Champions_Chess_Tour_2021

Champions Chess Tour 2021

Champions Chess Tour 2021

Series of elite chess tournaments (2021)


The Champions Chess Tour 2021, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour,[1][2] was a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world's top players, playing for a prize money pool of US$1.5 million.[3] The tournament games are held on chess24.com and are broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, chess24.com itself, and the tour's official website.[3] The tour started on November 22, 2020, and lasted until October 4, 2021.[3] The tournaments were not rated by FIDE.

Quick Facts Details, Duration ...

Format

There are 10 total tournaments in the tour: 6 labelled as Regular, 3 labelled as Major, and 1 Final. Each takes place towards the end of a month over the course of 9 days.[3]

Qualification

According to the tour regulations, there are 16 spots in a Regular tournament, 12 spots in a Major tournament, and 10 spots in the Final tournament.[4] However, after the first Major tournament (Airthings Masters), it was concluded that 8 out of 12 players advancing to the knockout round rewarded cautious play, and the remaining Major tournaments (Magnus Carlsen Invitational and FTX Crypto Cup) were conducted with 16 players.[5]

For each of the Regular tournaments except for the first one, 8 of the 16 spots are given to the current top 8 players in the Tour Rankings. The rest of the spots are given out via wild cards, invitations, or popular votes.[4] The 16 spots for the first tournament of the tour are chosen via the decision of the event organizers.

For the Major tournaments, 8 of the spots are also given to the current top 8 players in the Tour Rankings. The winner of the preceding Regular tournament is also given a spot, if he or she is not already in the top 8. The rest of the spots are given via wild cards.

For the Final tournament, 8 of the 10 spots are given first to the winners of the 3 Major tournaments, then down the standings of the Tour Rankings. The final 2 spots are given to the best-performing "Tour Ambassadors."[4]

Schedule

More information Dates, Tournament Name ...

Time controls

Three different time controls are used in the tour:

  • In rapid games, each player has 15 minutes, plus a 10-second increment for each move.
  • In blitz games, each player has 5 minutes, plus a 3-second increment for each move.
  • In Armageddon games, white has 5 minutes, black has 4 minutes, there is no increment, and black wins the tie in case of a draw.

Tournament formats

Regular

The Regular tournaments consist of a preliminary round and 3 knockout rounds. In the preliminary round, the 16 players participate in a round-robin spanning 3 days (5 games per day), with each player playing the other players for 1 rapid game, for a total of 120 games. The top 8 players with the most points advance to the next round and are seeded for the purposes of making the bracket based on their points. In the event that 2 or more players are tied with points, the following system is used:[4]

  1. Points won in matches involving the tied players
  2. Number of wins
  3. Sonneborn–Berger score
  4. Koya score

In the knockout rounds, each matchup consists of 2 matches of 4 rapid games on back-to-back days. If either player wins one match and at least draws the other, he advances on to the next round. If each player wins one match or both matches are drawn, immediately following the second match, the players play 2 blitz games. If the blitz games are split, the winner is determined via an Armageddon game. The higher seed in each matchup picks the color for the first game, the first tiebreaker, and the Armageddon. In addition to the games between players who advanced, there is also a match for third place between the semifinal losers.[4]

Major

The Major tournaments operate the same way as the Regular tournaments. It is still the top 8 players who qualify for the knockout rounds.

Final

The Final only consists of one round-robin for the 10 players, spanning 9 days (1 matchup per day). Each matchup will comprise 4 rapid games. If the 4 points are split among the two players, then 2 blitz games are played, followed by Armageddon if the blitz games are split. 3 points are awarded for an outright win (no tiebreak needed), 2 points are awarded for a tiebreak win, and 1 point is awarded for a tiebreak loss.[4]

In addition to these points, the players start off with bonus points based on their Tour rankings coming into the Final. The player with the fewest Tour points gets 0 bonus points, and the other players are awarded half a point for every full 10 points they have more than the player with the least number. For example, if Player A has the fewest Tour points with 86, a Player B with 143 Tour points will be awarded 2.5 points, since they exceed Player A's total by 57 (no rounding).[4]

The player with the greatest sum of bonus points and points won in the Final will be crowned the Tour Champion.

Tour points

For Regular tournaments, points are awarded as follows.[4]

More information Finish, Points ...

In other words, a player receives 10 points for winning in the quarterfinals, 15 points for winning in the semifinals, 15 points for winning the final and 5 points for winning the match for third place. The regulations were present for most of the tournament, excluding the Skilling Open tournament; in that tournament of the tour, the runner-up was awarded 20 points and the two remaining semi-finalists were each awarded 10 points, without a match for 3rd place.[6]

Additional points are also awarded to finishes in the preliminary round:

More information Finish, Points ...

