World Strongest Players Go to Starting Line of Clutch Chess International

Russia is represented by Alexander Grischuk.

The Clutch Chess International super tournament, organised by the Saint Louis Chess Club, is taking place on June 6-14.  

The world strongest players Magnus Carlsen (Norway, rapid rating - 2881), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2860), Leinier Dominguez (USA, 2786), Alexander Grishuk (Russia, 2784), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2778), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2773), Wesley So (USA, 2741), Jeffery Xiong (USA, 2730) are battling online for $265K in an original tournament format.

For the quarterfinals, the players were paired based on their current FIDE Rapid Rating. Each match consists of 12 games, but with the twist that games 5-6 are worth double the points and games 11-12 triple. The "clutch" games have an extra $10,000 at stake in each match, with prizes rolled over if the games end in draws. The time control is 10 minutes per player for all moves, with a 5 second per move increment from move 1. No draw offers are allowed before move 60.

The first quarterfinal matches (6 games in each encounter) started on June 6. Magnus Carlsen defeated Jeffery Xiong 4.5-3.5, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost to Wesley So 2.5-5.5.

The Dominguez vs Caruana and Grischuk vs Aronian matches will begin on June 7. 

The final 7th-12th games of the quarterfinals will be played on June 8 and June 9 respectively.    

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