The Charity Cup is the 2nd of 9 events on the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and takes place on chess24 from March 19-26. World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the 16-player field, which will be cut in half by the 4-day round-robin Prelims. The total prize fund is $150,000, with $750 for a win and $250 for a draw in the Prelims.

The quarterfinals and semi-finals are 1-day, 4-game matches, while the final will feature two such matches over two days. The players have 15 minutes for all their moves, plus a 10-second increment starting from move 1. In the Prelims there are 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. If a tiebreak is required the players will play two 5+3 games and then, if needed, a single Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, but a draw counts as a win for Black. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.

For the 2nd event on the tour the decision was taken to focus on the humanitarian situation, by renaming the event and organising it as a fundraiser for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, that is providing life-saving support for children and their families in and around Ukraine.

You can already donate to UNICEF using the following link:
https://www.unicef.no/stott/privat/donasjon/chess-tournament

Magnus Carlsen tops field for Charity Cup, a UNICEF fundraiser

Official website: chess24.com/tour

Airthings Masters kicks off Meltwater Champions Chess Tour

Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren will top the 16-player field when the Airthings Masters, the first event on the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, starts at 18:00 CET on February 19th. Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are the other Top 10 stars in action, while World Rapid Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Nodirbek Abdusattorov both play. 17-year-old Nodirbek is joined by fellow teen stars Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer, Hans Niemann and Andrey Esipenko in one of the youngest Tour line-ups ever assembled.

chess24.com

The New in Chess Classic runs non-stop for 9 days from April 24 to May 2 and retains the same cut-throat formula of a 3-day round-robin after which the field will be reduced to 8 players before the knockout begins. Days 1, 2 and 4 will overlap with Rounds 12, 13 and 14 of the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg, but while games start at 13:00 CEST there, the Tour events will start at 19:00 CEST.

New in Chess Classic Day 4 QF.1 | Carlsen vs Radja | Live commentary Sagar, Amruta

The players will once again be playing rapid chess in the chess24 Playzone, with 15 minutes per game and a 10-second increment per move. The knockout stages will feature two days of 4-game rapid matches, and if the match score is 1:1 after the second match they’ll play two 5+3 blitz games followed, if needed, by an Armageddon game, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4 but a draw counts as a win for Black.

As this is a Regular tournament the prize fund is $100,000, with $30,000 for 1st place.

chess24.com

В турнире играют две сильнейшие шахматистки Казахстана:

За Team Polgar сыграет Жансая Абдумалик (Алматы)
За Team Kramnik сыграет Динара Садуакасова (Нур — Султан)

К сожалению Динара Садуакасова (Казахстан) выбыла из турнира из-за неустойчивого соединения интернета и ее результаты были аннулированы.

Официальное заявление организаторов турнира.

Заявление Динары Садуакасовой:

Дорогие друзья, с большим сожалением вынуждена сообщить, что из-за нестабильного интернета вынуждена прервать участие в турнире Polgar Challenge. Я готовилась к турниру, как в шахматном плане, так и в техническом. Но на протяжении всех 7-ми партий которые я играла, все время были проблемы с интернетом. Даже в последней партии, 7-го тура с международным гроссмейстером Lei Tingjie у меня был перевес по времени и лишняя пешка в коневом эндшпиле 3 на 2, но из-за нестабильной связи я просрочила время. В ходе каждой партии мне приходилось больше думать об интернете. Использовала соединение трёх провайдеров, ничего не помогало. Ещё раз приношу извинения болельщикам и организаторам.

Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram

Публикация от ♛DINARA SADUAKASSOVA (@dinara.saduakassova)

Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour: Polgar Challenge | Day 1 | Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik

Finding the NextGen in chess: The new Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour
Chess legends Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik have joined forces with Play Magnus Group to launch a new elite online tour designed to support rising young players and advance gender equality in the sport.

The Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour will feature some of the world’s top talent and include a healthy balance of male and female competitors.

At stake is a $100,000 prize pot, golden tickets to compete with the very best in the game in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour as well as educational opportunities and experiences.

Kramnik and Polgar launch the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour

Are you Team Polgar, or Team Kramnik?

Fronted by the strongest female player of all time, Judit Polgar, and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, the new tour will run alongside the hugely-popular Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

In total 20 players will be involved, divided into teams run by Judit and Vladimir. Live commentary of the action will be provided here on chess24.

The Tour is designed to tackle head-on the lack of female role models competing in top events and promote emerging talent.

Figures from FIDE released last year show there are more than 1700 grandmasters in the world, but only 37 of them are female.

Judit Polgar, however, has shown gender alone is no barrier to success in chess.

The Hungarian’s extraordinary career saw her beat Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record to become the youngest GM in history.

World Champions Judit has beaten include Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky, Vasily Smyslov and Viswanathan Anand. She peaked in 2005 when she was 29, hitting eighth in the world rankings.

The 44-year-old, who retired in 2014, said: “It has always been my mission to show chess is not just a game, it is a powerful tool in education.

“The Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour will be full of drama and exciting chess. We hope you tune in to watch!”

