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World Rapid Chess Championship

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The World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under rapid time controls . Prior to 2012, FIDE gave such recognition to a limited number of tournaments, with non-FIDE recognized tournaments annually naming a world rapid champion of their own. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. FIDE also holds the Women's World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship. The current rapid world champion is grandmaster Magnus Carlsen . Anastasia Bodnaruk from Russia is the current women's rapid world champion. Carlsen has won the event a record five times.

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100-733: The concept of rapid chess (then called "active chess") made its debut at a 1987 FIDE Congress meeting in Seville , Spain . During the World Active Chess Championship the following year, time controls were set at 30 minutes per player per game. In 1993, following his split from FIDE, world champion Garry Kasparov organized a slightly quicker version of active chess, dubbing it "rapid chess". The Professional Chess Association , Kasparov's answer to FIDE, subsequently organized two Grand Prix cycles of rapid chess before folding in 1996. Under rapid chess time controls, each player

200-437: A Swiss tournament with a field of over 100 grandmasters. The top three finishers in the standings are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively. Various methods of resolving ties have been used and the 2016 edition resulted in all three medallists tied on 11/15 points with the champion being determined by comparing the average rating of each player's opponents. From 2017 onwards, a tie-breaker match has been played in

300-816: A UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising three buildings: the Alcázar palace complex , the Cathedral and the General Archive of the Indies . The Seville harbour, located about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain. The capital of Andalusia features hot temperatures in the summer, with daily maximums routinely above 35 °C (95 °F) in July and August. Seville

400-593: A 1–0 lead; Anand maneuvered his light-squared bishop to slowly gain an advantage throughout the game, before 54... a5? gave the Indian a winning advantage. In Game 2, Karpov pressed but was unable to crack Anand's Semi-Slav Defence , leading to a 34-move draw. Starting in 2007, the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) sponsored an annual event billed as the ACP World Rapid Cup . The 1st edition of

500-475: A car park and seen as a dead spot between more popular tourist destinations in the city. The Metropol Parasol was completed in March 2011, costing just over €102 million in total, more than twice as much as originally planned. Constructed from crossed wooden beams, Las Setas is said to be the largest timber-framed structure in the world. Seville has an area of 141 km (54 sq mi), according to

600-463: A fast start with 3 wins in 4 games to finish atop the group with 5/7. Following him into the knockout stage were the two Frenchmen, Bacrot and Tkachiev, and Michael Adams. Kasparov defeated Bareev in Game 2 of the final match to win the tournament. In the endgame, Kasparov and Bareev were left with a seemingly closed position - four pawns and a King apiece. However, the position of Kasparov's king gave him

700-721: A first category player, and in September 1993 he moved to Kramatorsk . Here Ponomariov attended the A. V. Momot Chess School and was trained by Boris Ponomariov. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just twelve, and the following year won the World Under-18 Championship. In 1998, at the age of fourteen, he

800-765: A million people at the fairgrounds. He visited the city again on 13 June 1993, for the International Eucharistic Congress. In 1992, coinciding with the fifth centenary of the Discovery of the Americas , the Universal Exposition was held for six months in Seville, on the occasion of which the local communications network and urban infrastructure was greatly improved under a 1987 PGOU plan launched by Mayor Manuel del Valle :

900-549: A much more continental climate than the nearest port cities, Cádiz and Huelva . Its distance from the sea makes summers in Sevilla much hotter than along the coastline. Seville's climate is a very hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa , Trewartha +Universal Thermal Scale: Cshl ), featuring very hot, long, dry summers and mild winters with moderate rainfall. Seville has an annual average of 19.2 °C (67 °F). The annual average temperature

1000-683: A slight advantage, and with only two seconds left on his clock, Bareev could not find the drawing line and was forced to resign. Looking to revive the World Rapid Chess Championship, FIDE gave official "world title" recognition to the 2003 rapid chess tournament held in Cap d'Agde , France . Hosted by the Caisse Centrale d'Activités Sociales des Electriciens et Gaziers de France (CCAS) on the Mediterranean coast,

1100-526: A study of experts concluded the total number of operas set in Seville is 153. Among the composers who fell in love with the city are Beethoven ( Fidelio ), Mozart ( The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni ), Rossini ( The Barber of Seville ), Donizetti ( La favorite ), and Bizet ( Carmen ). The first newspaper in Spain outside of Madrid was Seville's Hebdomario útil de Seville , which began publication in 1758. Between 1825 and 1833, Melchor Cano acted as chief architect in Seville; most of

