Airthings Masters Play-In: Live!

A Swiss and a knockout

Hundreds of professional players worldwide will take part in the flagship Champions Chess Tour, played on Chess.com, before an overall winner is crowned Tour Champion for 2023. Norway’s GM Magnus Carlsen, two-time Tour winner, the world number-one, and arguably the greatest player in chess history, will defend his title.

The competition includes open qualifiers and a division system to include more players in the Tour, as well as many innovative format changes designed to maximize excitement and make every match count. 

The Airthings Masters is the first event of the Tour. In the play-in phase, a total of 54 players will qualify to the knockout stage set to start on Monday, February 6.

Follow the commentary webcast provided by the official organizers. Find more info about the format below the video feed.

Play-In video webcast

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

Commentary by David Howell, Tania Sachdev, Robert Hess, Kaja Snare & Jovanka Houska

Format

The Airthings Masters has a Play-in stage, open to all grandmasters, and a Knockout stage featuring three divisions. Each division has separate prize funds, with players also winning Tour Points according to the division they played in and their placement. By the end of the tour's sixth event, the players with the most Tour Points get a spot in the CCT Playoff.

Play-In

• Open to all grandmasters.
• Play-in consists of a nine-round Swiss and a “Match Play” stage.
• The time control is 10+2.
• The top-ranked players from the Swiss advance to the Match Play stage.
• The top six players from the Swiss pick, one by one, their opponents for their Match Play among players placed between seventh and 12th.
• The remaining Match Play pairings are based on players' Swiss final placement.
• Each match in Match Play consists of two games.
• A bidding Armageddon game breaks Match Play ties: there is a 10-minute base time for the armageddon game. The bid winner has the choice of color and starts the game with the amount of time they bid. Black has draw odds. If the bid is tied, players bid again. There is no increment.
• Following Match Play, players advance to the Knockout stage and enter one of three divisions based on their results.

Opening package: 1.b3 and Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

Wesley So published two new opening DVDs: 1.b3, the so called Nimzo-Larsen-Attack, for White and his black secrets in the modern Italian. Get them in a package and save money!

Knockout

The Knockout stage features 56 players playing across three different divisions based on their Match Play results:

Division I: 8 players.

• Two invited players (Carlsen and So).
• The six winners of the matches between the top-12 players from the Play-in Swiss.

Division II: 16 players.

• The six losers of the matches between the top-12 players from the Play-in Swiss.
• The ten winners of the matches between players placed 13th to 32nd in the Play-in Swiss.

Division III: 32 players.

• The 10 losers of the matches between players placed 13th to 32nd in the Play-in Swiss.
• The 22 winners of the matches between players placed 33rd to 76th in the Play-in Swiss.

Each division has prize money and Tour Points on the line.

Links

• Official site
• Revamped Champions Chess Tour to kick off in February