The 2017 Chess World Cup and You.
The 2017 Chess World Cup is a knockout competition which runs from the 1st-25th of September, and features 128 of the top chess players from all around the world.
To make this even more exciting for you, we want to encourage you to back a small selection of players in the hopes of winning some money, while following your favourite game.
Below is a ranked table of all 128 participants, each of whom can have at most one backer. For a fiver, you can choose three of these players to back (one from 1-40, one from 41-80, and one from 81-128.) If one of your backed players wins the tournament, you will win five times their ranking number (plus your original stake); e.g. if you have backed Magnus Carlsen and he wins, you get €10 back, if you have backed Vladimir Kramnik and he wins, you get €20, and if you have backed Oluwafemi Balogun and he wins, you get €645.
To enter, email us at galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com, with your name (or nom-de-plume to display, in case you wish to keep your investment a secret for spousal/Revenue purposes), three selected players (one each from within ranges 1-40, 41-80, 81-128), and a promise to hand over a fiver to us at the next available opportunity. Given that there’ll be a max of one backer per player (in the interests of avoiding bankruptcy), we’ll operate on a first-come-first-served basis, and we’ll deal with any complications if and when they arrive. Any surplus will go towards the club’s rent for next year.
If you enter after the first round has started, but before the start of the second, entry is €10 for three candidates.
Rank | Name | Rating | Backer |
1 | Magnus Carlsen[3] | 2832 | James Blackwell |
2 | Wesley So[5] | 2812 | Bill Delee |
3 | Vladimir Kramnik[3] | 2808 | |
4 | Fabiano Caruana[3] | 2808 | |
5 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov[2] | 2800 | Jerome Sheahan |
6 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave[5] | 2796 | Zoran Dragic |
7 | Levon Aronian | 2793 | Pete Morriss |
8 | Viswanathan Anand[2] | 2786 | |
9 | Hikaru Nakamura[3] | 2785 | |
10 | Ding Liren | 2783 | |
11 | Sergey Karjakin[2] | 2781 | Fintan Hegarty |
12 | Anish Giri[4] | 2771 | |
13 | Alexander Grischuk[4] | 2761 | |
14 | Peter Svidler[4] | 2756 | |
15 | Yu Yangyi[2] | 2749 | |
16 | Pavel Eljanov[1] | 2739 | |
17 | Vassily Ivanchuk[4] | 2738 | |
18 | Pentala Harikrishna[2] | 2737 | |
19 | David Navara[3] | 2739 | |
20 | Michael Adams[2] | 2736 | |
21 | Ian Nepomniachtchi[3] | 2732 | |
22 | Radoslaw Wojtaszek | 2730 | |
23 | Wei Yi[2] | 2728 | Pete Morriss |
24 | Boris Gelfand[2] | 2728 | |
25 | Le Quang Liem[2] | 2726 | |
26 | Teimur Radjabov[2] | 2724 | Conall Hegarty |
27 | Li Chao[3] | 2720 | |
28 | Dmitry Andreikin[2] | 2720 | |
29 | Nikita Vitiugov[2] | 2720 | |
30 | Francisco Vallejo Pons[3] | 2717 | |
31 | Bu Xiangzhi[4] | 2712 | |
32 | Evgeny Tomashevsky[2] | 2710 | |
33 | Etienne Bacrot[2] | 2708 | |
34 | Ernesto Inarkiev[2] | 2707 | |
35 | Baadur Jobava[4] | 2707 | |
36 | Maxim Matlakov[3] | 2707 | |
37 | Evgeniy Najer[4] | 2706 | |
38 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 2703 | |
39 | Ruslan Ponomariov[1] | 2699 | |
40 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda[2] | 2697 | |
41 | Wang Hao[4] | 2696 | |
42 | Richard Rapport[4] | 2694 | Bill Delee |
