TWIC is 31. First issue 17th September 1994.
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2025 (Games and Results)
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2025
Mark Crowther - Wednesday 29th October 2025
Carlsen in interview afterwards. Photo: | https://saintlouischessclub.org
The Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown took place in Saint Louis Mon 27th Oct to Wed 29th Oct 2025. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and World Champion Gukesh played three days of fast rapid chess (10m+5spm), a double round robin each day, eventually adding up to 18 rounds, Clutch chess is a special scoring system where the points available from each game increased each day from 1 to 2 to 3 with similar increases for draws from 0.5 to 1 to 1.5.
Magnus Carlsen was the runaway winner, the large margin was due to his domination of Gukesh who made huge errors in their games and only managed one draw, there has to be a psychological component to these mistakes as his score was perfectly decent against the other players. Carlsen won all the mini-matches and continues to be better than anyone else. Fabiano Caruana finished second, Nakamura third and Gukesh last. The scoring system didn't change the finishing order of the players in any way.
What is Clutch Chess?
Clutch Chess is a concept invented by Maurice Ashley and the key is its scoring system which increases over the course of the event. On day one there is the standard scoring system of one, half and zero, day two doubles that, day three trebles the standard score. The event is described as "a comeback-friendly format that cultivates increased tension and fan excitement into the very last round" (ymmv).
Previous Clutch Chess events
It was tried in a couple of high profile online events in 2020 (Clutch Chess Champions Showdown 2020 and Clutch Chess Champions Showdown International 2020), I have no recollection of these tournaments. It was tried more recently in a Chess960 match between Anand and Kasparov a few weeks ago.
In my table below I put the official final score as Pts and the score using a regular system as TB1.
Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2025 (Saint Louis USA)
Mon 27th Oct 2025 - Wed 29th Oct 2025 -
Official Site
Clutch Chess: Champions (4 players 18 Rds 6RR Indiv TC:10m+5spm) - Games in PGN: Games
Clutch Chess: Champions (4 players 18 Rds 6RR Indiv TC: 10m+5spm) - Games in PGN: Games
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ChessTempo viewer
| Clutch Chess: Champions Saint Louis USA Mon 27th Oct 2025 - Wed 29th Oct 2025
Leading Final Round 18 Standings: |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Name | Rtg | Gms | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Pts | TB1 | Prize |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2839 | 18 | ****** | ½10011 | 0½11½½ | 1½1111 | 25.5 | 12.5 | $170,000 |
| 2 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2789 | 18 | ½01100 | ****** | 1010½1 | 001½½½ | 16 | 8.5 | $102,000 |
| 3 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2816 | 18 | 1½00½½ | 0101½0 | ****** | 0½½½½1 | 14 | 8.0 | $77,000 |
| 4 | Gukesh, D | 2752 | 18 | 0½0000 | 110½½½ | 1½½½½0 | ****** | 10 | 7.0 | $63,000 |
| 4 players | ||||||||||