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1200-624: Is 25.4 °C (78 °F) during the day and 13.0 °C (55 °F) at night. Seville is located in the Guadalquivir Valley , which is often referred to as "the frying pan of Spain", as it features the hottest cities in the country. Seville is the warmest city in Continental Europe . It is also the hottest major metropolitan area in Europe, with summer average high temperatures of above 35 °C (95 °F) and

1300-672: Is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster . He was FIDE World Chess Champion from 2002 to 2004. He won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in 2011. He was runner-up in the Chess World Cup 2005 and Chess World Cup 2009 , while reaching the semi-finals in 2011 and the quarterfinals in 2007 . Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine . He was taught to play chess by his father at the age of 5. At 9 he became

1400-566: Is sometimes referred to as the "Pearl of Andalusia". The inhabitants of the city are known as sevillanos (feminine form: sevillanas ) or hispalenses , after the Roman name of the city. NO8DO is the official motto of Seville, popularly believed to be a rebus signifying the Spanish No me ha dejado , meaning "She [Seville] has not abandoned me". The phrase, pronounced with synalepha as [no ma ðeˈxaðo] no-madeja-do,

1500-468: Is written with an eight in the middle representing the word madeja [maˈðexa] "skein [of wool]". Legend states that the title was given by King Alfonso X , who was resident in the city's Alcázar and supported by the citizens when his son, later Sancho IV of Castile , tried to usurp the throne from him. The emblem is present on Seville's municipal flag, and features on city property such as manhole covers, and Christopher Columbus 's tomb in

1600-618: The 2007 Candidates tournament . Ponomariov lost in the first round, in a six-game match against Sergei Rublevsky , and thus did not qualify for the 2007 World Championship tournament. As of 2023, he has not qualified for a Candidates tournament since. In 2009, he shared first place with Hikaru Nakamura at the Donostia Chess Festival in San Sebastian, Spain . The latter won the tie-break blitz games 2–0. Ponomariov got one more second place by tie-break that year in

1700-470: The 2009 Chess World Cup , where he reached the final against Israeli Boris Gelfand . After four classic games, four rapid games, and two blitz games with a drawn score, Gelfand finally won in one last set of two blitz games. In July 2010, Ponomariov won the prestigious Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund , one point ahead of Lê Quang Liêm from Vietnam . In September of that year, Ukraine won

1800-638: The Almoravids in 1091. The city fell to the Almohads on 17 January 1147 (12 Shaʽban 541). After an informal Almohad settlement in Seville during the early stages of the Almohad presence in the Iberian Peninsula and then a brief relocation of the capital of al-Andalus to Córdoba in 1162 (which had dire consequences for Seville, reportedly depopulated and under starvation), Seville became

1900-685: The Casa de Contratación , Seville became one of the largest cities in Western Europe in the 16th century. Following a deterioration in drought conditions in the Guadalquivir, the American trade gradually moved away from the city of Seville, in favour initially of downstream-dependent berths and eventually of the Bay of Cádiz – to which were eventually transferred control of both the fleets of

2000-685: The Centenario Bridge , both crossing over the Guadalquivir, also were built for the occasion. Some of the installations remaining at the site after the exposition were converted into the Scientific and Technological Park Cartuja 93 . In 2004 the Metropol Parasol project, commonly known as Las Setas ('The Mushrooms'), due to the appearance of the structure, was launched to revitalise the Plaza de la Encarnación , for years used as

2100-547: The French Chess Federation organized the 16-player World Cup of Rapid Chess at Cannes , with support from FIDE. The tournament consisted of a round-robin stage (2 groups of eight players each), followed by a set of knockout matches to determine the winner. With the Melody Amber rapid chess tournament being held concurrently, the world's top players were split between attending both events. Nevertheless,

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2200-762: The Mudéjar and Gothic styles—such as the Seville Cathedral, built during the 15th century with Gothic architecture . Other Moorish buildings were converted into Catholic edifices, as was customary of the Catholic Church during the Reconquista . The Moors' Palace became the Castilian royal residence, and during Pedro I 's rule it was replaced by the Alcázar (the upper levels are still used by

2300-545: The New World , Seville was chosen as headquarters of the Casa de Contratación in 1503, which was the decisive development for Seville becoming the port and gateway to the Indies. Unlike other harbors, reaching the port of Seville required sailing about 80 kilometres (50 mi) up the River Guadalquivir. The choice of Seville was made in spite of the difficulties for navigation in the Guadalquivir stemming from

2400-655: The Phoenician language ( cognate to the Hebrew Shfela and the Arabic Asfal أسفل ). It is ultimately from Phoenician sefela , meaning "plain, valley." Hisbaal is another old name for Seville. It appears to have originated during the Phoenician colonisation of the Tartessian culture in south-western Iberia, and according to a new proposal, it refers to the god Baal . During Roman rule ,

