Magnus takes on Dubov, Artemiev & the Challengers

Magnus Carlsen will stream live on his Twitch channel as he plays blitz “death matches” against Russian rising stars Daniil Dubov and Vladislav Artemiev, while first he’ll be playing Banter Blitz against the participants in the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. It’s going to be quite a week for the World Chess Champion, as that comes on top of commentating live on the first three rounds of the resumed FIDE Candidates Tournament before taking on the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja in the New in Chess Classic.

All eyes will on Yekaterinburg, Russia on Monday April 19th as the FIDE Candidates finally resumes - touch wood! - at 13:00 CEST (07:00 ET, 16:30 IST). How better to watch the games than in the company of the man they’re all fighting to play a World Championship match against, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. He’ll be right here on chess24, alongside David Howell and Tania Sachdev.

That’s not all, however, since Magnus is going to be streaming after the action in Yekaterinburg is over on his Twitch channel.

The World Chess Champion in Classical, Rapid and Blitz chess doesn’t have too many worlds left to conquer, though streaming is an area where others have been able to shine.

It's unlikely Magnus is going to become a full-time streamer, but he’s been active of late, for instance streaming a Hand & Brain match between himself and streamer Ludwig Ahgren and the Botez sisters. Things didn’t always go to plan!

He also streamed some bullet on lichess. Again, there were hiccups…

…but it all worked out in the end!

There are some real treats to look forward to this week with Magnus playing on chess24.

On Monday at 20:00 CEST he’s going to take on some of the 20 players from the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour in Banter Blitz.

This makes it altogether tougher for him to stick to his promise to treat most of the kids well! Praggnanandhaa, who won the Polgar Challenge to qualify to face Magnus in the New in Chess Classic, may be the other 5%.

On Wednesday at 20:00 CEST we have the first Death Match, with Magnus taking on former Russian and European Blitz Champion Vladislav Artemiev in a best-of-24 match. The time control is 3 minutes for all moves, with a 2-second increment.

On Thursday it’s the turn of 2018 World Rapid Champion Daniil Dubov, who has shown himself to be one of the players in world chess most capable of landing blows against the reigning World Champion. The current plan is for a best-of-16 match, though the time is yet to be decided. 

Then we only have to wait until Saturday until Magnus begins as top seed for the 5th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the New in Chess Classic. So far Magnus has won all four preliminary stages and is second to Wesley So in the tour standings, but he’s yet to win a title. Can he change that?

We’ll soon find out, but first up it’s the 2020/1 Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg. Tune in to Magnus, Tania Sachdev and David Howell from 13:00 CEST live here on chess24.