength between ~2680 and ~2750 players. Everybody can beat anybody, there are just tiny details and daily form that decides about the outcome. The main difference between ~2750 and ~2680 players is that the first group gets invited to super GM tournaments and others don't. It's much easier to mantain and raise your rating if you are always playing in closed tournaments against equally rated players, than if you have to play in open tournaments where a much lower rated opponent can surprise you from time to time.
Of course in the long run the ~2750 players are better than ~2680 players, but in one tournament anything can happen.

KH, i just wanted to say that you're doing a good job and keep it up. how you find the time, i'll never know.. but ubi should get you a gift of some sort

I appreciate the support -- but in this case, you're thanking the wrong person.

Ebutaljib is the person who has graciously volunteered to keep up with the tournament. Because of time differences, by the time I look at things, he's already updated the pgn files and standings charts.

Ebutaljib, once again, thank you. We're all in your debt.

an oversight. thanks ebu.

actually, my thanks on behalf of most(if not all) users here is applicable to everything, not just the tournament.

thanks guys

Covering the tournaments is a joint project; sometimes KHollister updates the data and sometimes I do it.

So at least half the credits go to KHollister. He was the one who got the idea about covering the tournaments, I just pushed him in the right direction here and there.

Not to change the subject, but...

Since FIDE takes a lot of bashing (and rightly so, I might add), it's only fair to point out that the site for the Baku tournament is very nice.

FIDE apparently put a great deal of thought into the design. I hope that other tournaments follow this example... say like, before next year's Linares-Morelia tournament?

Now if FIDE would only put the same kind of thought into other areas...

Other Grand Prix tournaments will most likely have the same format as the Baku tournament. All fide sites: fide.com, grandprix.fide.com and (surprisingly) baku2008.fide.com, are located in Turkey and probably administred by the same group of people.


As for Linares-Morelia, I wouldn't hold my breath. We should consider to be lucky to even have an english version of the page

Alexander Grischuk leading into the second rest day with half a point ahead of Wang Yue and Vugar Gashimov the two invitees - they certanly proved that they deserved their nominations (Wang was nominated by FIDE president and Gashimov was nominated by Baku, the host city)
After four consecutive losses in the start, Cheparinov managed a fine comeback scoring 3/4 in the second section of the tournament.
On the other hand Kamsky (after taking the lead in round 6) droped all the way to place 9.

In general, the whole field is very close, at least half of the participants still have a realistic chance to win this tournament.

Yes, it's been a very good tournament.

I must admit my initial impression of FIDE's invitees was wrong. They've done exceptionally well.

Four more rounds to go!

Take a look at Bacrot vs. Inarkiev. My kind of move

I don't think I've seen a match end before like Cheparinov vs. Karjakin. A draw with only the kings left...

Very exciting tournament. Who would have thought the invitees would be the top two?

It happens where the "Sofia rules" are enforced, otherwise very very rarely. In this tournament alone the two kings ending already happened 5 times and few where only one pawn or piece were left.

Yes, looks like the two "outsiders" will win. I can hardly wait to see how they will perform in the next Grand Prix, where they wont be outsiders anymore. Then we will see from what they are made of

The local boy Vugar Gashimov wins the first Grand Prix tournament together with Wang Yue and Magnus Carlsen who collected himself just in time (with two last rounds wins).

All players with same match points share Grand Prix points and prize money equally. I believe the SB tie-breaks are used for distributing the throphies. So Gashimov receives the throphy for 1st place, Wang for 2nd and Carlsen for 3rd place, but they all lead in the Grand Prix standings



The three winners



They will have to tear this check to three equal pieces

I've never seen three happier people, have you?
Looks like they were just sentenced to death by firing squad.

Probably the thought that some football players receive this sum every week for just sitting on the bench crossed their minds

True... and the fact they have to split that 3 ways made them even happier.