Champions Chess Tour 2023 Explained

Duration:	6 February 2023 – 16 December 2023
Tournaments:	7
Categories:	Regular (6) Finals (1)
Previous:	2022
Next:	2024
Most Tournament Titles:	Magnus Carlsen (4)
Prize Money Leader:	Magnus Carlsen ($125,000)
Points Leader:	Magnus Carlsen (625)

The Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2023 was a fast chess tournament circuit that was organized in 2023 by Chess.com. The tour started on 6 February 2023 and ended on 16 December 2023. It involved six online chess tournaments and an over-the-board final round, featuring some of the world's top players who played for a prize money pool of US$2 million.

Organisation and format

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.

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

Regular

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

Points

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

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.

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.

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! rowspan="2"
Winner	Prize	Second (or finalist)	Third	Fourth		Winner of Division II	Winner of Division III
Dates	Prize	Division I				Winner of Division II	Winner of Division III
Airthings Masters^[6]	February 6–10	$235,000	Magnus Carlsen	Hikaru Nakamura	Wesley So	Arjun Erigaisi	Fabiano Caruana	Samuel Sevian
Chessable Masters^[7]	April 3–7		Hikaru Nakamura	Fabiano Caruana	Magnus Carlsen	Levon Aronian	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Amin Tabatabaei
ChessKid Cup^[8]	May 22–26		Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Fabiano Caruana	Jorden Van Foreest	Jules Moussard	Vladimir Fedoseev	Alan Pichot^[9]
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
Final	December 15–22	$500,000	Magnus Carlsen	Wesley So

Standings

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

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
2	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
6	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
14	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			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
25	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
37	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		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
		2			3		6	11	$4,600
65	Andrey Esipenko					8	2	10	$5,200
66	Vitaliy Bernadskiy			8	1			9	$3,400
66				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		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		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
		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
			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

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. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament after defeating Hikaru Nakamura in Division I finals.^[10] Fabiano Caruana won Division II after defeating Yu Yangyi.

Division I Play-off

Chessable Masters

Division I Play-off

ChessKid Cup

Division I Play-off

Aimchess Rapid

Division I Play-off

Julius Baer Generation Cup

Division I Play-off

AI Cup

Division I Play-off

Tour Finals

Top 8 in the Tour standings are invited to the Tour Finals, played live over-the-board in Toronto, Canada.

Round-robin stage

Every player played two-game matches against each of other players with a time control of 15+3. If a match is tied, an armageddon game is played to decide the winner of the match, using bidding system to decide playing time and color (base time of 15 minutes). First and second place directly qualified to semifinals, third to sixth place advanced to the survival stage, while the last two places are eliminated.

Champion Chess Tour Finals, round-robin stage, 10 – 13 December 2023, Toronto, Canada! !! Player !! Rating ! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 ! !!
1	2737		½ ½ 1	½ ½ 0	½ ½ ½*	0 1 ½*	1 ½	½ ½ 1	1 ½	6	1
2	2818	½ ½ 0		½ 1	½ ½ 1	1 ½	½ ½ 1	0 1 1	1 ½	6	0
3	2762	½ ½ 1	½ 0		0 0	1 0 1	½ ½ 1	0 1 ½*	1 ½	5
4	2727	½ ½ ½	½ ½ 0	1 1		½ ½ 1	0 1 1	½ 0	½ ½ 1	4
5	2767	1 0 ½	0 ½	0 1 0	½ ½ 0		½ ½ 1	1 ½	½ ½ 0	2	2
6	2731	0 ½	½ ½ 0	½ ½ 0	1 0 0	½ ½ 0		1 1	1 1	2	1
7	2737	½ ½ 0	1 0 0	1 0 ½	½ 1	0 ½	0 0		½ ½ ½*	2	0
8	2509	0 ½	0 ½	0 ½	½ ½ 0	½ ½ 1	0 0	½ ½ ½		1

* - Match win by drawing armageddon game with black

Survival stage

Third and fourth place from round-robin stage played a match, with the winner advances to semifinals. Fifth and sixth place also played a match, with the winner playing the loser of 3rd vs 4th for the last spot of the semifinals. Each match consisted of two games with armageddon tiebreak.

3rd-4th place match! !! Player !! 1 !! 2 !!
3	Fabiano Caruana	1	0	1
4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	0	1	0

5th-6th place match! !! Player !! 1 !! 2 !!
5	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	1	0	½
6	Hikaru Nakamura	0	1	½

4th-5th place match! !! Player !! 1 !! 2 !!
4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	½	½	½
6	Hikaru Nakamura	½	½	½

Semifinals and finals

Four players played a single-elimination bracket to decide the champion. Each match was played as best-of-three sets, with set 1 and 2 consisting of four games, and final set consisting of two games. If a set is drawn, an armageddon game is played.

!!rowspan=2
1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2
Player !	Set 1				Set 2				Set 3
1	Wesley So	1	0	0	½	1	1	0	½	½	½	1
4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	0	1	1	½	0	0	1	½	½	½	0

!!rowspan=2
1	2	3	4		1	2	3	4
Player !	Set 1					Set 2
2	Magnus Carlsen	1	0	0	1	1	½	½	1	0	1
3	Fabiano Caruana	0	1	1	0	0	½	½	0	1	0

!!rowspan=2
1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
Player !	Set 1				Set 2
1	Wesley So	½	½	0	½	0	1	½	0
2	Magnus Carlsen	½	½	1	½	1	0	½	1

Notes and References

Web site: Team (CHESScom) . Chess com . 2023-02-13 . Chess.com Launches $2m Champions Chess Tour . 2023-02-28 . Chess.com . en-US.
Web site: 2023-01-25 . Revamped Champions Chess Tour to kick off in February . 2023-02-28 . Chess News . en.
Book: Breuer, Stefan Dr . Online-Schach für Amateur- und Hobbyspieler: 3. überarbeitete Auflage . 2023-02-12 . via tolino media . 978-3-7579-0448-7 . de.
Web site: 2023-01-25 . Champions Tour opens up . 2023-02-28 . ChessTech News . en.
Web site: Champions Chess Tour Airthings Masters 2023 - Info . 2023-02-28 . Chess.com . en-US.
Web site: 2023-02-10 . Carlsen beats Nakamura again, wins Airthings Masters . 2023-02-28 . Chess News . en.
Web site: Results – Champions Chess Tour . 2023-04-08 . en-US.
Web site: ChessKid Cup – Champions Chess Tour . 2023-05-27 . en-US.
Alan Pichot was still representing Argentina at the time of the tournament
Web site: Levin (AnthonyLevin) . Anthony . Carlsen Defeats Nakamura, Wins Airthings Masters; Caruana, Sevian Win Divisions 2-3 . 2023-02-28 . Chess.com . en-US.