FIDE Grand-Prix 2016-2017 Announcement

FIDE announces the first qualifiers for the Grand-Prix 2016-2017, from which the first two (2) winners will advance to the FIDE Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship Cycle 2017-2018:

01. Carlsen, Magnus (NOR, World Champion)
02. Anand, Wiswanathan (IND, World Ch. runner-up 2014)
03. Karjakin, Sergey (RUS, World Cup winner 2015)
04. Svidler, Peter (RUS, World Cup runner-up 2015)
05. Giri, Anish (NED, World Cup semi-finalist 2015)
06. Eljanov, Pavel (UKR, World Cup semi-finalist 2015)
07. Nakamura, Hikaru (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
08. Caruana, Fabiano (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
09. Topalov, Veselin (BUL, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
10. Kramnik, Vladimir (RUS, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
11. Aronian, Levon (ARM, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
12. So, Wesley (USA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
13. Ding, Liren (CHN, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
14. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (FRA, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
15. Tomashevsky, Evgeny (RUS, ACP Tour qualifier)

The first three (3) reserves in case of replacements needed:

01. Grischuk, Alexander (RUS, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
02. Li, Chao (CHN, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)
03. Harikrishna, P (IND, Average 12m Std Ratings 6/2015 to 5/2016)

The schedule of the four (4) FIDE Grand-Prix events is the following, in venues to be announced soon:

a.) 12 - 23 October 2016 / GP tournament 1
b.) 10 - 21 February 2017 / GP tournament 2
c.) 11 - 22 May 2017 / GP tournament 3
d.) 5 - 16 July 2017 / GP tournament 4

In total 24 players will participate, 15 qualifiers listed above as per regulations plus 9 nominees from the organiser AGON (to be announced). Each player will play in 3 tournaments and all his results will be taken into account for the overall final standings of the Grand-Prix. FIDE will soon publish the exact venues and the player's participation documents to be signed. The full regulations of the Grand Prix 2016-2017 can be downloaded from the FIDE website here:
http://fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=31&view=article