2500-530: The Plaza de Armas railway station was inaugurated. The Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla) opened in 1904. In 1929 the city hosted the Ibero-American Exposition , which accelerated the southern expansion of the city and created new public spaces such as the Parque de María Luisa (Maria Luisa Park) and the adjoining Plaza de España . Not long before the opening,

2600-552: The Spanish royal family as the official Seville residence). In the 1391 pogrom against the Jews, all the synagogues in Seville were converted to churches (renamed Santa María la Blanca, San Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, and Convento Madre de Dios). The Jewish quarter's land and shops (which were located in modern-day Santa Cruz neighbourhood ) were appropriated by the church and many Jewish homes were burned down. 4000 Jews were killed during

2700-570: The Wali of Al-Andalus (administrative division of the Umayyad Caliphate ) was thus established in the city until 716, when the capital of Al-Andalus was relocated to Córdoba . Seville ( Ishbīliya ) was sacked by Vikings in the mid-9th century. After Vikings arrived by 25 September 844, Seville fell to invaders on 1 October, and they stood for 40 days before they fled from the city. During Umayyad rule, under an Andalusi-Arab framework,

2800-493: The merchant guild relocated to Cádiz. The House of Trade had been housed in rented quarters, but the purpose-built headquarters of the merchant guild was left vacant. During the monarchy of Charles III , the Archive of the Indies was established in Seville in the old headquarters of the merchant guild. Documents pertaining to Spain's overseas empire were moved there from existing archival repositories, including Simancas and

2900-621: The 18th century Charles III promoted Seville's industries. Construction of the Real Fábrica de Tabacos (Royal Tobacco Factory) began in 1728. It was the second-largest building in Spain, after the royal residence El Escorial . Since the 1950s it has been the seat of the rectorate (administration) of the University of Seville , as well as its Schools of Law, Philology (language/letters), Geography, and History. More operas have been set in Seville than in any other city of Europe. In 2012,

3000-608: The 2001 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul , winning gold medal on board 2, and first place with 7/10 in the 2001 Governor's Cup in Kramatorsk. In 2002 he beat his fellow countryman Vasyl Ivanchuk in the final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 by a score of 4½-2½ to become FIDE World Champion at the age of 18, the first teenager and youngest person to do so. In the same year he finished second in

3100-469: The 2003 tournament included eleven of the world's 12 top-ranked players along with five wild-cards. With an average rating of 2726 Elo points, the 2003 event was the strongest rapid chess tournament of all time up to that point. Included in the field were the reigning FIDE and Classical world chess champions, Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Kramnik . The field was divided into two groups of eight players each, from which eight players total would progress to

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3200-532: The 5th and 6th centuries. In the wake of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula , Seville ( Spalis ) was seemingly taken by Musa ibn Nusayr in the late summer of 712, while he was on his way to Mérida . Yet it had to be retaken in July 713 by troops led by his son Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa , as the Visigothic population who had fled to Beja had returned to Seville once Musa left for Mérida. The seat of

3300-479: The ACP ensured that ACP would be able to use the title "World" when promoting and referring to the tournament. Time controls were set at 20 minutes per player, with an increment of five seconds. Each match consisted of two rapid games, with the winner progressing to the next round. Ties were resolved by two blitz games, followed by a sudden-death Armageddon game. The final match initially consisted of four rapid games, with

3400-538: The Andalusian coastline being largely under the seigneurial control of the House of Medina Sidonia , Seville enjoying an important hinterland and administrative expertise, and its inland location also providing conditions for military security and enforcement of tax control. A 'golden age of development' commenced in Seville, due to its being the only port awarded the royal monopoly for trade with Spanish Americas and

3500-529: The Astilleros shipyards, Hispano Aviación, etc. Several of the movement's leaders were imprisoned in November 1973. On 3 April 1979 Spain held its first democratic municipal elections after the end of Franco's dictatorship; councillors representing four different political parties were elected in Seville. On 5 November 1982, Pope John Paul II arrived in Seville to officiate at a Mass before more than half

3600-592: The Atlantic, and founded trading posts at the current sites of Cádiz and of Seville. The original core of the city, in the neighbourhood of the present-day street, Cuesta del Rosario, dates to the 8th century BC, when Seville was on an island in the Guadalquivir . Archaeological excavations in 1999 found anthropic remains under the north wall of the Real Alcázar dating to the 8th–7th century BC. The town

3700-575: The Chess Classic featured top-ranked players playing rapid and FischeRandom chess games against computers as well as each other. The main event of the classic was the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship (formerly Fujitsu-Siemens), a tournament generally considered as the traditional rapid chess championship in the absence of an annual FIDE-recognized championship. Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand holds

