Vidit Gujrathi returns to Meltwater Champions Chess Tour in Opera Euro Rapid
Vidit Gujrathi returns to Meltwater Champions Chess Tour as he is one of the six players to have gotten a Wild Card for the second Regular event of the Tour - Opera Euro Rapid. The second Regular event has a total prize fund of US$ 100,000 with the first prize being US$ 30,000. Airthings Masters winner Teimour Radjabov will be back in action along with So, Aronian, Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi and Dubov. Ding Liren and Grischuk won the Premium vote. Giri, Duda, Shankland, Leinier and Bluebaum are the remaining five Wild Card entrants. Photo: Niklesh Jain
Vidit gets a Wild Card
India no.3 and currently World no. 24 GM Vidit Gujrathi returns to the third event of Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, Opera Euro Rapid. It will take place online from 6th to 14th February 2021. Vidit finished twelfth in the Skilling Open which was the first event of the tour and got eliminated. He would definitely like to do better this time. The tournament will have a total Prize fund of US$ 100,000. The winner of Opera Euro Rapid will earn $30,000.
Pairings and Schedule
The Opera Euro Rapid starts on Saturday February 6th and will conclude on Sunday February 14th which is also on Valentine's day! Once again there’s a 3-day preliminary round-robin stage of rapid chess (15+10), before the top 8 players advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is exactly like the the previous events in this tour where each match is played over two days, with four rapid games each day. If the match score is tied 1-1 after the second day, the players will then play two 5+3 blitz games followed by, if needed - Armageddon.
All games will start from 9:30 p.m. IST between 6th and 14th February 2021. In case you are wondering why I mentioned the tournament concluding on Valentine's Day earlier, check out this tweet
Opera Euro Rapid Participants
The lineup includes the eight players who qualified as the top eight from the previous event of Champions Chess Tour, Airthings Masters. Teimour Radjabov won that event after beating Levon Aronian in the Finals. Those eight players are joined by Ding Liren and Alexander Grischuk by Premium votes. Six players got the Wild Card. They are - Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sam Shankland, Leinier Dominguez Perez and Matthias Bluebaum.
Tour standings and Prizes
Radjabov is currently leading the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour with 91 points, followed by Wesley So at the second spot with 62 points and Levon Aronian at the third position with 60 points. World champion Magnus Carlsen is currently at the fourth place on the table with 50 points.
The prize fund for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is $1,500,000. Total prize fund in this Regular event is $100,000 with the first prize being $30,000.
Tournament Format
What are the participants up to lately?
Let's take a look at what the participants have tweeted about their excitement for the event.
Links
Follow Vidit on twitter, instagram, youtube and facebook.
Champions Chess Tour official site
