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.

RankNameRatingBacker
1Magnus Carlsen[3]2832James Blackwell
2Wesley So[5]2812Bill Delee
3Vladimir Kramnik[3]2808
4Fabiano Caruana[3]2808
5Shakhriyar Mamedyarov[2]2800Jerome Sheahan
6Maxime Vachier-Lagrave[5]2796Zoran Dragic
7Levon Aronian2793Pete Morriss
8Viswanathan Anand[2]2786
9Hikaru Nakamura[3]2785
10Ding Liren2783
11Sergey Karjakin[2]2781Fintan Hegarty
12Anish Giri[4]2771
13Alexander Grischuk[4]2761
14Peter Svidler[4]2756
15Yu Yangyi[2]2749
16Pavel Eljanov[1]2739
17Vassily Ivanchuk[4]2738
18Pentala Harikrishna[2]2737
19David Navara[3]2739
20Michael Adams[2]2736
21Ian Nepomniachtchi[3]2732
22Radoslaw Wojtaszek2730
23Wei Yi[2]2728Pete Morriss
24Boris Gelfand[2]2728
25Le Quang Liem[2]2726
26Teimur Radjabov[2]2724Conall Hegarty
27Li Chao[3]2720
28Dmitry Andreikin[2]2720
29Nikita Vitiugov[2]2720
30Francisco Vallejo Pons[3]2717
31Bu Xiangzhi[4]2712
32Evgeny Tomashevsky[2]2710
33Etienne Bacrot[2]2708
34Ernesto Inarkiev[2]2707
35Baadur Jobava[4]2707
36Maxim Matlakov[3]2707
37Evgeniy Najer[4]2706
38Vladimir Fedoseev2703
39Ruslan Ponomariov[1]2699
40Jan-Krzysztof Duda[2]2697
41Wang Hao[4]2696
42Richard Rapport[4]2694Bill Delee
43Vidit Santosh Gujrathi[3]2692
44David Howell[1]2692
45Vladislav Artemiev[3]2691
46Ivan Cheparinov[2]2690James Blackwell
47Maxim Rodshtein[4]2689
48Alexander Onischuk[3]2685
49Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu2683
50Baskaran Adhiban2677
51Varuzhan Akobian[1]2673
52Bassem Amin[1]2672
53Alexander Motylev[2]2672
54Hou Yifan[2]2666Zoran Dragic
55Sandro Mareco[1]2659
56David Anton Guijarro[1]2659Jerome Sheahan
57Jeffery Xiong[1]2658Conall Hegarty
58Igor Kovalenko[1]2656
59Gawain Jones[1]2653
60Martyn Kravtsiv[2]2653
61Axel Bachmann[1]2653
62Daniil Dubov[4]2652Pete Morriss
63Laurent Fressinet[1]2651
64Emilio Cordova[1]2651Fintan Hegarty
65Lazaro Bruzon[2]2650
66Alexander Areshchenko[1]2649
67Boris Grachev[2]2648
68Aleksey Dreev[2]2647
69Luka Lenic[2]2646
70Anton Kovalyov[3]2643
71Yaroslav Zherebukh[1]2642
72Anton Demchenko[2]2638
73Matthias Bluebaum[2]2636
74Sergei Zhigalko[1]2635
75Yuriy Kuzubov[3]2634
76Kacper Piorun[1]2631
77Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son[1]2629
78Ivan Salgado Lopez[1]2627
79S.P. Sethuraman[3]2625
80Hrant Melkumyan[1]2624
81Robert Hovhannisyan[1]2621
82Jorge Cori[2]2618
83Viktor Erdos[2]2616Conall Hegarty
84Neuris Delgado Ramirez[1]2613
85Daniel Fridman[1]2610Bill Delee
86Mikheil Mchedlishvili[1]2602
87Samuel Sevian[2]2601Fintan Hegarty
88Benjamin Bok[1]2600
89Deep Sengupta[1]2594
90Aryan Tari[2]2593Pete Morriss
91Aleksey Goganov[1]2592
92Aleksandr Lenderman[3]2585
93Levan Pantsulaia[1]2585
94Julio Sadorra[1]2585
95Dimitrios Mastrovasilis[1]2580
96Murali Karthikeyan[1]2579
97Murtas Kazhgaleyev[1]2578
98Mikhail Antipov[1]2576
99Alexandr Fier[1]2576Jerome Sheahan
100Kaido Kulaots[1]2573
101Diego Flores[1]2567
102Aleksej Aleksandrov[1]2565
103Kirill Stupak[1]2564
104Vitaly Kunin[1]2557James Blackwell
105Yusnel Bacallao Alonso[1]2554
106Helgi Dam Ziska[1]2544
107Tsegmed Batchuluun[1]2543
108Jóhann Hjartarson[1]2541
109Bator Sambuev[1]2539
110Leandro Krysa[1]2534
111Mladen Palac[1]2531Zoran Dragic
112Felipe El Debs[1]2531
113Yuri Gonzalez Vidal[1]2530
114Nana Dzagnidze[1]2519
115Jahongir Vakhidov[1]2519
116Amirreza Pourramezanali[1]2505
117Anton Smirnov[1]2496
118Mohamed Haddouche[1]2492
119Abdullah Al-Rakib[1]2484
120Yeoh Li Tian[1]2471
121Liu Guanchu[1]2453
122Essam El-Gindy[1]2448
123Daniel Cawdery[1]2426
124Muhammad Khusenkhojaev[1]2424
125Dai Changren[1]2423
126Kenny Solomon[1]2376
127Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo[1]2367
128Oluwafemi Balogun[1]2241