MarketChampions Chess Tour 2021
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Champions Chess Tour 2021

The Champions Chess Tour 2021, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, was a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world's top players, playing for a prize money pool of US$1.5 million. The tournament games were held on chess24.com and broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, chess24.com itself, and the tour's official website. The tour started on November 22, 2020, and lasted until October 4, 2021. The tournaments were not rated by FIDE.

Format
There are 10 total tournaments in the tour: 6 labelled as Regular, 3 labelled as Major, and 1 Final. Each takes place towards the end of a month over the course of 9 days. However, after the first Major tournament (Airthings Masters), it was concluded that 8 out of 12 players advancing to the knockout round rewarded cautious play, and the remaining Major tournaments (Magnus Carlsen Invitational and FTX Crypto Cup) were conducted with 16 players. For each of the Regular tournaments except for the first one, 8 of the 16 spots are given to the current top 8 players in the Tour Rankings. The rest of the spots are given out via wild cards, invitations, or popular votes. Additional points are also awarded to finishes in the preliminary round: The points system for Major tournaments is the same, but all values are doubled. In the event that two players are tied for the same number of Tour points, the following tiebreak system will be used: • Number of tournament wins • Number of tournament appearances (fewer is better) • Number of final appearances • Number of semi-final appearances • Number of quarter-final appearances The administrators of the tournament also have the right to substitute a tiebreak match if the tie is for a qualification spot. Prize money Regular The total prize pool for a Regular tournament is $100,000. The money is split as follows: The regulations were changed after the Skilling Open tournament; in this first tournament of the tour, the players who lost in the semifinals each received $7,500, without a match for 3rd place. Major The total prize pool for a Major tournament is $200,000. The money is split as follows: Final The prize pool for the final is $300,000, which is split as follows: == Results ==
Results
Tournament results Tour rankings The column labelled "Wins" indicates the number of tournament wins. The column labelled "Apps" indicates the number of tournament appearances (including the ongoing tournament, if any). The winners of the Major tournaments are invited to the Final tournament, as are the 5 players (or more if one player has won more than one Major) with the highest tour ranking among the remaining players. Two additional players are invited as wild cards. As the winners of the Major tournaments (Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen) are guaranteed a place in the Final. An asterisk denotes a Major. Tournaments Skilling Open The results of the preliminary round were as follows. The results of the knockout rounds were as follows. • This player advanced by drawing as black in an Armageddon game. Airthings Masters The results of the preliminary round were as follows. The results of the knockout rounds were as follows. • This player advanced by drawing as black in an Armageddon game. Opera Euro Rapid Magnus Carlsen Invitational New In Chess Classic FTX Crypto Cup Goldmoney Asian Rapid Chessable Masters Aimchess US Rapid Tour Final Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri and Magnus Carlsen qualified by winning a Major tournament, while Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Vladislav Artemiev qualified for the finals via the tour standings. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave replaced Ian Nepomniachtchi, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Jan-Krzysztof Duda got a wildcard spot. Every player, except for Duda, starts with extra points according to their Tour standings. Qualifiers Chessable Qualifier Chessable Qualifier was held from 17 to 18 October 2020, and was a qualification tournament for Skilling Open, the first event of the Champions Chess Tour. Magnus Carlsen Invitational Qualifier == Coverage ==
Coverage
Chess24.com provided free live coverage of every tournament, with commentary in 10 different languages. They were broadcasting on their website, on the official tour website, and on Twitch. Various other chess streamers also provided live commentary. == Sponsorship ==
Sponsorship
Julius Baer and Opera were two listed sponsors of the event. Skilling sponsored the first tournament, while Airthings sponsored the second tournament. On January 3, 2021, Meltwater was announced as the title partner for the tour, which was accordingly renamed the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. == References ==
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