I don't see a problem. If it was my money, I would steal the show, too. To complain about this, in view of how e.g. Americans elect their presidents, is just pathetic. The main event may actually turn out to be this one. Let's have the fun!

Yes, exactly. This tournament has the EXACT same starting day. This is certainly a ploy by the Saint Louis Chess Club to steal the show (or at least some of it) from the main event that is the World Chess Championships in NYC.

Did the Saint Louis Chess Club not win the bid to host the WCC or something???

To schedule this "Champions Showdown" at the same time as the Classical is undermining, especially when having the exact same start times. To complement chess and create even more awareness and excitement the times here could have been staggered, starting after the conclusion of each game in NYC. Of course that is only 3 days that actually conflict. Or the tourney could have started a few days earlier and concluded today.
There always seems to be some type of conflict and friction when it comes to the FIDE and large scale tournaments.
The idea of having a reunion of the older champions is a good one. Perhaps we will see this in the near future.

Tend to agree with the early comments - I think this would better serve chess, and chess fans, by being staged on dates which didn't overlap with the flagship event in the chess calendar.

Also, to call an exhibition tournament "Champions Showdown" and to have it coincide with the actual showdown for the Championship is not just undermining, but it's also frankly embarrassing for Rex Sinquefield and how poorly he is concealing his sour grapes that he didn't get the US Challenger he invested so heavily in.

Whilst I normally wouldn't grudge chess players taking a pay-day and having some fun, I wonder whether they were aware as to how this tournament would be branded (in conjunction with the timing of it) - I would have expected better judgement here, being particularly surprised at Anand's decision to participate.

I'll be watching the real showdown.

LOL complaints seem silly to me. It is normal to have a tournament at the same time as a match, it increases the overall excitement because a match might not have interesting games every day, and on the break days. This way fans have enough fresh content.

Sorry to the players for the riots and weirdness, please enjoy your stay.

This is an unsolicited advice. I am not against the sponsor’s and organizer’s intention to present high-level chess at great expense on their part. It is their money and they have the right to spend it as they wished. But I believe they should also sponsor and organize tournaments among the top stars of yesteryear who captivated our imagination and who are living contributors to our chess heritage. What a treat it would be for chess fans to see the likes of Anatoly Karpov and his contemporaries such as Ulf Andersson, Jan Timman, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Andras Adorjan, Eugene Torre etc in a reunion tournament.
The games of the elite may be highly educational (regarding how to play without mistakes) and entertaining. But the games of the demi-grandmasters, besides being more interesting and entertaining (because of mistakes and all), are no less educational for all but the cream of the chess population (super grandmasters) who make up maybe less than 0.001%. And these chess heroes of the recent past would bring back fond memories of our golden days of chess. And may I add, these tournaments may be less expensive to hold and if we are after “faultless” and “flawless” chess play, chess computers are there.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Why would they attempt to steal the show or thunder from such a big event going on already in NYC?

Wow, such a childish way to undermine the classical world chess championship - shame on CCCSL and these players for this.