43 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi[3] | 2692 | |
44 | David Howell[1] | 2692 | |
45 | Vladislav Artemiev[3] | 2691 | |
46 | Ivan Cheparinov[2] | 2690 | James Blackwell |
47 | Maxim Rodshtein[4] | 2689 | |
48 | Alexander Onischuk[3] | 2685 | |
49 | Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu | 2683 | |
50 | Baskaran Adhiban | 2677 | |
51 | Varuzhan Akobian[1] | 2673 | |
52 | Bassem Amin[1] | 2672 | |
53 | Alexander Motylev[2] | 2672 | |
54 | Hou Yifan[2] | 2666 | Zoran Dragic |
55 | Sandro Mareco[1] | 2659 | |
56 | David Anton Guijarro[1] | 2659 | Jerome Sheahan |
57 | Jeffery Xiong[1] | 2658 | Conall Hegarty |
58 | Igor Kovalenko[1] | 2656 | |
59 | Gawain Jones[1] | 2653 | |
60 | Martyn Kravtsiv[2] | 2653 | |
61 | Axel Bachmann[1] | 2653 | |
62 | Daniil Dubov[4] | 2652 | Pete Morriss |
63 | Laurent Fressinet[1] | 2651 | |
64 | Emilio Cordova[1] | 2651 | Fintan Hegarty |
65 | Lazaro Bruzon[2] | 2650 | |
66 | Alexander Areshchenko[1] | 2649 | |
67 | Boris Grachev[2] | 2648 | |
68 | Aleksey Dreev[2] | 2647 | |
69 | Luka Lenic[2] | 2646 | |
70 | Anton Kovalyov[3] | 2643 | |
71 | Yaroslav Zherebukh[1] | 2642 | |
72 | Anton Demchenko[2] | 2638 | |
73 | Matthias Bluebaum[2] | 2636 | |
74 | Sergei Zhigalko[1] | 2635 | |
75 | Yuriy Kuzubov[3] | 2634 | |
76 | Kacper Piorun[1] | 2631 | |
77 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son[1] | 2629 | |
78 | Ivan Salgado Lopez[1] | 2627 | |
79 | S.P. Sethuraman[3] | 2625 | |
80 | Hrant Melkumyan[1] | 2624 | |
81 | Robert Hovhannisyan[1] | 2621 | |
82 | Jorge Cori[2] | 2618 | |
83 | Viktor Erdos[2] | 2616 | Conall Hegarty |
84 | Neuris Delgado Ramirez[1] | 2613 | |
85 | Daniel Fridman[1] | 2610 | Bill Delee |
86 | Mikheil Mchedlishvili[1] | 2602 | |
87 | Samuel Sevian[2] | 2601 | Fintan Hegarty |
88 | Benjamin Bok[1] | 2600 | |
89 | Deep Sengupta[1] | 2594 | |
90 | Aryan Tari[2] | 2593 | Pete Morriss |
91 | Aleksey Goganov[1] | 2592 | |
92 | Aleksandr Lenderman[3] | 2585 | |
93 | Levan Pantsulaia[1] | 2585 | |
94 | Julio Sadorra[1] | 2585 | |
95 | Dimitrios Mastrovasilis[1] | 2580 | |
96 | Murali Karthikeyan[1] | 2579 | |
97 | Murtas Kazhgaleyev[1] | 2578 | |
98 | Mikhail Antipov[1] | 2576 | |
99 | Alexandr Fier[1] | 2576 | Jerome Sheahan |
100 | Kaido Kulaots[1] | 2573 | |
101 | Diego Flores[1] | 2567 | |
102 | Aleksej Aleksandrov[1] | 2565 | |
103 | Kirill Stupak[1] | 2564 | |
104 | Vitaly Kunin[1] | 2557 | James Blackwell |
105 | Yusnel Bacallao Alonso[1] | 2554 | |
106 | Helgi Dam Ziska[1] | 2544 | |
107 | Tsegmed Batchuluun[1] | 2543 | |
108 | Jóhann Hjartarson[1] | 2541 | |
109 | Bator Sambuev[1] | 2539 | |
110 | Leandro Krysa[1] | 2534 | |
111 | Mladen Palac[1] | 2531 | Zoran Dragic |
112 | Felipe El Debs[1] | 2531 | |
113 | Yuri Gonzalez Vidal[1] | 2530 | |
114 | Nana Dzagnidze[1] | 2519 | |
115 | Jahongir Vakhidov[1] | 2519 | |
116 | Amirreza Pourramezanali[1] | 2505 | |
117 | Anton Smirnov[1] | 2496 | |
118 | Mohamed Haddouche[1] | 2492 | |
119 | Abdullah Al-Rakib[1] | 2484 | |
120 | Yeoh Li Tian[1] | 2471 | |
121 | Liu Guanchu[1] | 2453 | |
122 | Essam El-Gindy[1] | 2448 | |
123 | Daniel Cawdery[1] | 2426 | |
124 | Muhammad Khusenkhojaev[1] | 2424 | |
125 | Dai Changren[1] | 2423 | |
126 | Kenny Solomon[1] | 2376 | |
127 | Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo[1] | 2367 | |
128 | Oluwafemi Balogun[1] | 2241 | |
Posted by Fintan on July 29th, 2017