3800-567: The House of Trade, were consolidated in a single repository. One scholar argues that the establishment of the Archive of the Indies marks a decisive moment in Spain's history, with the 18th c. Bourbon monarchy conceiving of its overseas territories as colonies of the metropole rather than entities under the jurisdiction of the crown on an equal basis as the kingdoms in the Iberian peninsula. During

3900-546: The Indies (1680) and the Casa de Contratación (1717). The 20th century in Seville saw the tribulations of the Spanish Civil War , decisive cultural milestones such as the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and Expo '92 , and the city's election as the capital of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia . According to Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the ancient name was Spal , and it meant "lowland" in

4000-629: The National Topographic Map (Mapa Topográfico Nacional) series from the Instituto Geográfico Nacional ;– Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica , the country's civilian survey organisation (pages 984, 985 and 1002). The city is situated in the fertile valley of the River Guadalquivir. The average height above sea level is 7 metres (23 feet). Most of the city is on the east side of the river, while Triana , La Cartuja and Los Remedios are on

4100-552: The Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian ) remained a typically Roman residential city. Large-scale Roman archaeological remains can be seen there and at the nearby town of Carmona as well. Existing Roman features in Seville itself include the remains exposed in situ in the underground Antiquarium of the Metropol Parasol building, the remnants of an aqueduct , three pillars of a temple in Mármoles Street,

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4200-446: The SE-30 ring road around the city was completed and new highways were constructed; the new Seville-Santa Justa railway station had opened in 1991, while the Spanish High-Speed Rail system, the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE), began to operate between Madrid-Seville. The Seville Airport was expanded with a new terminal building designed by the architect Rafael Moneo , and various other improvements were made. The Alamillo Bridge and

4300-402: The Spanish government began a modernisation of the city in order to prepare for the expected crowds by erecting new hotels and widening the mediaeval streets to allow for the movement of automobiles. Seville fell very quickly at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. General Queipo de Llano carried out a coup within the city, quickly capturing the city centre. Radio Seville opposed

4400-416: The bulk of the population were Muladi converts, to which Christian and Jewish minorities added up. Up until the arrival of the Almohads in the 12th century, the city remained as the see of a Metropolitan Archbishop, the leading Christian religious figure in al-Andalus. However, the transfer of the relics of Saint Isidore to León circa 1063, in the taifa period, already hinted at a possible worsening of

4500-405: The cathedral. Seville is approximately 2,200 years old. The passage of the various civilizations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre. The mythological founder of the city is Hercules ( Heracles ), commonly identified with the Phoenician god Melqart , who the myth says sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to

4600-407: The championship. The following year the field was expanded further to include all ten of the top 10-rated Grandmasters in the world, and was dubbed a Category 21 tournament with an average Elo rating of 2767. In 2001 the event moved to Mainz , and shifted from a round-robin to a matchplay format - the defending champion Viswanathan Anand defended his title in an eight-game match against the winner of

4700-429: The city. The city surrendered on 23 November 1248, after fifteen months of siege. The conditions of capitulation contemplated the eviction of the population, with contemporary sources seemingly confirming that a mass movement of people out of Seville indeed took place. The city's development continued after the Castilian conquest in 1248. Public buildings were constructed including churches—many of which were built in

4800-410: The collections of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla. It also houses the rectory of the UNIA. In the years that Queen Isabel II ruled directly, about 1843–1868, the Sevillian bourgeoisie invested in a construction boom unmatched in the city's history. The Isabel II bridge , better known as the Triana bridge, dates from this period; street lighting was expanded in the municipality and most of

4900-447: The columns of La Alameda de Hércules and the remains in the Patio de Banderas square near the Seville Cathedral . The walls surrounding the city were originally built during the rule of Julius Caesar , but their current course and design were the result of Moorish reconstructions. Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Germanic Vandals , Suebi and Visigoths during

5000-415: The contract for both contenders. Ponomariov remained FIDE champion until Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 . On Ponomariov's 20th birthday, October 11, 2003, he became the first high-profile player to forfeit a game because of his mobile phone ringing during play. This happened in round one of the European Team Chess Championship in Plovdiv , Bulgaria , when Ponomariov

5100-459: The definitive seat of the Andalusi part of the Almohad Empire in 1163, a twin capital alongside Marrakesh . Almohads carried out a large urban renewal. By the end of the 12th century, the walled enclosure perhaps contained 80,000 inhabitants. In the wider context of the Castilian–Leonese conquest of the Guadalquivir Valley that ensued in the 13th century, Ferdinand III laid siege on Seville in 1247. A naval blockade came to prevent relief of

