Chess World Cup 2023

The Chess World Cup 2023 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 July to 24 August 2023. It was the 10th edition of the Chess World Cup. The winner, runner-up and third-place finisher of the tournament (Magnus Carlsen, R Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana) earned the right to the play in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. In January 2024, Carlsen withdrew from the Candidates tournament, with the fourth-place finisher from the World Cup (Nijat Abasov) qualifying in his place. The tournament was held in parallel with the Women's Chess World Cup 2023.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the defending champion. He lost in the fifth round (last 16) to Fabiano Caruana.

Format

The tournament was an eight-round knockout event, with the top 50 seeds having been given a bye directly into the second round. The losers of the two semi-finals played a match for third place. The players who finished first, second, and third qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2024, a tournament to decide the challenger for the upcoming World Championship.

Each round consisted of classical time limit games on the first two days, plus tie-breaks on the third day if they were required. The time limits were as follows:

Two classical time limit games: 90 minutes, plus a 30-minute increment on move 40, plus a 30-second increment per move from move 1, per player. If the match was tied after the classical games, players played two rapid chess games, with 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, per player. If the match was tied, players played two more rapid chess games, with 10 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move, per player. If the match was still tied, players played two blitz games, with five minutes plus a three-second increment per move, per player. If the match was still tied, a single blitz game, with three minutes plus a two-second increment per move, was played to decide the match. A drawing of lots determined which player had white. If the game was drawn, the players switched colors and played again, and this process was repeated until a decisive result was obtained.

Schedule

Each round lasted three days: two for classical time control games and a third, if necessary, for tie-breaks. Rounds 1 to 3 ran from July 30 to August 7; August 8 was a rest day; Rounds 4 to 6 ran from August 9 to 17; August 18 was a rest day; and the last two rounds ran from August 19 to 24.

Prize money

The total prize fund is US$1,834,000, with the first prize of US$110,000.

Participants

The participants are seeded here by their FIDE rating of July 2023. All players are grandmasters unless indicated otherwise.

Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.

Qualifier explanation

The following 206 players qualified for the World Cup:

The world chess champion (declined to play)
The women's world chess champion as of 1 June 2023 (WWC) (declined to play)
The 2022 World Junior Champion U20 (U20)
The top four players in the Chess World Cup 2021 (WC)
109 players qualifying from Continental and Zonal events:
- Europe (47 20): including European Championships 2021 (E21, 23), 2022 (E22, 20), and 2023, (E23, 23), and Zone 1.10 2022 (Z1.10, 1)
- Americas (11 9): including American Continental Championships 2022 (AM22, 4) and 2023 (AM23, 4), Zonals 2.1 (Z2.1, 5), 2.2 (Z2.2, 1), 2.3 (Z2.3, 2), and 2.4 2022 (Z2.4, 2), and Zonal 2.5 2023 (Z2.5, 2)
- Asia (18): including Asian Championships 2022 (AS22, 4) and 2023 (AS23, 4), Zonals 3.1 (Z3.1, 1), 3.2 (Z3.2, 1), 3.3 (Z3.3, 2), 3.4 (Z3.4, 2), 3.5 (Z3.5, 2), 3.6 (Z3.6, 1), and 3.7 2023 (Z3.7, 1)
- Africa (4): including the African Championships 2022 (AF22, 3) and 2023 (AF23, 1)
The 13 highest-rated players from the June 2023 FIDE World Rankings (R)
71 federations spots selected according to the final standings of the 44th Chess Olympiad (FN)
4 nominees of the FIDE President (PN)
2 nominees of the organizer (ON)

Armenia did not nominate a player, and a third Organizer's nominee was invited instead.

The participants were seeded by their FIDE rating of July 2023.

Replacements

The following are the players from the list of qualifiers who declined to play, and their replacements:

Ding Liren (CHN), 2780 (World Champion) → Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), 2732 (R)
Alireza Firouzja (FRA), 2786 (R) → Lê Quang Liêm (VIE), 2728 (R)
Viswanathan Anand (IND), 2754 (R) → Wei Yi (CHN), 2722 (R)
Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2775 (R) → Wang Hao (CHN), 2709 (R)
Richárd Rapport (ROU), 2752 (R) → Nikita Vitiugov (FIDE), 2721 (R)
Sergey Karjakin (RUS), 2750 (WC) → Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI), 2716 (R)
Levon Aronian (USA), 2742 (R) → Daniil Dubov (RUS), 2716 (R)
Ju Wenjun (CHN), 2566 (WWC) → Vidit Gujrathi (IND), 2719 (R) (Ju Wenjun played in the Women's World Cup instead.)
Gabriel Sargissian (ARM), 2692 (E22) → Markus Ragger (AUT), 2624 (E22)
Haik Martirosyan (ARM), 2685 (E22) → Mateusz Bartel (POL), 2614 (E22)
Shant Sargsyan (ARM), 2640 (E22) → Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (ESP), 2617 (E22)
Yasser Quesada (CUB), 2609 (AM22) → Leonel Figueredo Losada (MEX), IM, 2345
Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM), 2598 (E22) → Vladimir Baklan (UKR), 2550 (E22)
Hovhannes Gabuzyan (ARM), 2579 (E21) → Levan Pantsulaia (GEO), 2564
Kirk Ghazarian (USA), IM, 2479 (AM23) → Gianmarco Leiva (PER) (AM23).

Chess World Cup 2023

Format

Schedule

Prize money

Participants

Qualifier explanation

Replacements

Rounds 1–4

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Section 9

Section 10

Section 11

Section 12

Section 13

Section 14

Section 15

Section 16

Rounds 5–8

Third place

Finals

Notes

References

External links