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.
Although the 2022 Airthings Masters has the usual fearsome array of elite chess talent, we’ve also got one of the youngest line-ups yet for a Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event.
17-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov has been rewarded with a full Tour debut after he sensationally won the 2021 World Rapid Championship after defeating Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi, to name just some of the rivals who will be out for revenge in the chess24 online battles ahead!
Women's and overall World Rapid Championship winners Alexandra Kosteniuk and Nodirbek Abdusattorov will both be in action
16-year-old Praggnanandhaa is fresh from impressing in the Tata Steel Masters and is a full member of the Tour after winning last year’s Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. 17-year-old Vincent Keymer also qualified via the Challengers, while 18-year-old Hans Niemann was one of the most improved young players of 2021.
19-year-old Andrey Esipenko needs no introduction by this stage, but will also be making his Tour debut.
Zubair Timol, Vice President EMEA Meltwater, said:
Meltwater is excited to see the next generation of chess players participating in the Tour. Similar to Meltwater's approach to developing talent, the Tour gives new players a platform to participate and thrive on, ensuring continued progress and innovation.
Another player making her debut on the Tour is former Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. The Russian star had a stunning 2021, winning the Women’s World Cup without needing tiebreaks once before ending the year with Gold in the Women’s World Rapid and Silver in the Women’s World Blitz Championships.
The first event of the new season will be the first chance to see the updated tour format in action. Some things are the same, with the main action once again 15-minute games with a 10-second increment each move. The Prelims is an all-play-all battle where only 8 of the 16 players will qualify for the knockout.
The main twist in the Prelims, however, is that it’s now 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw, increasing the incentive to play for a win in every game.
The top scoring players then advance to the knockout, where the players will again play 4-game matches, with ties decided by two 5+3 blitz games followed, if needed, by an Armageddon game. This year, however, the quarterfinals and semi-finals will be played over just one day. while the final will remain a 2-day match. There will be no match for 3rd place.
The action kicks off at 18:00 CET (12:00 ET, 22:30 IST) on Saturday February 19th and will be over in just eight days. The Prelim rounds will be spread out over four days instead of three, with the shorter quarterfinals and semi-finals more than making up for that extra time.
For the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour the standings will be determined by prize money, and there’s a big change. On the previous tour all players earned the same amount of money for the Prelims. This time around, however, the prize money will be per game, with $750 for a win and nothing for a loss. With 120 games that means a maximum of $90,000 up for grabs.
If a game is drawn, however, both players get $250. What happens to the remaining $250? Well, that money will go into a season-long bonus pot for special awards and more. In an apocalyptic scenario where all 120 games were drawn, $30,000 would go to the end-of-season pot, while $60,000 would be split among the players.
The knockout prizes are the familiar increasing prizes based on how far you get, with a maximum of $25,000 added to the Prelim earnings for the tournament winner.
There's also qualification at stake. This season both finalists in each Regular tournament will be guaranteed one of the eight spots in the next Major (in this case April 20 - April 28), while the Top 8 will be invited to the next Regular.
Last year’s Airthings Masters was one of the most memorable events on the Tour, with Daniil Dubov knocking out Magnus Carlsen in the quarterfinals before Teimour Radjabov defeated Levon Aronian in the final.
Airthings, a Norwegian tech company specialising in air monitoring, is once again the sponsor, with Oyvind Birkenes, CEO of Airthings, commenting:
Poor air quality can dramatically diminish our cognitive ability, health, and energy — all vital assets to be successful in both chess and esports.
Fixing poor air quality starts with proactive monitoring, and Airthings is delighted to partner with the Champions Chess Tour to help chess players everywhere be at their best.
By streaming live air quality data for the world’s top players, including CO2, radon and PM 2.5, we want to highlight to the world how easy it is to take control of the air quality in your home, office or school.
You can follow the Airthings Masters right here on chess24, with streams in multiple languages and catering for chess fans of different levels. Our beginner-friendly stream from Oslo will again feature David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare, with Askild Bryn taking on a bigger role...
...while we’ve got Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev reuniting again after Peter spent much of 2021 working on Ian Nepomniachtchi’s World Championship team.
The action begins at 12:00 ET | 18:00 CET | 22:30 IST on Saturday 19th February right here on chess24.
See also:
We respect your privacy and data protection guidelines. Some components of our site require cookies or local storage that handles personal information.
Using chess24 requires the storage of some personal data, as set out below. You can find additional information in our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Website Use. Please note that your data settings can be changed at any time by clicking on the Data Settings link in the footer at the bottom of our website.
Comments 17
Be the first to comment!