Carlsen strebt den Sieg im Aimchess-Schnellschach an:

Die vierte Etappe der 2 Millionen Pfund teuren Champions Chess Tour beginnt am Montag

Norway’s chess superstar Magnus Carlsen will be targeting a second tournament win in this year’s $2 million Champions Chess Tour as the 2023 Aimchess Rapid gets under way on Monday.

The world number 1 and reigning Tour champion heads a stunning line-up for Chess.com’s $235,000 event.

In Division I, Carlsen will be up against the young Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov, former world title challenger Fabiano Caruana, the Dutch destroyer Jorden van Foreest, Vladimir Fedoseev, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, and Eduardo Iturrizaga.

Carlsen, along with Aronian, So and Iturrizaga, had to make it through a Play-In open to all grandmasters last month to qualify for Division I. However, ChessKid Cup winner Abdusattorov, Fedoseev, van Foreest and Caruana qualified from previous results on the Tour.

Running from July 10 to 14, the Aimchess Rapid is named after the unique chess learning and analytics tool Aimchess, available via Chess.com. It is the fourth leg of six on the Tour before the Playoffs and Tour Finals in December. 

As before, the five-day Aimchess Rapid will follow the now familiar format of 56 players sorted into three divisions decided by double-elimination. In total, $235,000 is at stake with $30,000 going to the winner.

U.S. star Hikaru Nakamura leads the overall Tour points table with 270, followed by fellow countryman Caruana on 250, Carlsen on 225, and the young hotshot Abdusattorov on 200. Nakamura also will have to make it through the Play-In.

In each event, the players are fighting to qualify for the end-of-season Playoffs and eventually the Tour Finals. A total of $600,000 is at stake in December out of the overall Tour prize pool of $2 million.

Last year’s Aimchess Rapid was won by Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The Pole topped the round-robin Prelim stage before knocking out Carlsen, the previous year’s winner, on the way to a memorable final victory over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

The Champions Chess Tour 2023 (CCT) is the biggest online tournament of the year. It is composed of six events that span the entire year and culminate in live in-person finals. With the best players in the world and a prize fund of $2,000,000, the CCT is Chess.com’s most important event yet.