The 1st event on the $2 Million 2023 Champions Chess Tour – Aithings Masters, takes place from 6-10 February. The event is played in 3 Divisions of 8, 16 and 32 players with each division featuring a double-elimination knockout. The Grand Final will see the clash between the Winners of the Winners and Losers brackets – Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. The total prize fund of the event is $235.000. ( Read more: Airthings Masters Play-In determines the field for the main event )
The Winners Finals were played between Carlsen and Nakamura. After four draws, Carlsen managed to take the match victory in the Armageddon tiebreaker, pushing Nakamura into the Losers bracket. However, Hikaru stroke back and deserved his second chance against the World Champion after defeating Wesley So in the Losers bracket finals.
The match between the two Americans started with two draws, but Nakamura prevailed in the Armageddon tiebreaker. Hikaru won the Armageddon bid to get black pieces with the offer of 8min:5sec. After the match, Wesley commented: “It’s just totally insane that anyone would go that low“. So had 15 minutes against Nakamura’s 8:05 but also needed to win the game to get to the Grand finals. Hikaru reached a dead-draw position and Wesley So resigned.
The Grand Finals of the Airthings Masters will be played today through chess.com. Hikaru Nakamura will have his chance to revenge to Magnus Carlsen for the Winners Finals loss. The games start at 17:00 CEST.