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5200-451: The event of two or more players being tied on points for first place. Only two players may participate in this match, even where three or more players are tied for first place on points. This caused some controversy in the 2021 edition where four players finished at the top of the tournament each with a score of 9.5/13. A tie-break match for the gold and silver medals was held between Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Ian Nepomniachtchi due to having

5300-468: The event was a 16-player knockout tournament , jointly organized by the Pivdenny Bank of Ukraine and the ACP and held in Odesa , Ukraine at the Hotel Londonskaya from 4 January to 8 January 2007. The brainchild of Pivdenny Bank chairman and ACP president Vadim Morokhovsky, the tournament included the top finishers in each year's ACP Tour, a system in which participating players were ranked based on their performances in several chess tournaments held around

5400-486: The event's final year, the Open GRENKE Rapid Championship featured a field of over 700 players. Shortly afterwards, the Chess Tigers withdrew financial backing for the event, due in part to the effects of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . Blitz tiebreaks used to settle the outcome. Presented under the auspices of Online World Chess , the 2002 EuroTel Knockout Tournament was a 32-player single-elimination tournament hosted in Prague from 27 April to 5 May 2002. 14 of

5500-438: The final. Ponomariov defeated Fritz under tournament conditions, at the 2nd Festival Internacional de Ajedrez Man-Machine in Bilbao , Spain. This is the last time that a human player has defeated a top computer at even odds under tournament conditions. In 2006, he shared first place with Aronian and Peter Leko in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow. His second-place finish in the Chess World Cup 2005 qualified him for

5600-442: The finals. In the other half of the bracket, the No. 1 seed Kasparov was upset by Vasyl Ivanchuk in a sudden-death game after the rapid and blitz games did not produce a winner; Ivanchuk would subsequently lose to Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand in the semifinals, bowing out with a loss in the second blitz tiebreak game after both rapid games ended in a draw. In the final, Anand defeated Karpov in Game 1 with White to take

5700-417: The first city in the world to name a heat wave , with a nickname "Zoe". The hottest temperature extreme of 46.6 °C (116 °F) was registered by the weather station at Seville Airport on 23 July 1995 while the coldest temperature extreme of −5.5 °C (22 °F) was also registered by the airport weather station on 12 February 1956. A historical record high (disputed) of 50.0 °C (122 °F)

5800-400: The floods that occurred in November 1961 when the River Tamarguillo, a tributary of the Guadalquivir, overflowed as a result of a prodigious downpour of rain, and Seville was consequently declared a disaster zone. Trade unionism in Seville began during the 1960s with the underground organisational activities of the Workers' Commissions or Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), in factories such as Hytasa,

5900-414: The gold once more at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk with players Vasyl Ivanchuk , Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov , Zahar Efimenko , and Alexander Moiseenko . In February 2011, after occupying last place at the World Blitz Championship in November 2010 in Moscow, Ponomariov showed great improvement at the strong Aeroflot Blitz held in the same city by reaching second place, just half

6000-460: The highest Buchholz (Cut 1) scores of the four players. Magnus Carlsen , the defending champion, and Fabiano Caruana were therefore unable to participate in the tie-break match despite having the same score as the champion. Carlsen criticised this result as 'idiotic' and called for changes. Starting in 1994, the Chess Classic was an annual series of tournaments hosted by the Chess Tigers in Mainz , Germany . The brainchild of Hans-Walter Schmitt,

6100-485: The highest ever recorded in Spain, yet it hasn't been officially confirmed. The average sunshine hours in Seville are approximately 3000 per year. Snowfall is virtually unknown. Since the year 1500, only 10 snowfalls have been recorded/reported in Seville. During the 20th century, Seville registered just 2 snowfalls, the last one on 2 February 1954. Ruslan Ponomariov Ruslan Olehovych Ponomariov ( Ukrainian : Русла́н Оле́гович Пономарьо́в ; born 11 October 1983)

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6200-434: The hottest in Spain. After the city of Córdoba (also in Andalusia), Seville has the hottest summer in Europe among all cities with a population over 100,000 people, with average daily highs of 36.0 °C (97 °F) in July. On average, Seville has around 60 days a year with maximum temperatures over 35.0 °C (95.0 °F). Temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F) are not uncommon in summer. In fact, it became

6300-422: The inaugural World Active Chess Championship, a 61-player rapid chess tournament in Mazatlan , Mexico hosted by the Mazatlan Hoteliers Association. Notable participants included: The event was won by Anatoly Karpov , who edged out GM Viktor Gavrikov on tiebreak points after their 1st-place playoff ended in a 5–5 tie. Karpov was subsequently named the new "Active Chess Champion", winning a $ 40,000 cash prize in

