Starting Wednesday: Qatar Masters with Carlsen, Naka and Giri!

by ChessBase
10/10/2023 – Eight years after two very successful editions of the Qatar Masters, won by Yu Yangyi (2014) and Magnus Carlsen (2015), the extraordinarily strong open is back. Carlsen returns to Doha and is joined by the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri and Dommaraju Gukesh. The tournament will be a 9-round Swiss open, with a $108,250 prize fund up for grabs. | Photo: FIDE / Fischer Random World Chess Championship

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Eight 2700+ rated players

Not often are elite open tournaments organized on the chess circuit. The Grand Swiss, a qualifier to the Candidates Tournament, is of course the most significant exception. This year’s edition, set to start on October 25, will count with 22 players rated 2700 or above, with Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura as the top seeds. The event organized by FIDE will not have Magnus Carlsen in the lineup.

Before the start of the Grand Swiss, however, Nakamura will be joined by Carlsen in the privately organized Qatar Masters. The two superstars will head an extraordinary field, which will also include Anish Giri, Parham Maghsoodloo, Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev as the players aged 20 or above in the top-10. The Indian trio of Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin, in addition to Uzbek star Nodirbek Abdusattorov, will be representing the under-20s among the favourites.

The first edition of the tournament took place in 2014, when Yu Yangyi outscored rating favourites Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik to take home the title. The next year, it was Magnus Carlsen who won the event — Carlsen tied for first with Yu and then beat him in a blitz playoff, while Kramnik had the best tiebreak score among the players finishing a half point behind the leading duo.

Magnus Carlsen, Yu Yangyi

Magnus Carlsen and Yu Yangyi during the 2015 Qatar Masters blitz playoffs

This year’s edition is a 9-round Swiss open, with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40
moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

A prize fund of $108,250 will be provided by the Organizing Committee, with $25,000 reserved for the winner, $15,000 for second place and $10,000 for third place. Special prizes for women, juniors and Arabic players will also be provided.

Rounds will be played daily from Wednesday, October 11 until Friday, October 20. The players will get a rest day after round 5, on Monday, October 16.

Read the full tournament regulations...

Registered players

No. Name Rtg
1 Carlsen, Magnus 2839
2 Nakamura, Hikaru 2780
3 Giri, Anish 2760
4 Gukesh, D 2758
5 Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2716
6 Erigaisi, Arjun 2712
7 Maghsoodloo, Parham 2707
8 Van Foreest, Jorden 2707
9 Nihal, Sarin 2694
10 Fedoseev, Vladimir 2691
11 Oparin, Grigoriy 2681
12 Sindarov, Javokhir 2658
13 Narayanan.S.L, 2651
14 Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. 2649
15 Aryan, Chopra 2634
16 Salem, A.R. Saleh 2632
17 Mendonca, Leon Luke 2622
18 Puranik, Abhimanyu 2618
19 Yakubboev, Nodirbek 2616
20 Karthikeyan, Murali 2611

...160 players


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