Chess960 in St. Louis: Caruana, Svidler, So and Nakamura win

2019 Champions Showdown: "Chess 9LX"

The "Champions Showdown" has become an annual event to showcase the Saint Louis Chess Club by bringing world-class with a twist. Instead of eight grandmasters playing a typical round-robin ("all-play-all") tournament, each player has a match opponent against whom he has to play the total of 20 games. The four separate matches, running in parallel, this year feature Chess960 (a.k.a. Fischer-Random Chess) with the following pairings.

Final standings

• Caruana 19 : 7 Kasparov
• So 18 : 8 Topalov
• Dominguez 10½ : 15½ Svidler
• Nakamura 14½ : 11½ Aronian

Live commentary

Commentary by WGM Jennifer Shahade, GM Yasser Seirawan & GM Maurice Ashley

Garry Kasparov warmed up with the "Ultimate Moves" exhibition | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Chess 9-what-now?

In this chess variant, the pieces are lined up on the first and last rank in a random order, with a few stipulations (e.g. the king must begin between the rooks, the bishops must be balanced). In all 960 different starting positions are theoretically possible. The basic premise is that the players can forget their theoretical knowledge in "normal chess" (a.k.a. position 518) and are instead on their own from the first move.

But what is "Chess 9LX"? The organizers seem to be pursuing a marketing strategy, something that can be more readily branded or even trademarked, but the meaning simply derives from the Roman numeral system, popular for instance in the American football Superbowl: "L" for 50 and "X" 10 - "LX" is simply "60". Chess 9LX = Chess 960.

It might have been "Chess CMLX" of course, but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, like "nine-el-ex".

Prize fund

USD $200,000 is on offer for the players.

Time control and scoring

Rapid (6 games): 30 min. / Game (10 sec. "Delay"), a win is worth 2 points

Flash (14 games): 5 min. / Game (5 sec. "Delay"), a win is worth 1 point

Schedule

A new starting position will be drawn for every four rounds, with the same position being repeated in each round. In the unlikely event that, by random chance, the "normal" position 518 is drawn, it will not count and a new draw will take place. After the draw, players have a little time to prepare, but are not allowed to use any electronic devices. A (human) second is allowed. In addition, the players will be filmed during their preparation — it's part of the show!

Times in UTC.

Links

• Official site