It is an honour being the co-host of the @juliusbaer Challengers Chess Tour, a new event will feature some of the world’s top young male and female talents! It starts on April 8. ♟❤️#ChessChallengers pic.twitter.com/EMacEkYCKX

— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) March 21, 2021

The new Tour starts on April 8 and includes four 4-day rapid tournaments played on chess24, leading into a Final taking place from September 9 to 13.
The winner of each event will qualify for a place on the $1.5 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, Play Magnus Group’s flagship series.

Julius Baer, the Swiss private bank that has supported the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, will be the new event’s title partner.

chess24.com

MELTWATER CHAMPIONS CHESS TOUR
Magnus Carlsen Invitational
March 13th — 21st 2021

World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the field for the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the 4th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and the 2nd Major. The 3-day preliminary stage sees the 16 players play each other once before the bottom 8 are eliminated while the top 8 advance to a knockout consisting of 2-day matches. The prize fund is $220,000, with $60,000 for top place, while the winner also qualifies to the Tour final in September. The time control is 15 minutes for all moves, with a 10-second increment per move from move 1. The knockout match-ups consist of 4-game matches on the first two days. If the match score is 1:1, two 5+3 games are then played followed, if needed, by Armageddon, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4 but a draw counts as a win for Black.

Official website: championschesstour.com

Magnus Carlsen tops 16-player Opera Euro Rapid line-up

Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Teimour Radjabov and Wesley So are among the 16 participants for the $100,000 Opera Euro Rapid, the 3rd stage of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The 9-day online event runs from February 6th to 14th and will once again be broadcast live on Eurosport, Norwegian TV and in multiple languages and styles here on chess24. The 16 players will be cut to eight on the first three days before the remaining participants play a knockout for the $30,000 top prize and crucial Tour points.

The line-up for the Opera Euro Rapid features 9 of the world’s top 11 ranked chess players on the January 2021 FIDE rating list. It consists of the 8 players who are leading the Tour standings, 2 players by public vote and 6 Wildcards. 2018 US Champion Sam Shankland, world no. 14 Leinier Dominguez and German no. 1 Matthias Bluebaum are making their Tour debut.

# Opera Euro Rapid Player FED Age Rating Rank Rapid Rating Rank Qualified by

1 Magnus Carlsen 30 2862 1 2881 1 Tour standings (4th)
2 Ding Liren 28 2791 3 2836 3 Premium vote
3 Ian Nepomniachtchi 30 2789 4 2778 9 Tour standings (7th)
4 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 30 2784 5 2860 2 Tour standings (5th)
5 Levon Aronian 38 2781 6 2778 8 Tour standings (3rd)
6 Alexander Grischuk 37 2777 7 2784 7 Premium vote
7 Wesley So 27 2770 9 2741 21 Tour standings (2nd)
8 Teimour Radjabov 33 2765 10 2758 14 Tour standings (1st)
9 Anish Giri 26 2764 11 2731 25 Wildcard
10 Leinier Dominguez 37 2758 14 2786 6 Wildcard
11 Jan-Krzysztof Duda 22 2743 19 2774 10 Wildcard
12 Hikaru Nakamura 33 2736 20 2829 4 Tour standings (6th)
13 Vidit Gujrathi 24 2726 24 2636 116 Wildcard
14 Daniil Dubov 24 2710 29 2770 12 Tour standings (8th)
15 Sam Shankland 29 2691 44 2609 170 Wildcard
16 Matthias Bluebaum 23 2670 67 2562 265 Wildcard

The schedule is the same as for the Skilling Open and the Airthings Masters, with each day’s play this time beginning at 17:00 CET/11:00 ET/21:30 IST.

A 3-day Preliminary stage sees participants play each other once at rapid chess, with 15 minutes for all moves and a 10-second increment added to their clock each move.

The top eight advance to a knockout, where each tie is held over two days, with a 4-game rapid match each day. If the score in matches ends 1:1 a playoff is held, where two 5+3 blitz games are potentially followed by Armageddon, a single game where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4, but a draw counts as a win for Black.

chess24.com

Play Magnus Group Secures Leading Library of Chess Content with the Acquisition of New In Chess
This is very big news indeed and here are further details.

Play Magnus Group expands its industry-leading library of chess content with the acquisition of Dutch chess publisher, Interchess BV, which operates the New In Chess brand.

New In Chess has built a world-class library of chess content comprising books, ebooks, digital subscriptions, and magazines. New In Chess has published over 200 titles, including best-sellers such as 100 Endgames You Must Know and Game Changer. The company also publishes the iconic New In Chess magazine and Yearbook which are highly regarded by chess enthusiasts around the world.

Play Magnus Group is acquiring 100% of the shares in Interchess BV for a cash consideration. As part of the transaction, Play Magnus Group will acquire Interchess BV’s holdings of 137,900 shares in Play Magnus Group originating from their early investment in Chessable Limited. New In Chess generated approximately EUR 2 million in revenue and was cash flow positive in 2020.

About Play Magnus Group

Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, CoChess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group’s mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess.

www.chessable.com