FIDE World Chess Championship starts today

by ChessBase
6/19/2004 – 128 players have gathered together in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, to play for the World Championship. The first round starts at 14:30 local (and European Central) time. A special FIDE site is offering comprehensive coverage. We bring you pictures, schedules and the pairings of round one. Also full instructions on how to follow the event.

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Live coverage and reports

The FIDE site, which is being hosted by Libya Telecom And Technology, looks well equipped to handle live coverage of the event. The schedule, list of players, results tree and games are all in place, there are reports and picture galleries. The start page is http://wcc2004.fide.com (you can click the logo on the top to get there).

The live game transmission from Tripoli, apparently of all games, requires you to have Java Virtual Machine installed on your PC. This program is distributed free of charge by Sun Microsystems (and is useful for many other applications). Visit the Java check page to see if you have everything required for the live coverage and install Java if you don't. To follow the games click on "Live coverage" in the link list above. There is a "View" button behind each pairing of players. Many of the key games will also be covered and discussed on the Playchess.com server.

Schedule

Note that local time in Tripoli is the same as in Central Europe. The start of the games is generally at 14:30h, which is GMT + 2 and translates to 13:30 London, 8:30 a.m. New York, 16:30 Moscow, 18:00 New Delhi, 20:30 Hong Kong, 21:30 Tokyo, 22:30 Melbourne, and 03:00 a.m. (on the next day) in the French Polynesia-Marquesas Islands of Taiohae.

World Chess Championship 2003-2004
18 June - 13 July 2004 – Schedule
Date Day Events Games Time
18 June Friday Opening Ceremony
Players' Meeting
  18.00
22.30
19 June Saturday Round 1 Game 1 14.30
20 June Sunday Round 1 Game 2*
14.30
21 June Monday Round 2 Game 1 14.30
22 June Tuesday Round 2 Game 2*
14.30
23 June Wednesday Round 3 Game 1 14.30
24 June Thursday Round 3 Game 2* 14.30
25 June Friday Rest Day    
26 June Saturday Round 4 Game 1 14.30
27 June Sunday Round 4 Game 2* 14.30
28 June Monday Round 5 Game 1 14.30
29 June Tuesday Round 5 Game 2* 14.30
30 June Wednesday Rest day    
1 July Thursday Round 6 Game 1 14.30
2 July Friday Round 6 Game 2 14.30
3 July Saturday Round 6 Game 3 14.30
4 July Sunday Round 6 Game 4 14.30
5 July Monday Round 6 Tie-Breaks 14.30
6 July Tuesday Final Match Game 1 14.30
7 July Wednesday Final Match Game 2 14.30
8 July Thursday Final Match Game 3 14.30
9 July Friday Rest Day    
10 July Saturday Final Match Game 4 14.30
11 July Sunday Final Match Game 5 14.30
12 July Monday Final Match Game 6 14.30
13 July Tuesday Final Match Tie-breaks 12.30
13 July Tuesday Closing Ceremony   18.00
* Tie-breaks at 20:30h

Openings Ceremony

The FIDE World Chess Championship was opened by the Libyan Olympic Committee President, Eng. Mohammad Moammar Al Gadhafi, and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Tripoli, Libya. Ilyumzhinov noted that this was the first world championship in Africa. He praised the Libyan Chess Federation for their great activity and gave his best wishes to all participants.

The following pictures are from the event's picture gallery page and are brought to you be courtesy of FIDE (© FIDE.com)


The President of the Libyan Olympic Committee, Mohammad Moammar Al Gathafi (son of the head of state), speaking to the players and delegates


The audience in the playing hall in Tripoli


Chinese players in the front row


FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is present at the ceremony


A military parade on the stage


Freshly crowned Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova with chief arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos, who conducted the drawing of colors. Stefanova, representing her compatriot Veselin Topalov, drew white, which means that all odd numbered players have white for the first game of the World Championship.

