Champions Chess Tour 2023

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.

Champions Chess Tour 2023
Details
Duration6 February 2023 – 16 December 2023
Tournaments8
CategoriesRegular (6)
Finals (2)
Achievements (singles)
Most tournament titlesNorway Magnus Carlsen (4)
Prize money leaderNorway Magnus Carlsen ($125,000)
Points leaderNorway Magnus Carlsen (625)

Organisation and format edit

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 edit

Regular edit

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

Points edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

Champions Chess Tour tournaments[6]
Tournament Dates Prize Division I Winner of Division II Winner of Division III
Winner Second
(or finalist)
Third Fourth
Airthings Masters[7] February 6–10 $235,000   Magnus Carlsen   Hikaru Nakamura   Wesley So   Arjun Erigaisi   Fabiano Caruana   Samuel Sevian
Chessable Masters[8] April 3–7   Hikaru Nakamura   Fabiano Caruana   Magnus Carlsen   Levon Aronian   Nodirbek Abdusattorov   Amin Tabatabaei
ChessKid Cup[9] May 22–26   Nodirbek Abdusattorov   Fabiano Caruana   Jorden Van Foreest   Jules Moussard   Vladimir Fedoseev   Alan Pichot[10]
Aimchess Rapid July 10–14   Magnus Carlsen   Wesley So   Nodirbek Abdusattorov   Eduardo Iturrizaga   Denis Lazavik   Yu Yangyi
Julius Baer Generation Cup August 30 – September 3   Magnus Carlsen   Alireza Firouzja   Denis Lazavik   Nodirbek Abdusattorov   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Samuel Sevian
AI Cup September 25–29   Maxime Vachier-Lagrave   Magnus Carlsen   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Anish Giri   Vladimir Fedoseev   Samuel Sevian
Semi-finals (Playoffs) December 4–12 $500,000
Final December 15–22 $500,000   Magnus Carlsen   Wesley So

