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Magnus Carlsen faces World Championship Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi as the FTX Crypto Cup, the 6th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, begins Sunday, May 23rd at 17:00 CEST. One of the strongest line-ups ever assembled features the full Top 10, meaning a Tour debut for the last challenger and world no. 2 Fabiano Caruana. The last Major on the Tour offers a direct spot to September’s Tour Finals in San Francisco as well as a record online chess prize fund of $320k, with sponsors FTX providing a $100k Bitcoin bonus.
The FTX Crypto Cup, to be played on chess24 from May 23-31, may be the strongest chess tournament of all time, with the 16-player field including the complete Top 10 on the May 2021 FIDE classical rating list. This means that world no. 2 and 2018 World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana is making his Meltwater Champions Chess Tour debut, while the players outside the Top 10 include Candidates runner-up Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the world’s hottest junior Alireza Firouzja, and blitz world no. 1 and New in Chess Classic runner-up Hikaru Nakamura.
Participants
| No | Title | Name | FED | Elo | Age | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 2847 | 30 | Tour standings (1st) |
| 2 | GM | Fabiano Caruana | USA | 2820 | 28 | Wildcard |
| 3 | GM | Liren Ding | CHN | 2799 | 28 | Wildcard |
| 4 | GM | Ian Nepomniachtchi | RUS | 2792 | 30 | Tour standings (5th) |
| 5 | GM | Levon Aronian | ARM | 2781 | 38 | Tour standings (6th) |
| 6 | GM | Anish Giri | NED | 2780 | 26 | Tour standings (4th) |
| 7 | GM | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 2776 | 37 | Premium vote |
| 8 | GM | Wesley So | USA | 2770 | 27 | Tour standings (2nd) |
| 9 | GM | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | AZE | 2770 | 36 | Wildcard |
| 10 | GM | Teimour Radjabov | AZE | 2765 | 34 | Tour standings (3rd) |
| 11 | GM | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | FRA | 2760 | 30 | Tour standings (8th) |
| 12 | GM | Alireza Firouzja | FRA | 2759 | 17 | Wildcard |
| 13 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 2736 | 33 | Tour standings (7th) |
| 14 | GM | Peter Svidler | RUS | 2714 | 44 | Wildcard |
| 15 | GM | Daniil Dubov | RUS | 2710 | 25 | Wildcard |
| 16 | GM | Alan Pichot | ARG | 2630 | 23 | Premium vote |
Format/Time Controls
The 3-day preliminary stage sees the 16 players play each other once before the bottom 8 are eliminated while the top 8 advance to a knockout. The knockout match-ups are held over two days, with a 4-game match each day. If the match score is 1:1, the tie is decided in a blitz playoff. Two 5+3 blitz games are played followed, if needed, by an Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black's 4 but a draw counts as a win for Black. The time control is 15 minutes for all moves, with a 10-second increment per move from move 1.
Schedule
| Dates | Rounds |
|---|---|
| May 23-25 | Preliminaries |
| May 26-27 | Quarterfinals |
| May 28-29 | Semifinals |
| May 30-31 | Finals |
All rounds begin at 17:00 CEST.
Viewing Options
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GM David Howell and IM Jovanka Houska will provide commentary and analysis on the live TV studio broadcast from Oslo, available on Chess24's YouTube and Twitch pages.
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GM Peter Leko and IM Tania Sachdev will provide move-by-move commentary on a separate stream, available on Chess24's Twitch and YouTube channels.
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