2009 World Cup Qualifiers

The 2009 World Cup is scheduled to start in a little more than six months, meaning that the chess calendar is crammed with zonals and continental championships over the next few months. The FIDE Calendar 2009 (which also has an archive for previous years) lists the main event finishing before it starts.

• Name Place Start End
  
• World Cup 2009 Khanty- Mansiysk, Russia 20-Dec-2009 15-Dec-2009

This calls into question the accuracy of the rest of the calendar (the first date should be 20-Nov, of course). With that in mind, here are the events that have been scheduled.

Europe

• European Individual Chess Championship 2009 Budva, Montenegro 5-Mar-2009 19-Mar-2009
  
• European Individual Women's Chess Championship 2009 St. Petersburg, Russia 7-Mar-2009 21-Mar-2009

Americas

• US Chess Championship 2009 Saint Louis, USA 7-May-2009 17-May-2009
  
• Zonal 2.4 Absolute and Women Río de Janeiro, Brazil 8-Jun-2009 18-Jun-2009
  
• Zonal 2.5 Absolute and Women Asuncion, Paraguay 15-Jun-2009
  
• Continental Absolute Championship 12-Jul-2009 25-Jul-2009

Asia

• Zone 3.2 Zonal, Open and Women India
  
• Zone 3.5 Zonal, Open and Women China
  
• Zone 3.4 Zonal, Open and Women Tashkent, Uzbekistan 16-Jun-2009 27-Jun-2009
  
• Zone 3.6 Oceania Zonal Championships 2009 Gold Coast, Australia 20-Jun-2009 26-Jun-2009
  
• Zone 3.1 Zonal, Open and Women Sanaa, Yemen 23-Jun-2009 29-Jun-2009
  
• Zone 3.3 Zonal, Open and Women Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 22-Jul-2009 30-Jul-2009
  
• Asian Continental Championship (M & W) Subic Freeport, Philippines 12-May-2009 23-May-2009

There is nothing yet on the calendar for Africa.

***

It hasn't received a great deal of comment from the players who are affected, but there is a serious problem with the results of the European Championships, held in March. Chessdom.com (see TCF vs. ECU Case) and Chessbase.com (see Yazici: 'Law is just and justice prevails') reported at the end of April that a Lausanne court (Tribunal d'Arrondissement de Lausanne) had ruled in favor of the Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) in a dispute with the European Chess Union (ECU).

A link on Chessdom leads to OPEN LETTER : TO ALL CHESS FEDERATIONS AND MEDIA (26 April 2009), where Ali Nihat Yazici, President of the Turkish Federation, explains,

What are the probable consequences?

1. With the court decision regarding the European Individual Chess Championship, the European Individual Championships held in Montenegro and Russia for men and women respectively are both void. Any of the players that participated and qualified from those events cannot play in the World Cup (that is the opinion after consulting lawyers). Those tournaments should be held in 2009 again! ECU is responsible for all the expenses of those events spent by players and organizers. FIDE, as the body controlling the World Championship cycle, should convene quickly and decide about it. It is an absolute mess now.

Is this political posturing by the Turkish Federation or a personal dispute between chess officials who are using players as human shields?