6400-428: The increasing tonnage of ships as a result of the relentless drive to make maritime transport cheaper during the late Middle Ages. Nevertheless, technical suitability issues notwithstanding, the choice was still reasonable in the sense that Seville had become the largest demographic, economic and financial centre of Christian Andalusia in the late Middle Ages. In addition, factors favouring the choice of Seville include

6500-414: The influx of riches from them. Since only sailing ships leaving from and returning to the inland port of Seville could engage in trade with the Spanish Americas, merchants from Europe and other trade centers needed to be in Seville to acquire New World trade goods. The city's population grew to more than a hundred thousand people. In the early 17th c., Seville's monopoly on overseas trade was broken, with

6600-475: The knockout stages; ties in standings were resolved by a sudden-death playoff. Vladimir Kramnik , Ruslan Ponomariov , and Etienne Bacrot scored 4½/7 to progress from Group A. Taking the final spot was Veselin Topalov , who defeated Boris Gelfand in a sudden-death playoff. In group B, Peter Svidler finished clear of the field with 5/7 to secure a spot in the quarterfinals; joining him were Alexander Grischuk , Viswanathan Anand , and Judit Polgar . Kramnik,

6700-443: The lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir , in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula . Seville has a municipal population of about 701,000 as of 2022 , and a metropolitan population of about 1.5 million, making it the largest city in Andalusia, the fourth-largest city in Spain and the 25th most populous municipality in the European Union . Its old town , with an area of 4 square kilometres (2 sq mi), contains

6800-401: The main island of the Azores archipelago, lies on the same latitude. Further east from Seville in the Mediterranean Basin , it is on the same latitude as Catania in Sicily, Italy and just south of Athens , the capital of Greece . Beyond that, it is located on the same parallel as South Korean capital, Seoul . Seville is located inland, not very far from the Andalusian coast, but still sees

6900-499: The meantime, the city's official name had been changed to Ḥimṣ al-Andalus ( حمص الأندلس ), in reference to the city of Homs in modern Syria, the jund of which Seville had been assigned to upon the Umayyad conquest; "Ḥimṣ al-Andalus" remained a customary and affectionate name for the city during the whole period throughout the Muslim Arab world, being referred to for example in the encyclopedia of Yaqut al-Hamawi or in Abu al-Baqa ar-Rundi 's Ritha' al-Andalus . The city

7000-410: The monopoly port for the trade to the Americas was relocated to Cádiz. Cádiz had gifted the Bourbon claimant to the throne in the War of the Spanish Succession funding that helped it pursue the war. The reward to Cádiz was the rights of the monopoly port. The House of Trade (which registered ships, cargoes, and persons travelling to the New World), and the large scale overseas commercial enterprises of

7100-422: The name was Latinised as Hispal and later as Hispalis . After the Umayyad invasion, this name remained in use among the Mozarabs , being adapted into Arabic as Išbīliya ( إشبيلية ): since the /p/ phoneme does not exist in Arabic, it was replaced by /b/; the Latin place-name suffix -is was Arabized as -iya , and a /æ/ turned into ī /iː/ due to the phonetic phenomenon called imāla . In

7200-783: The pogrom and many others were forced to convert . The first tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition was instituted in Seville in 1478. Its primary charge was to ensure that all nominal Christians were really behaving like Christians, and not practicing what Judaism they could in secret. At first, the activity of the Inquisition was limited to the dioceses of Seville and Córdoba , where the Dominican friar, Alonso de Ojeda, had detected converso activity. The first Auto de Fé took place in Seville on 6 February 1481, when six people were burned alive. Alonso de Ojeda himself gave

7300-414: The port of Cádiz now the monopoly port of trade as silting of the Guadalquivir river in the 1620s made Seville's harbors harder to use. The Great Plague of Seville in 1649, exacerbated by excessive flooding of the Guadalquivir, reduced the population by almost half, and it did not recover until the early 19th century. By the 18th century, Seville's international importance was in steep decline, after

7400-477: The pre-2012 standard of 25 minutes. The championship was originally structured as a 16-player round-robin tournament , set to coincide with the first release of FIDE's rapid and blitz ratings in July 2012; invited were the top 10 players in the FIDE ratings list, the three medalists of the qualification competition, and three wild-card nominees by the organization committee and FIDE. The style has since been changed to

7500-467: The previous year's Ordix Open, the open rapid tournament. In 2007, with Anand still the rapid champion after six successful title defenses, the event reverted to a double-round robin tournament, with the top two finishers in the semi-finals advancing to the finals. In a homage to the Masters Tournament , the winner of the championship is traditionally awarded a winner's black jacket. In 2010,

