In addition, Ilyumzhinov spoke with the Youth and Sports Minister of Azerbaijan, Azad Rahimov who has guaranteed the highest levels of security for all World Cup participants. In return, Rahimov thanked the President of FIDE for his active participation in this important issue, which will benefit the two countries involved.
Earlier, FIDE published the composition of participants for the Cup, to be held from September 10th to October 5th 2015, in the capital of Azerbaijan. The names have been declared for almost all of the 128 players who will not only fight for the trophies, but also for the Membership of the Tournament. Open vacancies remain for grandmasters' nominees selected by the FIDE President and the Cup's organising committee.
The world champion, Magnus Carlsen and the last World Cup semi-finalists, Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitry Andreikin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Evgeny Tomashevsky have automatically won the right to play in Baku. The Women's World Champion, Ukrainian Mariya Muzychuk and the World Youth Champions of the last two years Chinese, Yu Yangyi and Lu Shenglei will also participate in the Azerbaijan games.
Next, come the names of eighteen players who pushed themselves through to the World Cup with their ratings. They are Shahriar Mammadyarov, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Grischuk, Sergey, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Nakamura, Sergey Karjakin, Anish Giri, Boris Gelfand, Leinier Dominguez, Wesley, Michael Adams, Peter Svidler, Nikita Vitiugov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and Ding Liren. By the way, not all of the alleged grandmasters will participate in Baku.
World champion, Magnus Carlsen is preparing to defend the title, and Anand, who, while having lost to the Norwegian player, has automatically booked his place in the candidates’ tournament. Thus, there still could be changes in the membership especially in light of the fact that Timur Radjabov is not mentioned in the FIDE list.
As for the hosts of the chessboard, in addition to Mammadyarov, who made his way through to the World Cup according to his rating, Rauf Mamedov, Eltaj Safarli and Vasif Durarbayli will also play in their home country. They are the nominees from the Organizing Committee. Besides, one place remains vacant. Certainly, it will be filled promptly. Gadir Guseinov, one of the nominees of the FIDE President will also test his strength at the tournament.
If we are talking about the continental quotas: 46 grandmasters made it through to the World Cup Championship according to the results of two draws. North and South America will be represented in Baku by twenty players, as well as Asia and Oceania. Six more players will be added from Africa.
It should be noted that the competition would be played as a knockout. Altogether 64 pairs of players will be formed according to the sortation result. The winner of the two round duel will continue the fight, and in the case of a tie, the tiebreak will be rapid, blitz, then «Armageddon».