15 Americans to play 2023 World Cup and Women's World Cup in Azerbaijan

Baku, Azerbaijan (Creative Commons)

The 2023 FIDE World Chess Cup and Women's World Chess Cup are set to begin July 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Featuring 309 total players, the event will feature 12 Americans in the World Cup and three in the Women's World Cup.

For the World Cup, US Chess nominated GM Sam Shankland for its USA Olympiad spot. GMs Timur Gareev, Christopher Yoo, and Gregory Kaidanov qualified via their performance in the 2022 Continental Championship, and GM Fidel Corrales and IM Josiah Stearman qualified from the 2023 Continental Championship. Five additional grandmasters have qualified from 2022 Zonal events: Fabiano Caruana, Ray Robson, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Awonder Liang, and Wesley So. Finally, FIDE selected GM Hikaru Nakamura for one of its wild card spots. The current list of confirmed players is available here.

In the Women's World Cup, US Chess nominated IM/WGM Carissa Yip for its USA Olympiad spot. GM Irina Krush and WGM Jennifer Yu have also earned spots via their performance in 2022 Zonal events. The current list of confirmed players is available here.

The World Cup will go through August 25 and the Women's World Cup — which is one round shorter — will conclude on August 22. The events boast a combined prize fund of just over $2,500,000 USD and qualification spots for the 2024 Candidates and Women's Candidates tournaments held in Toronto.

Follow Chess Life Online for round-by-round coverage of the events, featuring special attention on the games and results of the 15 American players.