Champions_Chess_Tour_2023

Champions Chess Tour 2023

Champions Chess Tour 2023

Series of elite chess tournaments


The Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2023 was an online fast chess tournament circuit that was organised in 2023 by Chess.com. The tour started on 6 February 2023 and ended on 16 December 2023. It involved eight online chess tournaments featuring some of the world's top players, who played for a prize money pool of US$2 million.

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Organisation and format

With Chess.com's purchase of Play Magnus Group, the 2023 Champions Chess Tour took its format components from previous seasons of the Champions Chess Tour and Chess.com tournaments, such as the Chess.com World Championship. Some of these enhancements to the contest included open qualifications and a division structure to accommodate more players. There are also several inventive format tweaks that were created to increase excitement and make every match matter.[1][2]

The new concept included six tournaments over the course of an entire online chess season, beginning with the Airthings Masters and continuing with playoffs and a knockout final. The qualifying tournaments of the Champions Chess Tour 2023 were open to all top 500 players in the rapid chess ranking.[3][4] The tournaments consisted of six $235,000 tournaments. The top ten finishers in the overall standings got a share of $100,000 prize money. The top finishers on the leaderboard filled the remaining seats in the $500,000 end-of-year finals in December, leaving the event champions with a golden ticket, with eight players playing the semi-final and four playing the final in December 2023.[1][2]

All titled players were allowed to compete in the qualifying rounds, with the exception of grandmasters, who were automatically entered into the play-in rounds. There were nine rounds of a Swiss-system tournament during qualifiers. The time limit was 10 minutes plus 2 seconds. The top three competitors in each competition had the chance to take part in the forthcoming Play-In.[5]

Tour points and prize money

Regular

The total prize pool for a Regular tournament is $235,000 for each tournament was distributed as follows:[5]

Points

Finish Division I Division II Division III
1st 150 50 20
2nd 100 30 15
3rd 75 20 10
4th 50 15 8
5th (x2) 30 10 6
7th (x2) 20 8 5
9th (x4) - 6 4
13th (x4) - 5 3
17th (x8) - - 2
25th (x8) - - 1

Prize Money

Finish Division I Division II Division III
1st $30,000 $10,000 $5,000
2nd $20,000 $7,500 $3,600
3rd $15,000 $6,000 $2,800
4th $12,500 $5,000 $2,400
5th (x2) $10,000 $4,500 $2,000
7th (x2) $7,500 $4,000 $1,800
9th (x4) - $3,500 $1,600
13th (x4) - $3,000 $1,400
17th (x8) - - $1,200
25th (x8) - - $1,000
Total $112,500 $71,500 $51,000


Playoffs and Finals

The Playoffs and Finals have a $500,000 purse.[5]

Placing Prize
1st $200,000
2nd $100,000
3rd (x2) $50,000
5th $25,000
6th $20,000
7th $15,000
8th $12,000
Per Playoff match win $1,000

Leaderboard prizes

After the end of the sixth event, players also earn their share of the $100,000 prize fund according to their CCT Tour Point standings.[5]

Placing Prize
1st $25,000
2nd $20,000
3rd $16,000
4th $12,000
5th $9,000
6th $7,000
7th $5,000
8th $3,000
9th $2,000
10th $1,000

Tournament schedule and results

Standings

Prize money is shown in US dollars. Bold number denotes a win in that division.

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Tournaments details

Airthings Masters

This initial tournament started on 6 February and ended on 10 February. Both a Play-in stage that is open to all grandmasters and a Knockout stage with three categories are available at the Airthings Masters. The prize pools for each category are distinct, and players can gain Tour Points according on the division they competed in and their finish. The players who have earned the most Tour Points by the tour's sixth event qualify for the CCT Playoff.[5] Magnus Carlsen won the tournament after defeating Hikaru Nakamura in Division I finals.[11] Fabiano Caruana won Division II after defeating Yu Yangyi.[11]

Division I Play-off

Chessable Masters

Division I Play-off

ChessKid Cup

Division I Play-off

Aimchess Rapid

Division I Play-off

Julius Baer Generation Cup

Division I Play-off

AI Cup

Division I Play-off

Tour Finals

Top 8 in the Tour standings are invited to the Tour Finals, played live over-the-board in Toronto, Canada.

Round-robin stage

Every player played two-game matches against each of other players with a time control of 15+3. If a match is tied, an armageddon game is played to decide the winner of the match, using bidding system to decide playing time and color (base time of 15 minutes). First and second place directly qualified to semifinals, third to sixth place advanced to the survival stage, while the last two places are eliminated.

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* - Match win by drawing armageddon game with black

Survival stage

Third and fourth place from round-robin stage played a match, with the winner advances to semifinals. Fifth and sixth place also played a match, with the winner playing the loser of 3rd vs 4th for the last spot of the semifinals. Each match consisted of two games with armageddon tiebreak.

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Semifinals and finals

Four players played a single-elimination bracket to decide the champion. Each match was played as best-of-three sets, with set 1 and 2 consisting of four games, and final set consisting of two games. If a set is drawn, an armageddon game is played.

Semifinals Final
          
1 United States Wesley So 2
4 Uzbekistan Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1
1 United States Wesley So
2 Norway Magnus Carlsen
2 Norway Magnus Carlsen 3 3
3 United States Fabiano Caruana 2 2
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Notes

  1. Advanced further by drawing armageddon game with black
  2. Advanced further by winning armageddon game with white

References

  1. Team (CHESScom), Chess com (2023-02-13). "Chess.com Launches $2m Champions Chess Tour". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  2. "Revamped Champions Chess Tour to kick off in February". Chess News. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  3. Breuer, Stefan Dr (2023-02-12). Online-Schach für Amateur- und Hobbyspieler: 3. überarbeitete Auflage (in German). via tolino media. ISBN 978-3-7579-0448-7.
  4. "Champions Tour opens up". ChessTech News. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  5. "Carlsen beats Nakamura again, wins Airthings Masters". Chess News. 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  6. Alan Pichot was still representing Argentina at the time of the tournament
  7. Levin (AnthonyLevin), Anthony. "Carlsen Defeats Nakamura, Wins Airthings Masters; Caruana, Sevian Win Divisions 2-3". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.

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