Champions Chess Tour 2023
The Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2023 is an online (online) fast chess tournament circuit that is being organised in 2023 by Chess.com. The tour started on 6 February 2023 and will last until 15 December 2023. It involves eight online chess tournaments featuring some of the world's top players, who will play for a prize money pool of US$2 million.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Duration | 6 February 2023 – 15 December 2023 |
| Tournaments | 8 |
| Categories | Regular (6) Finals (2) |
| Achievements (singles) | |
| Most tournament titles |  Magnus Carlsen (1)  Hikaru Nakamura (1) |
Champions Chess Tour 2024 → | |
Organisation and format
With Chess.com's purchase of Play Magnus Group, the 2023 Champions Chess Tour will take 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 will include open qualifications and a division structure to accommodate more players. There are also several inventive format tweaks created to increase excitement and make every match matter.[1][2]
The new concept includes 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 are open to all top 500 players in the rapid chess ranking.[3][4] The tournaments consists of six $235,000 tournaments. The top ten finishers in the overall standings will each get an additional $100,000 prize. The top finishers on the leaderboard will fill 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 a semi finals and four playing the final in December 2023.[1][2]
All titled players may compete in the qualifying rounds, with the exception of grandmasters, who are automatically entered into the play-in rounds. There are nine rounds of a Swiss-system tournament during qualifiers. The time limit is 10 minutes plus 2 seconds. The top three competitors in each competition will have 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 are distributed as follows:[5]
| 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
| Tournament | Dates | Prize | Winner | Second (or finalist) |
Third | Fourth | Winner of Division II |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airthings Masters[7] | February 6–10 | $235,000 | Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
Hikaru Nakamura (US) |
Wesley So (US) |
 Arjun Erigaisi (India) |
Fabiano Caruana (US) |
| Chessable Masters[8] | April 3–7 | Hikaru Nakamura (US) |
Fabiano Caruana (US) |
Magnus Carlsen (Norway) |
Levon Aronian (US) |
 Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) | |
| ChessKid Cup | May 22–26 | ||||||
| 4th tournament | July 10–14 | ||||||
| 5th tournament | August 28 – September 1 | ||||||
| 6th tournament | September 25–29 | ||||||
| Semi-finals (Playoffs) | December 4–12 | $500,000 | |||||
| Final | December 15–22 | $500,000 |
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.[9] Fabiano Caruana won Division II after defeating Yu Yangyi.[9]
References
- Team (CHESScom), Chess com (2023-02-13). "Chess.com Launches $2m Champions Chess Tour". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "Revamped Champions Chess Tour to kick off in February". Chess News. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- 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.
- "Champions Tour opens up". ChessTech News. 2023-01-25. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "Champions Chess Tour Airthings Masters 2023 - Info". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "How to watch the Champions Chess Tour 2023 Event 1 live on DAZN | DAZN News UK". DAZN. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "Carlsen beats Nakamura again, wins Airthings Masters". Chess News. 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- "Results – Champions Chess Tour". Retrieved 2023-04-08.
- Levin (AnthonyLevin), Anthony. "Carlsen Defeats Nakamura, Wins Airthings Masters; Caruana, Sevian Win Divisions 2-3". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-02-28.