FIDE GRAND PRIX 2008/2009 STANDINGS – ARONIAN WINS

Chessbase News
Aug 26 2009
Germany

26.08.2009 – With one tournament still left Levon Aronian is already
the winner of the 2008/2009 FIDE Grand Prix. The Armenian GM has
collected a total of 500 points from two GP victories and his second
place in Jermuk. Since nobody else can catch him – the best three
of four tournaments are used – the final Grand Prix, still to be
announced, will not change the status of the winner. Rules, points
and tables.

FIDE Grand Prix standings The FIDE Grand Prix is a series of six
tournaments held over two years (2008-2009). A total of 21 top world
players were selected to compete in these events. Each player had to
agree to participate in exactly four of the six tournaments. They
could rank their preference of the locations and times, but FIDE
had the right to assign players to tournaments according to the
organizational needs.

Each tournament has 14 participants playing over a schedule of
seventeen days. The months allocated for the organisation of the Grand
Prix tournaments are April, August and December of each respective
year. These months have been selected to ensure there is no conflict
with any other major event.

Qualifiers for the Grand Prix 2008-2009 The players who qualify
for selection to play in the Grand Prix are chosen on the following
prioritized basis:

Matches – For the first cycle of 2008/9, all players in the World
Championship (i.e. Kramnik or Anand) and Challenger matches (Topalov
or the World Cup 2007 winner) were invited to participate in the
Grand Prix from the outset.

Qualification – The FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk 2007 was used to
determine three qualifiers for the 2008/9 Grand Prix Series. Excluding
the winner, these will be the players who have qualified to the semi
final stages of the World Cup.

Rating – Based on an average calculation to two decimal places, of
the January 2007 rating list and the October 2007 rating list in the
year prior to start of the cycle, seven qualifiers were selected.

President nominees – The FIDE President may nominate one player,
who must be rated among the top 40 players in the world as per the
October 2007 rating list. Players nominated by the President should
be from different countries.

Host city nominees – One players may be nominated by each host city
and must be rated not less than 2550 in the last rating list prior
to the final nomination or selection of players. If the host city
does not have a player rated at least 2550 then the highest rated
player from the Federation of the host city will be invited to play,
subject to his rating not being lower than 2500.

Tournament format Each Grand Prix tournament is a 14-player round robin
tournament of 13 rounds. Time control: 120 minutes for the first forty
moves, 60 minutes for the next twenty moves and then 15 minutes and
an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 61 onwards. The players
are not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw
claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter.

Prize money and Grand Prix points The recommended prize money which is
offered by host city organisers for each tournament is 212,000 Euros
and is split 162,000 Euros as direct prize money for the tournament
and 50,000 Euros towards an accumulated prize fund for the players
at the end of the series.

In the case of any tie in any tournament, the Grand Prix ranking points
and prize money are split equally. The overall winner of the Grand
Prix will be the one who will score the most number of cumulative
points. The cumulative score will be calculated from the best three
results for each player. The two top winners of the Grand Prix qualify
to the Candidates Stage of the World Championship cycle 2009-2011.

The winner and the runner up of the Grand Prix series at the end
of 2009 will qualify for the Candidates (eight players, matches,
etc.) to be held in the third quarter of 2010. Should the overall
winner of the Grand Prix also be the World Champion at the end of the
Grand Prix series in 2009, then the Challenger rights will go to the
second placed overall in the Grand Prix. Should the second placed
player in the Grand Prix also be the winner of the World Cup 2009,
then the Challenger rights emanating from the Grand Prix will go to
the third placed overall in the Grand Prix series.