Young stars compete in the Kramnik Challenge

Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who knocked Anish Giri out of the FIDE World Cup, is the top seed as the Kramnik Challenge, the 3rd event on the $100,000 Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, starts Thursday at 16:00 CEST. Once again there will be two teams, Team Kramnik and Team Polgar, with a mix of male and female players. The field has been cut to 16 players, with the youngest ever French Grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi among the debutants. 

The $15,000 Kramnik Challenge is the 3rd event on the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, following the Polgar Challenge won by Praggnanandhaa and the Gelfand Challenge won by Gukesh. Once again the winner will earn not just $3,000, but a place on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.  

The 4-day event starts on Thursday August 12 at 16:00 CEST and runs for four days, with the 16 players competing over 15 rounds of 15+10 rapid chess, all played on the chess24 Playzone.

You can already check out all the pairings.

The field was reduced from 20 players to 16 after a number of players were unable to compete. A large Indian contingent of Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Nihal Sarin is in action in the RTU Open in Riga, while Gunay Mammadzada, Olga Badelka and Nurgyul Salimova are all playing the European Women’s Championship in Iasi, Romania. 

The players making their debut on the tour are FMs Yahli Sokolovsky (Israel) and Balaji Daggupati (USA) and France’s Marc’Andria Maurizzi, who made headlines in May when he became the youngest ever French grandmaster, shortly after his 14th birthday. His first day’s action sees him face some stars of the recent FIDE World Cup.

Carissa Yip won the first game against Nana Dzagdnidze before losing their Round 3 match-up in the FIDE Women’s World Cup, while Sarasadat Khademalsharieh beat Padmini Rout and Gunay Mammadzada before losing to Tan Zhongyi, who finished 3rd. 

Nodirbek Abdusattorov knocked Anish Giri out in Round 3 tiebreaks  | photo: Anastasia Korolkova, official website

In the overall World Cup, Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov, now the favourite to win the Kramnik Challenge, knocked out Anish Giri on the way to Round 4, while 15-year-old Volodar Murzin knocked out Viorel Iordachescu in Round 1 before coming close to defeating his vastly more experienced Russian colleague Vladislav Artemiev in Round 2. 

After the Kramnik Challenge there’s one more regular event on the tour, the Hou Yifan Challenge from September 18-21, before the $40,000 8-player final from October 14-17, which will feature the top-performing individual players. 

There are also team standings, with the top-performing team getting the chance to travel to Dubai during the Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi World Championship match in November and December this year. Team Polgar is leading that race. 

Watch all the action live here on chess24 from Thursday August 12 at 16:00 CEST!

See also: 

• Official website
• All the Gelfand Challenge games with computer analysis and commentary
• Finding the NextGen in chess: The new Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour
• Praggnanandhaa powers into Champions Chess Tour 
• Gukesh books spot on Champions Chess Tour