The American Cup kicks off on Tuesday: Pairings and schedule

From 12 to 21 March, the Saint Louis Chess Club will host the American Cup 2024 with an open competition and a women’s competition. 

Both tournaments will be played in a double-elimination format, meaning that anyone who loses a match will be given a second chance in the consolation group (elimination bracket). The events will take place in the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Time controls

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

• The classical time control shall be game in ninety (90) minutes plus thirty (30)-seconds increment from move one (G/90+30).
• The rapid time control shall be game in fifteen (15) minutes plus ten (10)-seconds increment from move one (G/15+10).
• The playoff time control shall be game in three (3) minutes plus two (2)-seconds increment from move one (G/3+2).
• In the Championship Bracket, each match will consist of four games, two classical and two rapid games.
• In the Elimination Bracket, each match will consist of four rapid games.
• In the Playoffs, players shall contest a two-game blitz match. If the match ends in a tie, the players shall repeat this process until a winner is determined.
• Should match 14 (winner of the Championship Bracket vs. winner of the Elimination Bracket) result in one lost match per player, the two players shall contest a 4-game rapid match (match 15) followed by playoff games (if necessary).

Schedule

The total prize fund is 400,000 USD (four hundred thousand US dollars): 250,000 USD in the open tournament and 150,000 USD in the women’s tournament. First prize in the open tournament is 75,000 USD. First prize in the women’s tournament is 40,000 USD.

Improve your pieces - a winning system you need to know

In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.

Participants of the open tournament: Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez, Levon Aronian, Sam Shankland, Ray Robson, Sam Sevian and Grigoriy Oparin.

Participantes of the women’s tournament: Irina Krush, Alice Lee, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, Anna Zatonskih, Nazi Paikidze, Tatev Abrahamyan, Jennifer Yu and Zoey Tang.

The players were seeded in places 1 to 8 according to their rating. The pairings were then made automatically according to the scheme of player 1 against player 8, player 2 against player 7 and so on.

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!

Links

• Official site
• Fabiano Caruana wins American Cup! (2022)
• Hikaru Nakamura wins the American Cup (2023)