The tournament, which has $50,000 guaranteed prize fund and gifts for winners, includes three sections: the Children's Section, with age limit 14 years old, the Open Tournament and the Veteran Players' Section with players over 60 years old.

In the Open Tournament, the winner of the first place will get $5,000 and the second place $4,000. Last year 20 foreign players took part at the I International President's Cup, this year it is 53 players from 16 countries. Of the 147 participants in the Open Tournament, 12 rated 2600 or higher. Among them are Nigel Short, Vadim Milov, Loek van Wely, Arkadij Naiditsch, etc. Of the local GMs we have Gadir Guseinov, Rauf Mamedov and Nidjat Mamedov playing at the tournament. GMs Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are not participating, since they are playing in Sochi and Sofia respectively.

After six rounds of play second seed Vadim Milov, who currently lives in Switzerland, is in the sole lead with 5.5 points. He is followed by four grandmasters with 5.0 points each.

Top seed Nigel Short is in the next group, having mysteriously dropped a full point in a completely won position against WGM and IM Anna Zozulia, rated 2344. Since the game ends in Anna's victory on move 49 we assume that Nigel's attention was distracted and he lost on time.

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