ICCF World Championships (2012 Status)

Since my last report on correspondence chess ICCF World Championships (2011 Status), three World Champions have emerged:-

• WC23: Ulrich Stephan
• WC24: Marjan Šemrl
• WC26: Ron A. H. Langeveld

I also received the PGN for WC20, meaning I now have five completed events to add to my page World Chess Championship : Correspondence Chess.

20	*	2004-11	Lehikoinen, Pertti (FIN)
21	*	2005-08	Oosterom, Joop J. van (NED)
22	*	2007-10	Dronov, Aleksandr (RUS)
23	*	2007-11	Stephan, Ulrich (GER)
24	*	2009-12	Šemrl, Marjan (SLO)
25		2009-	Started 2009-12-10
26		2010-	Langeveld, Ron (NED)
27		2011-	Started 2011-06-10

As before, the asterisk ('*') means the winner is known and the PGN game scores are available. I expect the last three events to be completed by this time next year. As for further events, I have no information.

The Agon Schedule

In Evolution of a Press Release and Agon's Paulson at the FIDE General Assembly, I reported on the the relationship between Agon and FIDE, but what exactly has Agon contracted to do for FIDE? The full agreement was published by Chessvibes.com at the time of the 2012 General Assembly: Agreement between FIDE and Agon [PDF]. Here is an excerpt.

2. SCHEDULE OF COMPETITIONS

2.1 The Events shall include the following Competitions (or the same number of events which may have different Formats or Schedules) during the term of the Agreement, during each World Chess Championship cycle:

(a) the World Chess Championship Match, every second year;

(b) the World Chess Challenger competition (also known as the Candidates Tournament), alternating with the World Chess Championship, every second year;

(c) six Grand Prix competitions or their equivalent, as may be agreed between FIDE and Agon from time to time, are spread out over the two year cycle;

(d) the World Cup competition held in 2015 and each second year thereafter; provided that the World Cup competition shall only be a "Competition" hereunder if (i) FIDE has used its best efforts to bundle that and subsequent World Cup and Chess Olympiad with a single sponsor; and (ii) FIDE has notified Agon no later than 18 month prior to the start of the calendar year in which the World Cup is to take place that it has failed to find such a sponsor. For any World Cup that is not a "Competition" hereunder, Agon will remain available to provide full marketing and branding support for this event, as specifically provided for in this Agreement, as with all the other Competitions provided that there are no branding and sponsorship conflicts;

(e) any other competition that offers or assures the winner a place in the World Chess Challenger competition; and

(f) such additional competitions ("Additional Competitions") as may be designated as Competitions by Interface Resolution from time to time.

In short, Agon will be responsible for the World Championship title match, the Candidates event, and the Grand Prix. Should FIDE be unable to bundle the World Cup with the Olympiad, the World Cup will be included. An entire cycle will take place over two years instead of the haphazard scheduling we've seen over the last few cycles.

2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Players

Since the 2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Ankara, was the sixth and last Grand Prix event in the current cycle, I added the players' names from my page on the series, 2011-2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix (WGP), to my World Chess Championship : Index of Women Players.

The original announcement specified that '18 players will participate', but there were 23 different players over the six events. A pair of articles on Chessbase.com -- FIDE Grand Prix: A call for a fair player selection process and Geoffrey Borg replies to Zhdanov on the FIDE Women Grand Prix -- explained how this came about.

I had hoped to document the final Grand Prix standings on that 2011-12 WGP page, but was unable to find them. The official site, grandprix.fide.com, currently lists only the totals through the fifth event, Jermuk 2012. If you're not sure what happens next in the Women's World Championship, see my post on the fifth event, 2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Jermuk.

***

Later: Following up a subsequent idea, outlined in 2015-2016 Women's Grand Prix, the Players (December 2016; 'The first two posts, 2009-2010 & 2011-2012, could use a chart like the one shown above.'), I added the chart shown on the left.

For each of the players who competed in the 2011-2012 Grand Prix, it shows the total score achieved and the number of games played by the player.

2012-2013 Grand Prix, London

I added the crosstable and PGN for the 2012 London event to my page on the 2012-2013 Grand Prix. The first event of the second Grand Prix (GP) series came almost four and a half years after the first event, 2008 Baku, of the first GP series, 2008-2009 Grand Prix. Will the second GP series manage to dodge the many bullets that crippled the first? Time will tell, but FIDE and its sponsor Agon are certainly off to a good start.

2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Ankara

I added the Ankara event to my page on the 2011-2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. Coming only two months after the 2011-2012 Women's Grand Prix, Jermuk tournament, this was the last of the six events in the current series. I haven't seen the final official standings for the entire series, but Fide.com says,

Humpy Koneru became a winner of sixth stage of the FWGP in Ankara and placed second in the overall Grand Prix series after Hou Yifan. The Chinese has already clinched the first place in the overall Grand Prix cycle.

As soon as I see the final results for all competitors, I'll add it, and will also update the Index of Women Players.