SPORTS
Azerbaijani grandmasters testing their strength at ACP CUP
Baku, September 13 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijani grandmasters Shahriyar Mammadyarov and Teymur Rajabov are competing in the ACP Cup, an international tournament of the Association of Chess Professionals, in Riga, Latvia.
Sixteen outstanding Grandmasters of this intellectual sport from Azerbaijan, Russia, France, Poland, Ukraine and Latvia will fight for the Cup in a spectacular rapid chess Knock Out system.
The tournament is organized by the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and Latvian Chess Society.
The venue for the tournament is provided by Rietumu Bank, which has one of the best premises in Riga for hosting exhibitions, auctions and other cultural and intellectual events. The bank is also participating in the financing of the tournament. The total prize fund will amount to USD 75,000.
Regular Match games will be played according to the FIDE Laws of Chess for rapid play. Tie-break games will be played according to the FIDE Laws of Chess for blitz. Zero tolerance rules will not be applied.
The pairings will be made as follows: four highest-rated players will be randomly paired against the four lowest-rated players. Consequently the players ranked 5 - 8 will be paired with the players ranked 9-12.
Matches will consist of two games, played with the Rapid time control: 25 minutes each at the start of the game with an increment of 10 seconds per move from move 1.
In case of an equal score, another match of two games will be played with the Blitz time control: 3 minutes each at the start of the game with an increment of 2 seconds per move from move 1.
In case of an equal score in Blitz, the Armageddon game will be played, where White starts with 5 minutes and needs to win the game in order to win the match (sudden death game). Black, on his part, only needs a draw to win the match, but has only 4 minutes at the start of the game. In this final tie-break game the increment (2 seconds per move) will be added starting move 61.
Azerbaijan`s Mammadyarov will first take on Igor Kovalenko, while Rajabov face Alexei Shirov in 1/8 final respectively.