Chess Classic starts Saturday

Magnus Carlsen faces his 2016 challenger Sergey Karjakin as the New in Chess Classic, the 5th event on the $1.5 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, kicks off on Saturday 24 April at 19:00 CEST. Other Round 1 clashes to watch out for include Nakamura-Mamedyarov, Firouzja-So and Duda-Praggnanandhaa, with the 15-year-old Indian prodigy making his debut on the full tour after qualifying through the Polgar Challenge. Once again it’s a cut-throat format of three days and 15 rounds of rapid chess to reduce the 16-player field to just 8 players for the knockout.

Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who had automatic invitations to the New in Chess Classic as players in the Top 8 on the Tour, are of course absent, but that’s given a chance for other players. Polish no. 1 Jan-Krzysztof Duda, for instance, doesn’t see a problem with the late start time.

See also:

• Meltwater Champions Chess Tour website
• New in Chess Classic games with computer analysis and commentary: Prelims, Knockout
• Anish Giri wins the 2nd Magnus Carlsen Invitational
• Praggnanandhaa powers into Champions Chess Tour
• Carlsen & co return for the New in Chess Classic