The points system for Major tournaments is the same, but all values are doubled.[4]

In the event that two players are tied for the same number of Tour points, the following tiebreak system will be used:[4]

  1. Number of tournament wins
  2. Number of tournament appearances (fewer is better)
  3. Number of final appearances
  4. Number of semi-final appearances
  5. Number of quarter-final appearances

The administrators of the tournament also have the right to substitute a tiebreak match if the tie is for a qualification spot.

Prize money

Regular

The total prize pool for a Regular tournament is $100,000. The money is split as follows:[4]

More information Finish, Prize ...

The regulations were changed after the Skilling Open tournament; in this first tournament of the tour, the players who lost in the semifinals each received $7,500, without a match for 3rd place.[6]

Major

The total prize pool for a Major tournament is $200,000. The money is split as follows:[4]

More information Finish, Prize ...

Final

The prize pool for the final is $300,000, which is split as follows:[4]

More information Finish, Prize ...

Results

Tournament results

More information Dates, Tournament Name ...

Tour rankings

The column labelled "Wins" indicates the number of tournament wins.

The column labelled "Apps" indicates the number of tournament appearances (including the ongoing tournament, if any).

The winners of the Major tournaments are invited to the Final tournament, as are the 5 players (or more if one player has won more than one Major) with the highest tour ranking among the remaining players. Two additional players are invited as wild cards. As the winners of the Major tournaments (Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen) are guaranteed a place in the Final. An asterisk denotes a Major.

More information Pos, Name ...

Tournaments

Skilling Open

The results of the preliminary round were as follows.[9]

More information Name, ELO ...

The results of the knockout rounds were as follows.[10]

 
Quarterfinal (November 25–26)Semifinal (November 27–28)Final (November 29–30)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2-
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri2-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2-
 
 
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi 2-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian10
 
 
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi32
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen22½
 
 
 
United States Wesley So22
 
United States Wesley So½*
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura2-
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave3½
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura1*
 

* This player advanced by drawing as black in an Armageddon game.

Airthings Masters

The results of the preliminary round were as follows.[11]

More information Name, ELO ...

The results of the knockout rounds were as follows.[12]

 
Quarterfinal (December 29–30)Semifinal (Dec 31 - Jan 1)Final (January 2–3)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2½-
 
 
 
Russia Daniil Dubov2-
 
Russia Daniil Dubov10-
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov32-
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov22*
 
 
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi22
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov2-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian1-
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura0-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian32-
 
 
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave11-3rd place (January 2–3)
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave3*
 
 
 
United States Wesley So1
 
Russia Daniil Dubov2-
 
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave2-
 

* This player advanced by drawing as black in an Armageddon game.

Opera Euro Rapid

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (February 9–10)Semifinal (February 11–12)Final (February 13–14)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen½2
 
 
 
Russia Daniil Dubov½1
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen12
 
 
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave½31
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave2-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2-
 
 
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda0-
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov1-3rd place (February 13–14)
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov22
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri22½
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave0-
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov2-
 

Magnus Carlsen Invitational

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (March 16–17)Semifinal (March 18–19)Final (March 20–21)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian½1-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen½
 
 
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi2-
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura2½-
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi220
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri222
 
United States Wesley So-
 
 
 
FIDE Alireza Firouzja½½-
 
United States Wesley So-
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri-3rd place (March 20–21)
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave21-
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri23-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen32-
 
 
United States Wesley So11-
 

New In Chess Classic

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (April 27–28)Semifinal (April 29–30)Final (May 1–2)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen2-
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov2-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen23-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian21-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian32-
 
 
 
United States Wesley So11-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen32-
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura12-
 
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov3-
 
 
 
FIDE Alireza Firouzja1½-
 
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov131
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura3023rd place (May 1–2)
 
Vietnam Lê Quang Liêm1-
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura2-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2½-
 
 
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov2
 

FTX Crypto Cup

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (May 26–27)Semifinal (May 28–29)Final (May 30–31)
 
                
 
 
 
 
United States Fabiano Caruana22½
 
 
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi22
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi1-
 
 
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
United States Wesley So32-
 
 
 
France Maxime Vachier-Lagrave11-
 
United States Wesley So221
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen222
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura220
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen222
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen23-
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov21-3rd place (May 30–31)
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov2-
 
 
 
