Clutch Chess: Wesley So wins on tiebreaks

St. Louis Clutch Chess

The top four American players will play from Tuesday, May 26 - Friday, May 29, 2020 in a new knockout format called "Clutch Chess", created by Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, commentator, author, and chess innovator.

Clutch Chess will begin with two semifinal matches of twelve games played over two days, with the winners advancing to the finals. Games 1-4 and 7-10 of the matches will be scored using the traditional method of 1 point for a win and half a point for a draw. Games 5, 6, 11 and 12 - the final two games each day - are worth extra points and bonus prize money for a decisive result. The new scoring system means that a match isn’t over until the very end; with six points available in the last two games, anything can happen.

The games will be played with a time-limit of 10 minutes for the whole game and 5 seconds increment per move.

Scoreboards

Final

	Total	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5*	G6*	G7	G8	G9	G10	G11**	G12**
Fabiano Caruana	9	½	1	½	½	½	0	1	1	½	0	0	1
Wesley So *()**	9	½	0	½	½	½	1	0	0	½	1	1	0

*Games 5 and 6 are worth two points each

** Games 11 and 12 are worth three points each

(*) Wins the tournament on tiebreaks — more points in clutch games

Semifinals

	Total	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5*	G6*	G7	G8	G9	G10	G11**	G12**
Fabiano Caruana	15	½	1	1	1	½	1	½	1	0	1	1	1
Leinier Domínguez	3	½	0	0	0	½	0	½	0	1	0	0	0

	Total	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5*	G6*	G7	G8	G9	G10	G11**	G12**
Hikaru Nakamura	8½	½	½	½	0	½	1	0	0	0	1	½	½
Wesley So	9½	½	½	½	1	½	0	1	1	1	0	½	½

Live games

Live commentary

Scoring system

Schedule

Date	Start Times	Event
May 26		Match A	Match B
	3:00 PM CST	Game 1	Game 1
	5 minutes after Game 1 in such Match	Game 2	Game 2
	5 minutes after Game 2 in such Match	Game 3	Game 3
	5 minutes after Game 2 in such Match	Game 4	Game 4
	5 minutes after the later to conclude of Game 4 in Match A and Game 4 in Match B	Game 5	---
	5 minutes after Game 5 in Match A	---	Game 5
	5 minutes after Game 5 in Match B	Game 6	---
	5 minutes after Game 6 in Match A	---	Game 6
May 27	3:00 PM CST	Game 7	Game 7
	5 minutes after Game 7 in such Match	Game 8	Game 8
	5 minutes after Game 8 in such Match	Game 9	Game 9
	5 minutes after Game 9 in such Match	Game 10	Game 10
	5 minutes after the later to conclude of Game 10 in Match A and Game 10 in Match B	---	Game 11
	5 minutes after Game 11 in Match B	Game 11	---
	5 minutes after Game 11 in Match A	---	Game 12
	5 minutes after Game 12 in Match B	Game 12	---
		Match C (Winners of Match A vs Match B)
May 28	3:00 PM CST (with each subsequent game to begin 5 minutes after the the prior game)	Games 1 - 6
May 29	3:00 PM CST (with each subsequent game to begin 5 minutes after the the prior game)	Games 7 - 12