Magnus And Hikaru Face Final Battle: Stage Set For New Over The Board Champions Chess Tour Finals 2023 In Toronto

Finally, it comes down to this. GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura, the two biggest names in chess, go head-to-head with the top players of 2023 as Chess.com’s $2 million Champions Chess Tour reaches its grand finale next month.

For the first time, the eight-player Tour Finals—the last act of the greatest season-long tournament in chess—will be held fully in person and over the board from December 9 to 16. It is the event chess fans have been waiting for. 

The winner will be crowned Tour Champion 2023 and pick up the $200,000 first prize in addition to winnings already earned. In total, $500,000 is on offer at the Tour Finals. Toronto, Canada, has been named as the host city.

Carlsen, the world number-one and reigning Tour champion, and Nakamura, the world’s top chess streamer, have dominated the 2023 season so far and their rivalry has been a joy to watch. But they face stiff competition from a world class field.

Nakamura is joined by two more American stars: the current world number-two and new U.S. champion Fabiano Caruana and three-time U.S. champion GM Wesley So. Uzbek sensation GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the rising star who won this year’s ChessKid Cup and finished second on the overall Tour leaderboard, takes his place at the top table.

This year’s surprise package, the “tricky Frenchman” GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will be aiming to continue his stunning return to form after he beat Carlsen twice to win the last event, the AI Cup.

He is joined by Iranian-born GM Alireza Firouzja, who also represents France, and the youngest in the field at 17, this year’s breakout star GM Denis Lazavik. The youngster had a strong finish to the regular Tour season to book his place in the Tour finale.

Carlsen qualifies for the Finals having won three of the six events on Tour: the Airthings Masters, the Aimchess Rapid, and the Julius Baer Generation Cup. So far, he has taken $125,000 in prize money. The 32-year-old Norwegian is going for a hat-trick of Tour wins having won in 2021 and 2022.

Nakamura, meanwhile, finished runner-up to Carlsen in the Airthings Masters before beating Caruana in April to win the Chessable Masters, an event in which Carlsen finished third. He is widely-considered Carlsen's main threat.

The Finals start on December 9 with an eight-player round-robin lasting three days. Matches will be played over a best of three sets format, with each set consisting of four games with armageddon if needed.

All games except armageddon games will be played using the 15+3 rapid chess time control and will be FIDE-rated. Following the conclusion of the round-robin, the top two players will advance to the knockout stage while the bottom two will be eliminated.

The remaining six placed 3 to 6 will battle it out for the two remaining spots in the semis in a double-elimination “Survival Stage” on December 12. The single-elimination knockout played over a best-of-three sets format begins with the semis scheduled for December 13 and 14.

The winners will face each other in the two-day grand final starting on December 15.

The Tour Champion 2023 will be crowned on December 16. ONE Hotel Toronto will host the Finals with live commentary on site and from Chess.com’s studio in Oslo. You can watch the Champions Chess Tour Finals 2023 on Chess.com/TV, our Twitch channel and catch all our live broadcasts on YouTube.com/Chess. The games can also be followed from our Events Page.

The Champions Chess Tour 2023 (CCT) is the biggest online tournament of the year. It is comprised of six events that span the entire year and culminate in live in-person finals. With the best players in the world and a prize fund of $2,000,000, the CCT is Chess.com's most important event.