CCT Chessable Masters: Star-studded line-up to feature Carlsen, Hikaru, Alireza and co.
The first leg of the 2025 Champions Chess Tour – Chessable Masters is set to commence from February 17, 2025. The online rapid tournament will feature 16 players out of which 8 world-class players have been given a direct invitation, including the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, etc.
This season of CCT comes with the novelty of 12 spots for the Esports World Cup at stake. While the Champions Chess Tour remains to be a qualifying event, some of the players, pre-signed with Esports Organizations will be seen directly in the 16-player double elimination bracket. Following is the list of invited set of players:
Eight more players will join the mighty line-up by qualifying through the usual Play-In phase, which is set to take place at 4 PM UTC on February 17. The play-in phase will consist of a 9-round Swiss with an exciting time control for the viewer—10+0!
- The winner of the Swiss gets directly seeded in the Play-offs.
- Players ranked 2nd through 15th compete in 2-game matches where the top half chooses their opponents from the bottom half.
- 7 winners then join the main line-up, making it 16.
The tournament also boasts a handsome prize pool of $150,000 for just four days of online chess. Even the players who get eliminated in the match-play phase (7 players) go home with $600. There are 100 leaderboard points and $25,000 at stake for First place. Would it be a usual suspect taking home glory or a new upset story would be written in the first leg of the Chessable Masters? Tune in to find out!
Photo credit: Chess.com
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