World Cup, Women World Cup and Continental
Just a compilation from my posts on CFC forum.
World Cup and Women's World Cup.
As you probably know, the World Cup (WC) and Women's World Cup (WWC) will be played in Sochi, Russia starting from Jul 10, 2021. I am cautiously optimistic about Russia's ability to make it happen. Honestly, I was more optimistic about a month ago, but even now I think the FIDE has a good chance of organizing it. The candidate's tournament should restart in Russia in about a week and will give us an important indicator about competitive chess in pandemic time.
Even before the pandemic, FIDE announced important changes for both WC and WCC. The number of players, which were traditionally 128 (WC) and 64 (WCC) increased significantly to 206 and 103 respectively. The main idea was to give more chances to National Champions. Obviously, the new system requires an extra round. The 50 highest rated players will advance to the second round automatically, while 156 will play against one another. 78 winners and 50 top players (which is exactly 128) will continue with the traditional elimination format.
A similar procedure applies for WCC. 25 top female players advance to the 2nd round directly, while the 78 remaining participants compete for 39 spots. 25+39=64, and thus from the 2nd round, we'll see the traditional elimination format.
As a top 91 country by average rating, Canada has 1 spot guaranteed in the WC. Generally, CFC can do whatever it wants. FIDE accepts any normal system. CFC could even appoint one of the top Canadian players without any tournament or match. The same applies for WCC.
As a Zone 2.2 country, Canada has another spot in both WC and WCC. To ensure this 2nd spot, CFC has to organize a Zonal tournament according to FIDE regulations. In FIDE they have the Global Strategy Commission (GSC) that is responsible for any ruling related to WC and Zonals. Last month, I spoke extensively with the 2 main people in GSC, GM E.Sutovsky (the chairman) and GM P.Tregubov (the secretary). So far, they approved Hybrid format for Continental and for other Zonals. They still have an issue with online Zonals.
In my last conversation with Pavel Tregubov, I mentioned the very strong COVID restrictions in Canada, which make it difficult or simply illegal to organize this event in any format other than online. He understands my points, but I don't think his position allows him to decide about the eligibility of online Zonal. Looks like only Sutovsky and A.Dvorkovich, as the 2 most powerful people in FIDE, are able to solve this issue.
The deadline for CFC to announce our representatives is Jun 5, so the best frame for Zonal should be the last week of May. Unfortunately, it's very possible that American Continental Hybrid event will be organized around this time as well. Still, FIDE Americas is not yet ready to give us the exact schedule for the Continentals.
American Continental has 8 spots for WC. In the past, some strong Canadian players qualified to WC from the Continental, including M.Bluvshtein, E.Hansen and A.Kovalyov (twice). WGM M.-J.Ouellet won the Women's Continental 2 years ago. Very likely, Continental will be organized in Hybrid format and CFC should make all possible efforts to allow our top players to participate in these events.
About a month ago, I sent emails to all top Canadian players (2400+ FIDE for Open Zonal and 2000+ FIDE for Women's Zonal). The main idea of this survey was to better understand the opinions of our top players. About 80% responded, so I can summarize.
Group 1 - not interested in WC or WCC at all.
Group 2 - will play any format.
Group 3 - no online, no hybrid.
Group 4 - don't like online/hybrid, but maybe...
Group 5 (!!) - only online, no hybrid, no OTB. Canadian players who currently live outside of Canada.
Group 2 and 4 have the largest number of players.
Conclusion. It's a very difficult time for chess tournaments in Canada and there is a lot of uncertainty. While we still have some time before the deadline, we should announce our decision to the players soon-ish. I trust that