7600-512: The process. Garry Kasparov , the current world champion, declined to participate in the event and derided the concept of an active chess champion afterwards - he was quoted as saying, "Active Chess? What does that make me, the Passive World Champion?". The political controversy surrounding the event and the naming of a separate "active chess champion" led to the parallel rapid championship being dropped for future years. In 2001,

7700-537: The rapid championship are set at 15 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment. Prior to 2012, FIDE sporadically sanctioned a world rapid chess championship. The first official high-profile rapid match took place in 1987, when then-world champion Garry Kasparov defeated Nigel Short in the "London Docklands Speed Chess Challenge" at the London Hippodrome . Kasparov won the match with 4 wins, two losses, and no draws in six games. In 1988, FIDE organized

7800-488: The record for most championship wins, having won the event 11 times in 15 years. From 1996 to 1998, the Rapid Chess Championship at Frankfurt was organized as a double-round robin, followed by a match between the 1st and 2nd-place finishers for the championship. With the addition of Karpov to the field in 1999, the format was temporarily changed to a pure round-robin, with the 1st-place finisher winning

7900-483: The reigning classical world champion and tournament's No. 1 seed, dispatched Polgár and Grischuk with little difficulty to reach the final. In the other half of the bracket, Viswanathan Anand defeated Peter Svidler in a sudden-death blitz game after three drawn games to join him. After Game 1 ended in a quiet 19-move draw, Anand chose to play for complications in Game 2 in the white side of a Sveshnikov Sicilian. Following an inaccuracy from Kramnik (17... a5? 18. Na3), Anand

8000-407: The same tiebreaks; in 2013, the final was shortened back to two rapid games. Armageddon game used to settle the outcome. Seville Seville ( / s ə ˈ v ɪ l / sə- VIL ; Spanish : Sevilla , pronounced [seˈβiʎa] ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville . It is situated on

8100-524: The sermon. The Inquisition then grew rapidly. The Plaza de San Francisco was the site of the 'autos de fé'. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: Ávila, Córdoba, Jaén, Medina del Campo, Segovia, Sigüenza, Toledo, and Valladolid; and by the Alhambra Decree all Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism or be exiled (expelled) from Spain. Following the Columbian exploration of

8200-457: The situation of the local Christian minority. A powerful taifa kingdom with capital in Seville emerged after 1023, in the wake of the fitna of al-Andalus . Ruled by the Abbadid dynasty , the taifa grew by aggregation of smaller neighbouring taifas . During the taifa period, Seville became an important scholarly and literary centre. After several months of siege, Seville was conquered by

8300-402: The streets were paved during this time as well. By the second half of the 19th century, Seville had begun an expansion supported by railway construction and the demolition of part of its ancient walls, allowing the urban space of the city to grow eastward and southward. The Sevillana de Electricidad Company was created in 1894 to provide electric power throughout the municipality, and in 1901

8400-718: The tournament attracted a strong field headlined by the No. 1-rated player in the world - despite the World Cup's status as an FIDE event, Kasparov's contract with the French Chess Federation led to his inclusion. In group A, Kasparov's domination of his opponents was on display: he scored 5½/7 to finish in clear 1st place, 1½ points ahead of the rest of the field. Joining him in the top 4 were Bareev, Grischuk, and Judit Polgár, who beat out Peter Svidler in tiebreaks. In group B, Belgian grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich got off to

8500-404: The tournament were determined by a series of knock-out matches, with each match consisting of two games played at rapid time controls (25 minutes per player). Ties were broken by two blitz games, followed by a sudden-death Armageddon game. The surprise of the tournament was Anatoly Karpov , who put together an impressive run with wins against Short , Kramnik , Morozevich , and Shirov to reach

8600-508: The uprising and called for the peasants to come to the city for arms, while workers' groups established barricades. Queipo then moved to capture Radio Seville, which he used to broadcast propaganda on behalf of the Francoist forces. After the initial takeover of the city, resistance continued among residents of the working-class neighbourhoods for some time, until a series of fierce reprisals took place. Under Francisco Franco 's rule Spain

8700-595: The urban planning policy and architectural modifications of the city were made by him and his collaborator Jose Manuel Arjona y Cuba. Industrial architecture surviving today from the first half of the 19th century includes the ceramics factory installed in the Carthusian monastery at La Cartuja in 1841 by the Pickman family, and now home to the El Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), which manages

8800-493: The very strong Linares tournament, behind Garry Kasparov . His result in the strong 2003 Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee was not as good – despite having the third highest Elo rating , he finished only joint eleventh out of fourteen players with 6/13, and at Linares the same year he finished only fifth out of seven with 5½/12. There were plans for him to play a fourteen-game match against Kasparov in Yalta in September 2003,

