Chessable Masters 2023 is going to start on Monday, April 3rd (8 am PT, 5pm CET). The 3rd edition of the Chessable Masters features Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, and many of the world’s top players. This is the last tournament where Magnus Carlsen will play as a reigning World Champion. Thus, the event is dubbed as Carlsen’s last dance
The Chessable Masters 2023 qualification phase was played in March (Replay the games here). Follow the live games from Chessable Masters 2023 here
In last year’s edition Carlsen and Ding went head to head and eventually Ding Liren was the winner of Chessable Masters 2022
The Champions Chess Tour comprises six events, followed by a Playoff and the Finals. The 2023 Chessable Masters is the second of the six events, with the winner guaranteeing a spot in the Playoffs.
The event features a qualifier phase open to all non-grandmaster titled players. The qualified players then join grandmasters in the Play-in stage, with the top players then moving on to a Knockout stage featuring three divisions. Each division has separate prize funds, with players also winning Tour Points according to their placement within each division. By the end of the tour’s sixth event, the players with the most Tour Points get a spot in the CCT Playoff.
The Knockout stage features 56 players playing across three different divisions based on their Match Play results:
- Division I: eight players.
- Four invited players (Carlsen, Nakamura, So, and Caruana).
- The four winners of the matches between the top-8 players from the Play-in Swiss.
- Division II: 16 players.
- The four losers of the matches between the top-8 players from the Play-in Swiss.
- The 12 winners of the matches between players placed 9th to 32nd in the Play-in Swiss.
- Division III: 32 players.
- The 12 losers of the matches between players placed 9th to 32nd in the Play-in Swiss.
- The 20 winners of the matches between players placed 33rd to 72nd in the Play-in Swiss.
Each division has prize money and Tour Points on the line. You can learn more about it by reading the Prizes section below.
The Knockout stage has the following format:
- Each division features a double-elimination knockout bracket.
- The time control is 15+3.
- Divisions I and II feature four-game matches in the Winners Bracket and two-game matches in the Losers Bracket.
- Division III features two-game matches in both the Winners and Losers Brackets and a four-game match in the Grand Finals.
- If there’s a Grand Finals reset (player coming out of the Losers Bracket wins the first set), the second set features a two-game match.
- A bidding armageddon game with a 15-minute base time breaks ties.