Pairing for Round 1, Game

  White Black
1  Topalov, Veselin (BUL)  Abulhul, Tarik (LBA)
3  Adams, Michael (ENG)  Asabri, Hussien (LBA)
4  Solomon, Kenneth (RSA)  Grischuk, Alexander (RUS)
5  Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR)  Arab, Adlane (ALG)
6  Kadhi, Hameed Mansour Ali (YEM)  Short, Nigel D. (ENG)
7  Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS)  Haznedaroglu, Kivanc (TUR)
8  Dableo, Ronald (PHI)  Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (ROM)
9  Sokolov, Ivan (NED)  Simutowe, Amon (ZAM)
10  Tissir, Mohamed (MAR)  Dreev, Alexey (RUS)
11  Akopian, Vladimir (ARM)  Gonzalez Garcia, Jose (MEX)
12  Garcia Palermo, Carlos (ARG)  Ye, Jiangchuan (CHN)
14  Mahjoob, Morteza (IRI)  Azmaiparashvili, Zurab (GEO)
15  Bacrot, Etienne (FRA)  Charbonneau, Pascal (CAN)
16  Johansen, Darryl K. (AUS)  Gurevich, Mikhail (BEL)
17  Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS)  Adly, Ahmed (EGY)
18  Bartel, Mateusz (POL)  Radjabov, Teimour (AZE)
19  Aleksandrov, Aleksej (BLR)  El Gindy, Essam (EGY)
20  Barsov, Alexei (UZB)  Beliavsky, Alexander G (SLO)
21  Vallejo Pons, Francisco (ESP)  Vasquez, Rodrigo (CHI)
22  Paragua, Mark (PHI)  Bologan, Viktor (MDA)
23  Sakaev, Konstantin (RUS)  Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios (GRE)
24  Kritz, Leonid (GER)  Sasikiran, Krishnan (IND)
25  Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE)  Neverov, Valeriy (UKR)
26  Barua, Dibyendu (IND)  Graf, Alexander (GER)
27  Zvjaginsev, Vadim (RUS)  Lima, Darcy (BRA)
28  Ramirez, Alejandro (CRC)  Kasimdzhanov, Rustam (UZB)
29  Van Wely, Loek (NED)  Ivanov, Alexander (USA)
30  Hamdouchi, Hichem (MAR)  Motylev, Alexander (RUS)
31  Vescovi, Giovanni (BRA)  Guseinov, Gadir (AZE)
32  Acs, Peter (HUN)  Nikolic, Predrag (BIH)
33  Movsesian, Sergei (SVK)  Landa, Konstantin (RUS)
34  Carlsen, Magnus (NOR)  Aronian, Levon (ARM)
36  Campora, Daniel H. (ARG)  Filippov, Valerij (RUS)
37  Vaganian, Rafael A (ARM)  Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan (IRI)
38  Wojtkiewicz, Aleksander (USA)  Georgiev, Kiril (MKD)
40  Gagunashvili, Merab (GEO)  Lputian, Smbat G (ARM)
41  Zhang, Zhong (CHN)  Leitao, Rafael (BRA)
42  Sulskis, Sarunas (LTU)  Macieja, Bartlomiej (POL)
43  Moiseenko, Alexander (UKR)  Dolmatov, Sergey (RUS)
44  Al-Modiahki, Mohamad (QAT)  Almasi, Zoltan (HUN)
45  Kobalia, Mikhail (RUS)  Karjakin, Sergey (UKR)
46  Nakamura, Hikaru (USA)  Volkov, Sergey (RUS)
47  Nielsen, Peter Heine (DEN)  Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (IND)
48  Morovic Fernandez, Ivan (CHI)  Iordachescu, Viorel (MDA)
49  Kozul, Zdenko (CRO)  Dao, Thien Hai (VIE)
50  Kotsur, Pavel (KAZ)  Sadvakasov, Darmen (KAZ)
51  Lastin, Alexander (RUS)  Kempinski, Robert (POL)
52  Anastasian, Ashot (ARM)  Bu, Xiangzhi (CHN)
53  Vladimirov, Evgeny (KAZ)  Ni, Hua (CHN)
54  Adianto, Utut (INA)  Alekseev, Evgeny (RUS)
55  Jobava, Baadur (GEO)  Felgaer, Ruben (ARG)
56  Kharlov, Andrei (RUS)  Dautov, Rustem (GER)
57  Sargissian, Gabriel (ARM)  Tiviakov, Sergei (NED)
58  Inarkiev, Ernesto (RUS)  Dominguez, Lenier (CUB)
59  Krasenkow, Michal (POL)  Milos, Gilberto (BRA)
60  Harikrishna, Pentala (IND)  Xu, Jun (CHN)
61  Kotronias, Vasilios (CYP)  Kacheishvili, Giorgi (GEO)
62  Agrest, Evgenij (SWE)  Asrian, Karen (ARM)
63  Bruzon, Lazaro (CUB)  Smirnov, Pavel (RUS)
64  Galkin, Alexander (RUS)  Delchev, Aleksander (BUL)

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