World Blitz Chess Championship 2008 (Sasikiran and Kamsky join)

7-8 November 2008, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

The World Blitz Chess Championship will take part 7-8 November 2008 in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan. The games of the tournament will be played with a classical time control of 5 minutes for the whole game for each opponent, without increment.

The tournament will be a round robin of 16 players. The first five players of the World Blitz Championships in 2006 and 2007, as well as the continental blitz champions for 2008 receive the right to be seeded automatically. Right of participation is also granted to the 15th Asian Games champion and the nominee of the Organizing committee.

Participants

Alexander Morozevich (Russia)
Leinier Domiguez Perez (Cuba)
Rafael Vaganian (Armenia)
Sergey Rublevsky (Russia)
Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
Vladislav Tkachiev (France)
Peter Svidler (Russia)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia)
Boris Gelfand (Israel)
Judith Polgar (Hungary)
Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
Murtas Kazhgaleev (Kazakhstan)
Krishnan Sasikiran (India)
Gata Kamsky (USA)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)
Amin Bassem (Egypt)

The total number of players is 16, they will play 15 rounds round robin.

Prize fund

This year's World Blitz Championship has a very high prize fund - 350, 000 Swiss Francs. 80% of them (280, 000 Swiss Francs) are for the participants, and the rest is for FIDE. All players will receive prizes. The champion will receive 80 000 Swiss Francs and the 16th place is awarded 5000 Swiss Francs.

Official website: worldblitz2008.kz