This event, the finale of the 2008-"2009" Grand Prix series, takes place in Astrakhan, Russia and should be great. Unfortunately, Levon Aronian has decided not to play, as he has already clinched overall victory in the Grand Prix series (even without playing in this event!), but it's still an extremely strong and important tournament.
The significance of the Grand Prix is that the top two finishers overall are seeded into a Candidates tournament, the winner of which will go on to play the winner of Anand-Topalov for the title in the next world championship match.
At this point, the seeded players for the Candidates are:
1. Boris Gelfand (winner of the 2009 World Cup)
2. Magnus Carlsen (based on rating)
3. Vladimir Kramnik (based on rating)
4. Gata Kamsky (loser of the 2009 Candidates match to Topalov)
5. Levon Aronian (winner of the current Grand Prix cycle)
The remaining three of the eight are to be determined. The most obvious one will be determined by the end of Thursday; to wit, the loser of the Anand-Topalov match. Another one will be determined by the organizers, which seems more than a touch insane - in other words, FIDE business as usual. (Nothing like having players fight like crazy for years to qualify, only to have some bureacrat or local organizer pick someone out of sheer fiat.) And the last player will will be the runner-up in the Grand Prix. (More on this here.)
As it turns out, no fewer than 9 players are still in the running for the last spot, though three have practically no chance. Alexander Grischuk is currently in second, but he's not playing and will only qualify if none of the eight others (who are all playing) achieve what they need. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Evgeny Alekseev are also pretty nearly shut out, but Teimour Radjabov, Wang Yue, Vugar Gashimov, Peter Leko, Dmitry Jakovenko and Vassily Ivanchuk all have their chances. (More about this here.)
Now to the Astrakhan Grand Prix itself. Here's the list of participants, in alphabetical order:
Vladimir Akopian ARM 2694
Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2700
Pavel Eljanov UKR 2751
Vugar Gashimov AZE 2734
Boris Gelfand ISR 2741
Ernesto Inarkiev RUS 2669
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2741
Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2725
Peter Leko HUN 2735
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2763
Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2733
Teimour Radjabov AZE 2740
Peter Svidler RUS 2735
Wang Yue CHN 2752
It's a spectacularly strong event, and hopefully chess fans will follow it despite its obvious competition from the world championship. The English version of the tournament website is here, and I'd give the pairings now but they don't seem to be up on their site. As for the schedule, play starts tomorrow (Monday) and runs through May 24. There are rest days on the 15th and the 20th, and play begins each day at 3 p.m. local time (= 7 a.m. ET/1 p.m. CET). I won't provide live commentary on this event (sorry!), but I will follow it on the blog.