Chess.com has announced the start of the Champions Chess Tour 2024 as Magnus Carlsen will look to dominate the circuit once again. Here is everything we know so far about the circuit.
Chess.com has brought back the Champions Chess Tour for 2024 and has dropped a little more money in each event’s prize pool outside of the Tour Finals. Each event will feature $300,000 in prize winnings.
The circuit will also feature a new time control for every stage, 10+2.
Last year, Carlsen defeated Wesley So 2.5-1.5 in Canada to earn yet another CCT title.
Here is everything we know so far about the Champions Chess Tour 2024 including its schedule, format and how to watch all the action.
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Champions Chess Tour 2024: Stream
Fans of professional Chess will be able to watch the action over the top boards during the Champions Chess Tour on Chess.com’s YouTube and Twitch channels. The stream is also embedded below.
Champions Chess Tour 2024: Schedule
The first event of the year, Chessable Masters, starts at the end of January, with three other major events following. The Champions Chess Tour Finals is set to begin at the end of the year in December.
The dates for all five major Champions Chess Tour events are the following:
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- Chessable Masters: January 31 – February 7
- CCT Event #2: May 8 – 15
- CCT Event #3: July 17 – 24
- CCT Event #4: September 25 – October 2
- Champions Chess Tour Finals: December 14 – 21
Each 8-day event will have a play-in stage, a division placement stage, and a knockout stage to decide the winner.
Champions Chess Tour 2024: Format
The tournament circuit format is largely the same as in 2023 as the Tour will still have a play-in stage featuring players from all eligible titles. Those titles are WCM, WFM, WIM, NM, CM, FM, IM, and WGM.
The open stage is a 9-round Swiss format stage where players will play games with a 10+2 time control. The top 69 open qualifier players then filter into the division placement round.
The play-in players and the invited ones then compete again to be placed into three divisional tiers. Round one will feature two game matches and players who make round two will play four more.
Once seeded into a division, players will compete in the knockout phase which is a double-elimination bracket. The winner of the third division will play in the second division next event, while the second division winner will be seeded into the first. The winner of the first division, which features only eight players by the end, will qualify for the CCT Finals.
Division play will see the winner’s bracket matches consist of four games while the loser’s bracket will feature two. The Grand Final will have four games.
The Tour Final will feature eight players who won a CCT event, and four players with the most Tour points by the end of the season. Players earn points through placement in the knockout stages.
