Baku, August 28, AZERTAC

This year's World Rapid and Blitz Championship will be held October 9-14 in Berlin, Germany. Azerbaijani grandmasters will also vie for medals at the tournament.

The prize fund will be a total $400,000 combined for the rapid and the blitz tournaments. Both events will be played according to the Swiss pairing system.

All players rated 2500 or higher in any of the FIDE rating lists (standard, blitz or rapid) from January 2015 to August 2015 are eligible to participate. The tournaments are also open to all national champions, regardless of their title or rating.

Last year both events were won by Magnus Carlsen, who thus clinched the world title in all three disciplines of chess. The Norwegian player is planning to defend his rapid and blitz titles in Berlin. Ex-world champion Viswanathan Anand intends to play as well.

According to the regulations the World Rapid and Blitz are supposed to be organized, under the aegis of FIDE, "by a federation entrusted with the task by the General Assembly or the Presidential Board at least one year in advance," while all the rights for the organization belong to FIDE.

For this edition the world chess federation has entrusted its commercial partner Agon to organize the two tournaments. This hasn't happened before; the contract between FIDE and Agon mentions events in the (classical) world championship cycle but not the World Rapid and Blitz.