Seven Americans and a retired Croatian consistently put their pieces on the wrong squares at the start of each round. Nine times, they tried to get it right, and nine times, they ended up having to play from unusual starting positions with complicated castling rules instead.
The 2023 FIDE World Cup concluded August 24 in Baku, Azerbaijan as both the title and third-place matches were decided after a pair of rapid tiebreak games. Top-seeded GM Magnus Carlsen defeated 18-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu ("Pragg") 2½–1½ as GM Fabiano Caruana came back from losing his first classical game to Azerbaijani underdog GM Nijat Abasov to win 3–1.
The 2023 FIDE Women's World Cup concluded August 21 when Russian GM Alexandra Goryachkina defeated Bulgarian IM Nurgyul Salimova 2½–1½, winning the second game of the rapid tiebreaks.
The semifinals of the 2023 FIDE World Cup begin Saturday, August 19 at 6:00 a.m. CDT in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the same time, the finals and third-place match for the 2023 FIDE Women’s World Cup will begin. Now, let’s meet our (semi)-finalists and how they got here.