Nihal must climb back up from Losers Bracket
The time control for all games is 10 minutes with no increment. All players are allowed to wear noise-canceling headphones and also listen to their choice of music if they wish to. This is on par with all chess esports events. Apart from US$ 1.5 Million prize fund, the chess players are also part esports teams of a shared $27 Million prize fund. The groups were decided by four top players handpicking the rest of the group members - GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Magnus Carlsen drafted the groups.
Group A: Levon Aronian (Team Reject)
GM Levon Aronian (Team Reject) defeated GM Andrey Esipenko (Virtus.pro) 2-0 to secure his place in the Quarterfinal. Esipenko replaced GM Vladimir Fedoseev who had to withdraw from the event.
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Group B: Arjun Erigaisi (Gen.G Esports)
GM Arjun Erigaisi (Gen.G Esports) first defeated GM Nihal Sarin (S8UL) 2-0. Then he won against GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Team Vitality) 1-2 via Armageddon to advance to the Quarterfinals. Nihal will now have to go through GM Anish Giri (Team Secret) and MVL if he wants to get into the Quarterfinals.
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Group C: Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons)
GM Alireza Firouzja (Team Falcons) first defeated GM Wei Yi (Weibo Gaming) 1.5-0.5. Then he won against his teammate, GM Hikaru Nakamura (Team Falcons) 1-1.5 to secure his place in the Quarterfinals.
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Group D: Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid)
GM Magnus Carlsen (Team Liquid) defeated GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (NAVI) 1.5-0.5. Then, Carlsen won against GMJan-Krzysztof Duda (Twisted Minds) with the same score to advance to the Quarterfinals.
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