The Week in Chess

The Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour an online series to be hosted by chess24 has been announced. The tour will include the recently concluded Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge: May 19 - June 3, the Online Chess Masters: June 20 – July 5, the Legends of Chess: July 21 – August 5 and then a Tour Final: August 9 – August 20. There will be $1m in prize money. The Tour Final will have the winners of all the tournaments (Carlsen already has made it with his win in the inaugural event) plus the best finishers if someone wins more than one tournament. The format has been rejigged a little from the first tournament. Now 12 players compete and they play an all-play-all of 11 rounds to produce a final 8 players. They will play best of 4 game mini-matches which if tied will see a final fifth Armageddon tie-break. The new twist is that each round is decided over a best of 3 mini-matches. - the top 4 finishers are automatically invited to the next tournament. Presumably the four player final will only have mini-matches. Chess24 description of the format..