Pools For the Second Leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 to be held in Serbia announced
As the Berlin leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 draws to a close, the pools for the second leg are determined. The Belgrade leg runs from 28 February to 14 March and features 16 elite chess players vying for a prize fund of €150,000 and the last two spots in the Candidates Tournament scheduled to take place in Madrid this June.
The draw ceremony, held over Zoom, was chaired by the Chief Arbiter and identified the pools of players for the second leg of the Series.
As before the first leg, for the drawing of lots the players were divided into 4 baskets according to February standard rating:
Basket 1:
- Anish Giri (Netherlands), 2772 2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 2767
- Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 2764
- Richard Rapport (Hungary), 2763
Basket 2: - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), 2761 2. Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727
- Nikita Vitiugov, (Russia), 2726
- Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), 2724
Basket 3:
- Pentala Harikrishna (India), 2719
- Yangyi Yu (China), 2713
- Sam Shankland (USA), 2708
- Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704
Basket 4:
1. Alexei Shirov (Spain), 2704
- Alexandr Predke (Russia), 2682
- Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642
- Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), 2623
The players were allocated by the Chief Arbiter through a randomized selection program to 4 different pools, with the final pairings to be determined at the Opening Ceremony:
Pool A:
Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 2764
Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), 2724
Sam Shankland (USA), 2708
Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642
Pool B:
Anish Giri (Netherlands), 2772
Nikita Vitiugov, (Russia), 2726
Pentala Harikrishna (India), 2719
Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), 2623
Pool C:
Richard Rapport (Hungary), 2763
Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727
Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704
Alexei Shirov (Spain), 2704
Pool D:
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 2767
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), 2761
Yangyi Yu (China), 2713
Alexandr Predke (Russia), 2682
The second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 will take place in Belgrade at Vladimira Popovića 10 from February 28 to March 14. The rounds start at 3 PM CET.
The games will be broadcast live at worldchess.com — https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13605.
