Clutch Chess

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clutch Chess is a tournament format in chess that of the American chess grandmaster in 2020 Maurice Ashley was developed.

term

The name was taken from baseball jargon. There, Clutch Hitter describes a player with strong nerves who performs particularly well in crucial game situations.

The aim of the format is to make the competition as exciting as possible and attractive for viewers.

regulate

The tournament will be played in a knockout system . Each match consists of 12 rapid chess games. The specialty is that games 5 and 6 are scored twice and games 11 and 12 are scored three times. A total of 18 points can be achieved. In order to win the match, victories in the four games with special scoring are theoretically enough, even if you lose the other eight games. The number of games won with special scoring is also the first tie-break criterion if there is a tie at the end of the match.

Additional prize money is suspended for the games with a special rating. Bonuses that are not paid in games 5 and 6 because the game ends in a draw are added in equal parts to the bonuses for games 11 and 12. If game 11 also ends in a draw, the sum is added to the bonus for game 12. Only when the last game ends in a draw does the bonus expire.

Due to these rules, it is in many cases possible that a player who is behind can turn the match in his favor in the last two games. Even if the match has already been decided ahead of time, the games with a special rating should ensure that the game is played with full commitment until the end, because the players can thereby significantly improve their prize money.

Tournaments

The first tournament in this format was held online from May 26th to 29th, 2020 with four participants: Fabiano Caruana , Wesley So , Leinier Domínguez and Hikaru Nakamura . The prize fund was $ 100,000, including 30,000 for the tournament winner. In the final, Wesley So prevailed against Fabiano Caruana. All games were commentated live by Maurice Ashley, Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade .

Another online tournament with eight players took place from June 6 to 14, 2020: Magnus Carlsen , Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , Leinier Domínguez, Alexander Grischuk , Lewon Aronjan , Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Jeffery Xiong . The prize fund was $ 265,000. Magnus Carlsen won the final against Fabiano Caruana.

Web links

  • Regulations , uschesschamps.com, accessed June 12, 2020