Netherlands Anish Giri2-
 
Russia Ian Nepomniachtchi2-
 
 
Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov2-
 

Goldmoney Asian Rapid

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (June 29–30)Semifinal (July 1–2)Final (July 3–4)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian22
 
 
 
India Arjun Erigaisi22½
 
Armenia Levon Aronian32
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen10
 
United States Wesley So½
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2-
 
 
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev0-
 
China Ding Liren23-
 
 
 
Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda21-
 
China Ding Liren½
 
 
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev½3rd place (July 3–4)
 
Netherlands Anish Giri01-
 
 
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev32-
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen 0
 
 
China Ding Liren3½
 

Chessable Masters

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (August 3–4)Semifinal (August 5–6)Final (August 7–8)
 
                
 
 
 
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
Netherlands Jorden van Foreest2½-
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev2-
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev222
 
 
 
United States Hikaru Nakamura221
 
United States Wesley So2-
 
 
 
Vietnam Lê Quang Liêm½2-
 
France Alireza Firouzja10-
 
 
 
Vietnam Lê Quang Liêm32-
 
Vietnam Lê Quang Liêm32
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian113rd place (August 7–8)
 
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov½1-
 
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2-
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev2-
 
 
Armenia Levon Aronian2½-
 

Aimchess US Rapid

More information Name, ELO ...
 
Quarterfinal (Aug 31 - Sep 1)Semifinal (September 2–3)Final (September 4–5)
 
                
 
 
 
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev23-
 
 
 
United States Leinier Domínguez21-
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev222
 
 
 
France Alireza Firouzja221
 
United States Wesley So½½
 
 
 
France Alireza Firouzja
 
Russia Vladislav Artemiev½-
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian32-
 
 
 
Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov11-
 
Armenia Levon Aronian21-
 
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen23-
 
Poland Jan-Krzysztof Duda½½-
 
 
Norway Magnus Carlsen-
 

Tour Final

Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen qualified by winning a Major tournament, while Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Vladislav Artemiev qualified for the finals via the tour standings. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave replaced Ian Nepomniachtchi, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Jan-Krzysztof Duda got a wildcard spot. Every player, except for Duda, starts with extra points according to their Tour standings.[lower-alpha 2]

More information Name, ELO ...

Qualifiers

Chessable Qualifier

Chessable Qualifier was held from 17 to 18 October 2020, and was a qualification tournament for Skilling Open, the first event of the Champions Chess Tour.

More information Name, ELO ...

Magnus Carlsen Invitational Qualifier

More information Name, ELO ...

Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour

Coverage

Chess24.com provided free live coverage of every tournament, with commentary in 10 different languages.[13] They were broadcasting on their website, on the official tour website, and on Twitch. Various other chess streamers also provided live commentary.

Sponsorship

Julius Baer and Opera were two listed sponsors of the event.[14] Skilling sponsored the first tournament,[15] while Airthings sponsored the second tournament.[14] Cryptocurrency Company FTX sponsored the FTX Crypto Cup, providing 2.18 Bitcoin in the prize fund, worth $100,000 at the time of purchase. The Tour was also funded by offering Premium and VIP Tour Passes, services that offered perks such as voting on the wild cards, memberships for Chess24.com, and interaction opportunities with top chess players.[16]

On January 3, 2021, Meltwater was announced as the title partner for the tour, which was accordingly renamed the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.[1][2]


References

  1. "Meltwater revealed as new title partner for Champions Chess Tour". chess24.com. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  2. "Meltwater becomes title partner of Champions Chess Tour". Meltwater. 2021-01-03. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  3. "Champions Chess Tour". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  4. "Tour Regulations, what's new?". Archived from the original on 2021-02-12. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  5. Crowther, Mark (March 11, 2021). "Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2021". The Week in Chess. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
  6. "Tour Regulations, what's new?". Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  7. "Aimchess U.S. Rapid Final: Carlsen Leads Despite Mouse Slip". Chess.com. Archived from the original on 2021-09-04. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  8. "Champions Chess Tour Partners". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  9. "Champions Chess Tour About Skilling". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
  10. "Champions Chess Tour Tour Pass". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.

Notes

  1. Firouzja previously played under the FIDE flag as a neutral competitor from December 2019 to July 2021, which spanned from the Skilling Open to the Goldmoney Asian Rapid in the Champions Chess Tour. Firouzja started playing under the French flag in July 2021.[8]
  2. Every player gets an extra 0.5 point for every 10 Tour points ahead of player with least Tour points (in this case, Jan-Krzysztof Duda)

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