World Champion and Challenger to Compete in $320,000 FTX Crypto Cup
The 6th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour begins on May 23.
The FTX Crypto Cup, the 6th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, begins on Sunday, May 23. 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 3-day preliminary (May 23-25) stage sees the 16 players play each other once before the bottom 8 are eliminated while the top 8 advance to a knockout (May 26-31).
Line-up: Magnus Carlsen (Norway, rapid rating - 2881), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2860), Ding Liren (China, 2836), Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2829), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2784), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia, 2778), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2778), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2773), Daniil Dubov (Russia, 2770), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2761), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2758), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2742), Wesley So (USA, 2741), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2731), Alireza Firouzja (FIDE, 2703), and Alan Pichot (Argentina, 2533).
The most anticipated match-up, however, will be between the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and his newly-minted challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The time control is 15 minutes for all moves, with a 10-second increment per move from move 1.
The rounds start at 6 PM Moscow time.
Detailed information
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