The 2020 Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour consisted of five events: the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, the Chessable Masters, the chess24 Legends of Chess and the Finals benefiting Kiva. This time round there will be 10 events starting on November 22nd and ending in September 2021. There will be 6 Regular tournaments, 3 Majors and the Finals. 

The prize fund has increased by half from $1 million to $1.5 million, with $100,000 for each Regulartournament ($30,000 for 1st place), $200,000 for each Major ($60,000 for 1st place) and $300,000for the Finals ($100,000 for 1st place).

The Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour experimented with different formats, with the first event, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, lasting a full 16 days. This time round all of the events will be held over 9 dayswith no rest days (though exact schedules could still change).

This time round all of the first 9 tournaments will have the same structure: a 3-day round-robin (16 players for each Regular event and 12 for each Major) after which the Top 8 players advance to a 6-day knockout, with two days each for the quarterfinals, semi-finals and final.

The time controls used in the Champions Chess Tour will be the same as for the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour:

• Rapid: 15+10 – each player has 15 minutes for all moves, with a 10-second increment after each move
• Blitz: 5+3
• Armageddon: White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, with no increments. If the game is drawn Black wins the match

The difference comes in the knockout stage, where instead of having best-of-3 (5 or 7) matches, each encounter will be decided over two days. On Day 1 there will be four rapid games, and if the match ends 2:2 it will simply be a draw (there doesn’t have to be a winner).

On Day 2 another 4-game match will be held. If both matches are drawn, or the players have traded wins, then shortly after the second match there will be a playoff: two blitz games followed, if needed, by Armageddon.

The Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour had a simple principle that anyone who won a Tour event qualified for the Finals. That still remains, as the winner of a Major qualifies for the Finals, while the winner of a Regular event qualifies for the next Major.

This time, however, Tour points will take on much more importance. The maximum available for a Regular event like the Skilling Open is 50 (10 for finishing 1st in the Prelims and 40 for winning the final).

For a Major event those numbers are doubled to 100 (20 points for finishing 1st in the Prelims and 80 for winning the final).

Tour points are important since the Top 8 players on the Tour will automatically be invited to the next tournament.

Tour points will also be used to determine the players in the Finals, which this time round will be a 10-player round-robin. Each clash in each round will be played as a 4-game mini-match, with two blitz games and Armageddon if the match ends 2:2. The winner of a match that doesn’t go to playoffs gets 3 points, while points are split 2:1 if a playoff is required.

The twist is that players start the tournament with a different number of points based on their performance over the course of the tour – a system similar to that used in the FedEx Cup in golf. The incentive will be much bigger to score the maximum points over the course of the Tour.  

Anti-Cheating measures will build on those used for the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. As well as the player stream viewers can watch there will be cameras filming the players from other angles, available only to the arbiters. The players’ screens will be shared with arbiters as they play. One change, however, is that this time round, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, bathroom breaks or otherwise leaving the playing area will not be permitted during games (except with the Chief Arbiter’s approval).

Magnus Carlsen during the previous chess tour, with a camera also filming him from behind | photo: Arne Horvei

Disconnects are always a tricky area for online chess, and the new policy is to give a player 30 seconds to reconnect, while their clock still runs. If they lose on time during those 30 seconds they lose the game. After 30 seconds, the clocks will be paused and then resumed as soon as possible after the player reconnects. The aim is to ensure, as far as possible, that chess skills and not internet connections decide results, while also avoiding situations where a game is frozen for too long in a time scramble.

As well as eight players invited to each event being determined by current tour standings there will be some invites or wild cards. Tour Pass holders or chess24 Premium members will get to vote for some of the players to invite.