Standings edit

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

Legend
Did not qualify/participate Division I Division II Division III
Pos Name Airthings
Masters
Chessable
Masters
ChessKid
Cup
Aimchess
Rapid
Julius
Baer
Generation
Cup
AI
Cup
Total
Points
Prize
Money
1   Magnus Carlsen 150 75 150 150 100 625 $125,000
2   Fabiano Caruana 50 100 100 30 30 15 325 $75,000
  Nodirbek Abdusattorov 50 150 75 50 325 $67,500
4   Hikaru Nakamura 100 150 20 20 290 $65,000
5   Wesley So 75 30 100 30 235 $55,000
6   Alireza Firouzja 20 30 100 30 180 $47,500
  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 30 150 180 $37,500
8   Denis Lazavik 10 10 10 50 75 20 175 $44,300
9   Vladimir Fedoseev 20 50 20 8 50 148 $39,000
10   Ian Nepomniachtchi 6 50 75 131 $28,500
11   Levon Aronian 50 30 30 110 $30,000
12   Samuel Sevian 20 3 5 30 20 20 98 $25,700
13   Jorden van Foreest 75 20 95 $22,500
14   Vladislav Artemiev 30 20 30 80 $23,500
  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 5 30 15 30 80 $22,900
16   Anish Giri 20 5 50 75 $20,300
17   Yu Yangyi 30 15 4 20 69 $19,100
18   Alexey Sarana 30 15 5 6 10 66 $24,600
19   Eduardo Iturrizaga 4 1 50 5 60 $18,100
20   Arjun Erigaisi 50 6 56 $16,000
21   Amin Tabatabaei 3 20 10 20 53 $18,400
22   Jules Moussard 50 50 $12,500
23   Rauf Mamedov 20 6 6 15 47 $16,600
24   Dmitry Andreikin 6 15 6 5 10 42 $16,800
25   Lê Quang Liêm 1 20 8 10 39 $15,300
  Lê Tuấn Minh 4 5 8 15 6 1 39 $15,200
27   Pavel Eljanov 6 2 20 6 34 $15,700
28   Alan Pichot 5 1 20 4 1 31 $11,600
  Gukesh D 30 1 31 $11,000
  Jose Martinez 5 2 20 4 31 $10,600
31   Vladimir Kramnik 10 10 4 3 3 30 $13,400
  Gata Kamsky 6 6 10 8 30 $10,900
  Nodirbek Yakubboev 20 10 30 $10,500
  Dmitrij Kollars 30 30 $10,000
35   Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn 5 20 25 $7,800
36   Yuriy Kuzubov 4 20 24 $7,600
37   Aram Hakobyan 2 15 1 5 23 $10,200
  R Praggnanandhaa 15 8 23 $7,600
39   Alexey Dreev 6 6 5 5 22 $11,500
  Matthias Blübaum 8 8 3 1 2 22 $10,000
  Aleksandr Shimanov 2 20 22 $8,700
42   Evgeny Alekseev 1 10 10 21 $8,300
43   Georg Meier 5 6 2 2 5 20 $10,700
  Raunak Sadhwani 5 5 10 20 $10,500
  Grigoriy Oparin 4 6 10 20 $9,600
  Olexandr Bortnyk 10 10 20 $5,600
47   Vincent Keymer 1 8 2 8 19 $10,200
48   Martyn Kravtsiv 6 3 5 3 17 $9,300
49   Leinier Domínguez 8 8 16 $6,400
50   David Paravyan 4 1 8 2 15 $7,800
  Alexandr Predke 15 15 $5,000
  Amin Bassem 15 15 $5,000
  Pentala Harikrishna 15 15 $3,600
54   Maksim Chigaev 5 2 5 2 14 $8,400
  Daniil Dubov 8 6 14 $7,500
  Shamsiddin Vokhidov 1 10 2 1 14 $6,000
57   Parham Maghsoodloo 5 6 1 1 13 $7,300
58   Ivan Šarić 6 6 12 $7,000
  Benjámin Gledura 2 3 2 5 12 $6,800
  David Antón Guijarro 4 6 2 12 $6,300
  Jeffery Xiong 8 4 12 $5,600
62   Mikhail Antipov 2 4 5 11 $5,800
  Laurent Fressinet 5 6 11 $5,300
  Vasif Durarbayli 2 3 6 11 $4,600
65   Andrey Esipenko 8 2 10 $5,200
66   Vitaliy Bernadskiy 8 1 9 $3,400
  Benjamin Bok 3 6 9 $3,400
68   Vugar Rasulov 2 5 1 8 $5,200
  Salem Saleh 6 2 8 $4,700
  Samvel Ter-Sahakyan 6 2 8 $4,700
  Nikolas Theodorou 4 4 8 $3,200
  Aleksandr Lenderman 8 8 $2,400
  Ray Robson 8 8 $2,400
74   Igor Kovalenko 1 5 1 7 $5,000
  Kirill Alekseenko 1 6 7 $4,500
  Aydin Suleymanli 1 6 7 $4,500
  Diego Flores 5 2 7 $4,200
  Francisco Vallejo Pons 3 4 7 $3,000
  Levan Pantsulaia 2 5 7 $3,000
80   Eltaj Safarli 1 5 6 $4,000
  Maxim Matlakov 3 1 2 6 $3,600
  Rudik Makarian 2 3 1 6 $3,600
  Robby Kevlishvili 6 6 $3,500
  Hans Niemann 6 6 $3,500
  Jan-Krzysztof Duda 6 6 $3,500
  Alexander Grischuk 2 4 6 $2,800
  Pranav V 6 6 $2,000
  Wei Yi 6 6 $2,000
  David Navara 6 6 $2,000
  Anton Demchenko 6 6 $2,000
91   Gadir Guseinov 2 1 2 5 $3,400
  Bogdan-Daniel Deac 5 5 $3,000
  Diptayan Ghosh 5 5 $3,000
  Bharath Subramaniyam 5 5 $3,000
  Mamikon Gharibyan 5 5 $3,000
  Nihal Sarin 5 5 $3,000
  Mahammad Muradli 2 3 5 $2,600
  Alvar Alonso Rosell 4 1 5 $2,600
  Alexander Donchenko 5 5 $1,800
  Evgeny Tomashevsky 5 5 $1,800
101   Vaibhav Suri 2 2 4 $2,400
  Mikhail Demidov 4 4 $1,600
  Igor Lysyj 4 4 $1,600
  Pavel Smirnov 4 4 $1,600
  Etienne Bacrot 4 4 $1,600
  Pablo Salinas Herrera 4 4 $1,600
  Teimour Radjabov 4 4 $1,600
  Vladislav Kovalev 4 4 $1,600
109   P. Iniyan 2 1 3 $2,200
  Sanan Sjugirov 1 2 3 $2,200
  Aryan Tari 1 2 3 $2,200
  Vladimir Malakhov 1 2 3 $2,200
  Mustafa Yılmaz 2 1 3 $2,200
  Shant Sargsyan 2 1 3 $2,200
  Christopher Yoo 3 3 $1,400
  Peter Svidler 3 3 $1,400
  Alexandr Fier 3 3 $1,400
  Harshit Raja 3 3 $1,400
  Miguel Santos Ruiz 3 3 $1,400
  Federico Perez Ponsa 3 3 $1,400
  Timur Gareyev 3 3 $1,400
  Constantin Lupulescu 3 3 $1,400
  Jaime Santos Latasa 3 3 $1,400
  Thomas Beerdsen 3 3 $1,400
125   Arseniy Nesterov 2 2 $1,200
  Peter Michalik 2 2 $1,200
  Rasmus Svane 2 2 $1,200
  Axel Bachmann 2 2 $1,200
  Harshvardhan GB 2 2 $1,200
  Renato Terry 2 2 $1,200
  Hovhannes Gabuzyan 2 2 $1,200
  Krikor Mekhitarian 2 2 $1,200
  Read Samadov 2 2 $1,200
  Aradhya Garg 2 2 $1,200
  Aleksandr Rakhmanov 2 2 $1,200
136   Rodrigo Vásquez Schroeder 1 1 $1,000
  Sergey Drygalov 1 1 $1,000
  Xu Xiangyu 1 1 $1,000
  Dmitry Frolyanov 1 1 $1,000
  Klementy Sychev 1 1 $1,000
  Sergei Lobanov 1 1 $1,000
  Abdulla Gadimbayli 1 1 $1,000
  Andrew Tang 1 1 $1,000
  Krishnan Sasikiran 1 1 $1,000
  Srinath Narayanan 1 1 $1,000
  Abhimanyu Mishra 1 1 $1,000
  Bardiya Daneshvar 1 1 $1,000
  Nikita Meshkovs 1 1 $1,000
  Velimir Ivic 1 1 $1,000
  Vugar Asadli 1 1 $1,000
  Ori Kobo 1 1 $1,000

