The Opening Ceremony of the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2019 organized by World Chess took place in the Mansion of Saltykov-Chertkov on May 16. Many celebrities and journalists attended the Gala Event which opened the first tournament of the World Chess Championship cycle 2019-2020.

CEO of World Chess Ilya Merenzon, CEO of PhosAgro and RCF Vice-President Andrey Guryev, and Head of Corporate Sales Department of Kaspersky Lab Evgeniya Naumova gave speeches during the official part of the Ceremony. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich declared the tournament open.

Chief Arbiter IA Laurent Freyd (France) conducted the drawing of lots at the technical meeting before the Ceremony. Four players with the highest standard rating at the beginning of the tournament – Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Alexander Grischuk - had been given starting numbers 1, 16, 9, and 8 respectively. For the purpose of distribution of other twelve starting numbers, the random drawing of lots was made at the technical meeting.

The draw of colours took place at the Opening Ceremony. The rating favourite Anish Giri picked a white (or silver) piece and that means that all players with odd numbers will start the first round with White.

Round 1 pairings:

Giri - Dubov
Radjabov - Nakamura
Duda - So
Karjakin - Grischuk
Nepomniachtchi - Aronian
Wei Yi - JakovenkoVitiugov - Svidler
Wojtaszek - Mamedyarov

Photos courtesy: World Chess and Eteri Kubashvili

Complete photo album in Dropbox.

Leading partners supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2019 organized by World Chess include:

PhosAgro, a leading chemical company as the Official Strategic Partner
Kaspersky Lab, as the Official Cybersecurity Partner
Russian Post, as the Official Logistics Partner
PRYTEK, as the Technology Transfer Partner
BMW, as the Official Auto Partner


About FIDE
About FIDE
FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Echecs) is recognized by its members and the International Olympic Committee as the international federation in the domain of chess, the supreme body responsible for the sport of chess and its Championships. FIDE has the sole rights to organize the World Chess Championships and the Chess Olympiads. www.fide.com

About World Chess
World Chess is a London-based media company. It's an official broadcaster of the World Chess Federation events and a commercial partner of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). World Chess organized the World Championship Matches in Russia, USA, and the UK. It revolutionized chess by signing the biggest media partnerships in the history of chess. World Chess is also developing Armageddon, the chess league designed for television. It operates worldchess.com.

About PhosAgro
PhosAgro is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39% and higher. The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of 39%, a top-three producer of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP).

PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia. PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes

About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company, which has been operating in the market for over 21 years. Kaspersky Lab's deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into next-generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company's comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

About Russian Post
Russian Post is a federal post operator, is included in the Russian Federation strategic companies list. It includes 42,000 offices across the country and has one of the biggest staff – about 335,000 post workers. Operational revenue of Russian Post in 2018 grew by 7% up to 190.4 bln rubles (178.1 bln rubles in 2017). Actual net profit of Russian Post was 3.5 times higher than in 2017 and amounted to 2.7 billion rubles. In 2018, Russian Post processed 433.3 million parcels. Every year, Russian Post delivers over 2.5 billion letters and bills (of them, 1 billion letters are from state authorities). Russian Post services about 20 million subscribers in Russia by delivering 1 billion copies of print publications per year. The annual volume of transactions processed by Russian Post is 3.2 trillion rubles (pensions, payments and transfers).

About BMW Group
The BMW Group is the world's leading manufacturer of premium automobiles and motorcycles, and provider of premium financial and mobility services. The special fascination of the BMW Group not only lies in its products and technology, but also in the company's history, written by inventors, pioneers and brilliant designers. The BMW Group sets trends in production technology and sustainability as an innovation leader with an intelligent material mix, a technological shift towards digitalisation and resource-efficient production. At the same time, flexibility and continuous optimisation of value chains ensure competitiveness.

About PRYTEK
PRYTEK corporation is a global VC integrator that invests in Fintech, HRtech, Cybersecurity, Mediatech, AI and Education, and transfer disruptive technologies to emerging markets. PRYTEK established a unique ecosystem where technologies enter new markets, investors are not charged for assets management and corporates get "one-stop-shop" access to best global innovations which enable them to be ahead of the competitors. PRYTEK corporation operates in 4 countries, with over 30 cutting edge technologies worth $1,8 bln and more than 2500 corporate customers.