C27 Zonal Clippings 2015

Following C27 Zonal Clippings 2014, I added clippings for the events that took place in 2015 to my page on Zonals 2014-2015 (C27). Since this was the last bullet listed in my initial post on the C27 Zonals, I also added a link to two index pages:-

• World Chess Championship Zonals, the 'Cycle : Timespan' table at the end
• World Chess Championship, the 'Zonals' column

There remain two pages to create / update...

• Qualification paths, like Zonal Qualifiers 2012-2013 (C26)
• Zonals : Links (and Other References)

...but with the 2015 World Cup reaching the final stage -- Karjakin vs. Svidler -- documenting that will take priority.

C27 Zonal Clippings 2014

Continuing with C27 Zonals Indexed, I added a new page Zonals 2014-2015 (C27), and populated it with clippings from zonal events held in 2014. Although these initial clippings are all from TWIC, some additional clippings will be needed to explain the more unusual events, like zones 1.7 and 1.10.

C27 Zonals Indexed

Continuing with C27 Zonals, I added the 26 new events for cycle 27 to the index page of the World Chess Championship Zonals. The previous cycle (see C26 Zonals Indexed) had only 22 events. Why the difference?

An ACP qualifier accounts for one event. Then there were two events in Europe -- zones 1.7 & 1.10 -- where FIDE President Ilyumzhinov used two of his five presidential nominations to determine a qualifier; the year 2014, when the events took place, was (coincidentally?) a FIDE election year. A new FIDE African zone -- 4.4 -- accounts for the fourth new event.

Next step: Add clippings for the 26 events.

C27 Zonals

The list below shows events -- continental championships, zonals, and special events -- that qualified players into the 2015 Baku World Cup. Most events are referenced to the The Week in Chess (TWIC), but where I couldn't find a TWIC reference, I added a link to another source (see the corresponding note).

0.0: (00, ACP)
1.0: TWIC 1010 (2014)
1.0: TWIC 1062 (2015)
1.7: (00, Baltics)
1.10: TWIC 1017 (00, 'Small Nations')

2.0: TWIC 1042 (2014)
2.0: TWIC 1073 (2015)
2.1: TWIC 1066
2.2: TWIC 1080
2.3: TWIC 1065
2.4: (01)
2.5: TWIC 1070

3.0: TWIC 1016 (2014)
3.0: TWIC 1084 (2015)
3.1: TWIC 1072
3.2: (02)
3.3: TWIC 1062
3.4: TWIC 1075
3.5: TWIC 1044
3.6: TWIC 1079
3.7: TWIC 1050

4.0: TWIC 1070 (2015)
4.1: (03)
4.2: (04)
4.3: (05)
4.4: (06)

Notes:
(00) as documented in earlier posts on this blog: 2015 a Zonal Year and 2015 a Zonal Year (More++)
(01) Fier lidera isolado Zonal 2.4 no Peru [revistameiojogo.com.br]
(02) Ziaur Rahman Wins FIDE Zone 3.2 Chess Championship [chessdom.com; ditto for the following notes]
(03) Zaibi and Mezioud winners of FIDE Zone 4.1 Championships
(04) Arthur Ssegwanyi wins FIDE Zone 4.2, qualifies for Baku World Cup
(05) Richmond Phiri and Boikhutso Mudongo win FIDE Zone 4.3 Chess Championships
(06) IM Oladapo Adu from Nigeria qualifies for FIDE World Cup in Baku

As is often the case with zonals, the record of events in Africa is harder to track than in other continents. TWIC did report on two zonals -- 4.1: TWIC 1065 and 4.2: TWIC 1047 & TWIC 1087 -- but buried both under a concurrent open, which was in fact a side event. On top of this, African organizers ran a number of events in 2014 which were called 'zonals', but had no status as qualifiers. (Organizing zone championships in off-years is an idea other zones might also consider.)

Over the next few posts, I'll follow the same sequence that I used for the previous cycle:-

• C26 Zonals
• C26 Zonals Indexed
• C26 Zonal Clippings 2012
• C26 Zonal Clippings 2013

Then I'll wrap it up with a page covering the qualification paths of all 2015 World Cup participants.

***

Later: Re 'TWIC did report on two zonals -- 4.1: TWIC 1065 and 4.2: TWIC 1047 & TWIC 1087 -- but buried both under a concurrent open, which was in fact a side event', this was a premature, inaccurate assessment on my part.

The event '4.2: TWIC 1047' was another 2014 zonal which had no status as a qualifier. The event '4.1: TWIC 1065' was a report on the zonal held in Hammamet, Tunisia. The event '4.2: TWIC 1087' was a report on the zonal held in Kampala, Uganda; TWIC listed the venue as Kamwokya (aka Kamwookya), which is within Kampala.

Why the error on my part? TWIC listed both zonals as 'Zonal 4.x Open', meaning open to both men and women and in contrast to a women-only event. I had never encountered this meaning of the word. I was also misled by the low ratings of some of the participants, under-2000 in several cases. I'll try to avoid similar errors in the future.

2015 Baku World Cup

After spending the last few months examining Zonal Qualifiers C15-C26, it's a good time to return to C27, the current World Championship cycle. I updated my page on the 2015 World Cup, adding a link to the official site, BakuWorldCup2015.com, plus a few recent links to FIDE announcements about the event, which starts next week.

Over the next few weeks, I'll also add info on the

• C27 Zonals (i.e. the Index)
• C27 Clippings (a new page)
• C27 Qualifiers (a new page based on World Cup 2015: Pairings [& Qualifiers] plus World Cup Announcement)

For the record, the venue for the following World Cup (C28, according to my unofficial system of numbering the cycles) is already known; see The contract for 2017 World Cup & 2018 World Chess Olympiad