8900-466: The west side. The Aljarafe region lies further west, and is considered part of the metropolitan area. The city has boundaries on the north with La Rinconada , La Algaba and Santiponce ; on the east with Alcalá de Guadaira ; on the south with Dos Hermanas and Gelves and on the west with San Juan de Aznalfarache , Tomares and Camas . Seville is on the same parallel as United States west coast city San Jose in central California. São Miguel ,

9000-483: The winner of which would go on to play the winner of a match between Vladimir Kramnik and Péter Lékó as part of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunify the World Chess Championship (from 1993 until 2006 there were two world chess championships). However, this was called off by FIDE on the grounds that Ponomariov failed to sign the contract in time. The latter always alleged lack of equality in

9100-528: The world's top 15 players were in attendance, including the reigning world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the world's No. 1-ranked player Garry Kasparov . A notable omission from the field was reigning FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov . At stake was a share of the €500,000 prize fund, the largest for any chess event hosted in the Czech Republic , and the EuroTel Trophy. The finalists of

9200-485: The world. The remaining participants were chosen on a wild-card basis at the organizers' discretion. From 2007 to 2010, the tournament was held on an annual basis, with the 5th edition of the cup held in 2013. Despite the ACP Cup's status as a non-FIDE event, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was present at the inaugural edition of the tournament and took part in the opening ceremony. A subsequent agreement between FIDE and

9300-545: Was able to use his two knights to infiltrate Kramnik's defence, eventually forcing a queen sac to win the game and the match. On May 31, 2012, FIDE announced the inaugural World Rapid & Blitz Championships, set to take place in Astana , Kazakhstan from July 1 to 11. The 2012 tournament consisted of a qualifying round, followed by the rapid and blitz events held consecutively over 5 days. In order to promote viewership, time controls were set at 15 minutes per player, rather than

9400-469: Was allowed 25 minutes with an additional 10 seconds after each move. FIDE would re-use these time controls and the "rapid chess" moniker for the 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship, held in Cap d'Agde . During the World Cup 2013, these time controls were also used for the rapid tiebreak stages. In 2012, FIDE inaugurated the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. The current time controls for

9500-874: Was awarded the Grandmaster title, making him the youngest ever player at that time to hold the title. In 1999, he was a member of the Ukrainian national youth team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Artek , Ukraine. Among Ponomariov's notable later results are first place at the Donetsk Zonal tournament in 1998, 5/7 score in the European Club Cup 2000 (including a victory over then-FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman ), joint first with 7½/9 at Torshavn 2000, 8½/11 for Ukraine in

9600-605: Was called Hisbaal by the Phoenicians and by the Tartessians, the indigenous pre-Roman Iberian people of Tartessos , who controlled the Guadalquivir Valley at the time. The city was known from Roman times as Hispal and later as Hispalis . Hispalis developed into one of the great market and industrial centres of Hispania, while the nearby Roman city of Italica (present-day Santiponce , birthplace of

9700-674: Was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis . Known as Ishbiliyah after the Islamic conquest in 711, Seville became the centre of the independent Taifa of Seville following the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the early 11th century; later it was ruled by Almoravids and Almohads until being incorporated to the Crown of Castile in 1248. Owing to its role as gateway of the Spanish Empire 's trans-atlantic trade, managed from

9800-567: Was officially neutral in World War II (although it did collaborate with the Axis powers ), and like the rest of the country, Seville remained largely economically and culturally isolated from the outside world. In 1953 the shipyard of Seville was opened, eventually employing more than 2,000 workers in the 1970s. Before the existence of wetlands regulation in the Guadalquivir basin, Seville suffered regular heavy flooding; perhaps worst of all were

9900-716: Was playing Black against Swedish GM Evgenij Agrest . In 2004, Ponomariov won the gold medal at the 2004 Chess Olympiad held in Calvià , Spain , with the Ukrainian team. In 2005, he won the 15th edition of the Ciudad de Pamplona tournament. He also won a rapid tournament in Odesa , Ukraine , and the Golden Blitz Cup in Moscow . Finally, that year he reached the 2005 Chess World Cup final against Levon Aronian , who won

10000-537: Was recorded on 4 August 1881, according to the NOAA Satellite and Information Service. There is an unaccredited record by the National Institute of Meteorology of 47.2 °C (117 °F) on 1 August during the 2003 heat wave , according to a weather station (83910 LEZL) located in the southern part of Seville Airport, near the former US San Pablo Air Force Base. This temperature would be one of

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