Tournaments details edit

Airthings Masters edit

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 edit

Chessable Masters edit

Division I Play-off edit

ChessKid Cup edit

Division I Play-off edit

Aimchess Rapid edit

Division I Play-off edit

Julius Baer Generation Cup edit

Division I Play-off edit

AI Cup edit

Division I Play-off edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Advanced further by drawing armageddon game with black
  2. ^ Advanced further by winning armageddon game with white

References edit

  1. ^ a b Team (CHESScom), Chess com (2023-02-13). "Chess.com Launches $2m Champions Chess Tour". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  2. ^ a b "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. ^ a b c d e "Champions Chess Tour Airthings Masters 2023 - Info". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  6. ^ "How to watch the Champions Chess Tour 2023 Event 1 live on DAZN | DAZN News UK". DAZN. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  7. ^ "Carlsen beats Nakamura again, wins Airthings Masters". Chess News. 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  8. ^ "Results – Champions Chess Tour". Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  9. ^ "ChessKid Cup – Champions Chess Tour". Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  10. ^ Alan Pichot was still representing Argentina at the time of the tournament
  11. ^ a b Levin (AnthonyLevin), Anthony. "Carlsen Defeats Nakamura, Wins Airthings Masters; Caruana, Sevian Win Divisions 2-3". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.