Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge

Magnus Carlsen, initiator of the tournament

The Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge was an internet-hosted rapid chess tournament that ran from May 19 to June 3, 2020. It was the second tournament on the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour . In addition to the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen , who organized the tournament in cooperation with the chess platform Chess24.com , eleven other top players took part. The tournament received media attention as one of the few sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic . Daniil Dubow won the tournament and defeated Hikaru Nakamura in the final .

background

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sports operations around the world largely came to a standstill; in chess, the Yekaterinburg 2020 candidates' tournament was last interrupted on March 26th. However , chess continues to be played online via chess servers , also by numerous top players. After the successful implementation of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational , the event was expanded to include three more online tournaments and then ends in the Grand Final . The tournament series is endowed with a total of $ 1,000,000 in prize money.

transmission

The tournament was broadcast free of charge on the internet at Chess24.com .

mode

Prize money of $ 150,000 was awarded for the tournament, of which the winner received $ 45,000. The thinking time was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. Draw offers before move 40 were not allowed. The tournament was initially held in the preliminary round (May 19 to May 21) as a round-robin tournament, with everyone playing one game against each other. There were four rounds on the first two days and three rounds on the last day of the preliminary round.

After the preliminary round, the best eight players qualified for the knockout round. In the quarter-finals (23 May to 27 May), the best player of the preliminary round met eighth, the second against the seventh, the third against the sixth and the fourth against the fifth. There were three mini-matches per encounter. Each mini-match consisted of four rapid games with the same time limit as in the preliminary round. In the event of a tie, an Armageddon game was played in which White had five minutes and Black had four minutes. The winners of the quarter-finals played the overall winner in the same mode from May 28th to May 30th. The winner from the game first against eighth played against the winner from the game fourth against fifth and the winner from the game second against seventh against the winner from the game third against sixth.

Attendees

No.	Surname	Elo rating rapid chess (May 2020)	World Ranking Rapid Chess (May 2020)	Elo rating Blitzschess (May 2020)	World ranking blitz chess (May 2020)	Elo Classic (May 2020)	World Ranking Classical (May 2020)
1	Magnus Carlsen	2881	1	2887	2	2863	1
2	Ding Liren	2836	3	2788	8th	2791	3
3	Alexander Grishchuk	2784	7th	2765	14th	2777	6th
4th	Levon Aronjan	2778	8th	2740	26th	2773	7th
5	Wesley So	2741	21st	2816	4th	2770	8th
6th	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2774	10	2799	6th	2753	16
7th	Sergei Karjakin	2709	33	2766	33	2752	17th
8th	Hikaru Nakamura	2829	4th	2900	1	2736	18th
9	Wei Yi	2752	16	2686	50	2732	20th
10	Alireza Firouzja	2703	37	2750	24	2728	21st
11	Yu Yangyi	2738	23	2808	5	2709	33
12	Daniil Dubov	2770	12	2720	32	2699	38

Results

Preliminary round

	Attendees	ELO	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	Points
01	Hikaru Nakamura	2829		1	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	1	1	1	7½
02	Sergei Karjakin	2709	0		1	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	1	1	7th
03	Yu Yangyi	2738	½	0		0	1	1	1	0	½	½	½	1	6th
04	Wesley So	2741	½	½	1		½	½	0	½	½	½	½	1	6th
05	Magnus Carlsen	2881	½	½	0	½		½	0	1	1	1	0	1	6th
06	Ding Liren	2836	½	½	0	½	½		1	½	0	½	1	1	6th
07	Daniil Dubov	2770	½	½	0	1	1	0		½	1	½	0	½	5½
08	Levon Aronjan	2778	0	½	1	½	0	½	½		½	1	½	½	5½
09	Alexander Grishchuk	2784	½	½	½	½	0	1	0	½		0	1	1	5½
10	(FIDE) Alireza Firouzja	2703	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	0	1		1	½	4½
11	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2774	0	0	½	½	1	0	1	½	0	0		½	4th
12	Wei Yi	2752	½	0	0	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	½		2½

Play-offs

	Quarter-finals May 23-27, 2020					Semi-finals May 28-30, 2020					Final June 1st to 3rd, 2020
	1	Hikaru Nakamura	2
	8th	Levon Aronjan	0
						VF1	Hikaru Nakamura	2
						VF2	Magnus Carlsen	1
	5	Magnus Carlsen	2
	4th	Wesley So	0
											HF1	Hikaru Nakamura	1
											HF2	Daniil Dubov	2
	3	Yu Yangyi	1
	6th	Ding Liren	2
						VF3	Ding Liren	0
						VF4	Daniil Dubov	2
	7th	Daniil Dubov	2
	2	Sergei Karjakin	1

Web links

• Tournament website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour accessed on June 15, 2020 (English).