World Champion Launches $1 Million Magnus Carlsen Tour
GM Magnus Carlsen announced the Magnus Carlsen Tour, a series of five tournaments to be held online with a total prize fund of $1 million, at a press conference on May 14 in Oslo, Norway.
The tour includes the already concluded Magnus Carlsen Invitational, which took place April 18-May 3. The success of that tournament, and no doubt the cancellation of this year's Grand Chess Tour, inspired Carlsen to do more.
Carlsen: "I thought it was fun the first time. I think it can be very exciting in the future. I don't expect any OTB events to take place in the near future. These events will fill a void for fans and players." https://t.co/EKpYCWEYBN
— Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS) May 14, 2020
These events are scheduled for the tour:
- April 18 – May 3: Magnus Carlsen Invitational—prize fund $250,000
- May 19 – June 3: Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge—prize fund $150,000
- June 20 – July 5: Online Chess Masters—prize fund $150,000
- July 21 – August 5: Legends of Chess—prize fund $150,000
- August 9 – 20: Grand Final—prize fund $300,000
The top four players of each tournament are guaranteed a place in the next one. The Grand Final will be played between the winners of the individual tournaments. If a player wins two or more tournaments, then the extra place(s) will be decided on a points system.
The next tournament is the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, starting on May 19. It will be an online version of last year's tournament that took place in the Scottish whisky distillery.
The Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge will feature four players who also participated in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Carlsen himself as well as GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Ding Liren, and Alireza Firouzja.
The following eight players have been added: GMs Wesley So, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Levon Aronian, Wei Yi, Daniil Dubov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Yu Yangyi.
The time control will be 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move. The format is a preliminary phase consisting of a 12-player round-robin followed by a knockout phase among the top eight players. The games will be played on Chess24, which also hosts a Steinitz Memorial blitz tournament on the weekend of May 15-17.
