Airthings Masters
The Airthings Masters was an online rapid chess tournament that took place from December 26, 2020 to January 3, 2021. It is the second tournament of the Champions Chess Tour 2021 and its first Major. It was preceded by the Skilling Open and will be followed by a currently un-announced tournament. Teimour Radjabov defeated Levon Aronian in the final to take home the $60,000 prize and an automatic spot in the Champions Chess Tour Finals. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Daniil Dubov to claim third place in the tournament.[1]
Coverage and stakes
Coverage and stakes were in accordance with the general outline of the Champions Chess Tour 2021.
Participants
8 of the 12 participants were chosen from the top 8 finishers of the preliminary round of the Skilling Open, who would have the top 8 most tour points. Wesley So qualified as the winner of the Skilling Open, but his position at the top of the Tour Rankings already grants him a spot in the tournament. The other 4 were decided based on wild cards, invites, or popular vote.[2]
| Name | Classic ELO rating (December 2020)[3] |
Classic World Ranking (December 2020) |
Qualified Automatically? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wesley So | 2770 | 9 | Yes |
| Magnus Carlsen | 2862 | 1 | Yes |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 2736 | 20 | Yes |
| Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2784 | 4 | Yes |
| Levon Aronian | 2781 | 6 | Yes |
| Teimour Radjabov | 2765 | 10 | Yes |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2784 | 5 | Yes |
| Anish Giri | 2764 | 11 | Yes |
| Daniil Dubov | 2702 | 37 | No |
| Alexander Grischuk | 2777 | 7 | No |
| David Antón Guijarro | 2675 | 60 | No |
| Pentala Harikrishna | 2732 | 22 | No |
Format
The tournament began with a 3-day round-robin preliminary round from December 26 to December 28. Each player played one game against all the other players for 15 total matches. The top 8 point-getters from the preliminary round advance to the knockout rounds and are seeded based on points to determine the bracket. In the case of ties, they use the following tiebreakers:[4]
- Points won in games involving the tied players
- Total number of victories
- Sonneborn–Berger score
- Koya Score
For each of the knockout rounds, each matchup plays 2 matches of 4 rapid games on back-to-back days. If either player does not lose either match, he advances to the next round. If each player wins one match, there is a tiebreaker on day 2 consisting of 2 blitz games. If the players split the 2 blitz games, they play an Armageddon match (White has 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, draw is a win for Black) to determine who advances. The higher seed in the matchup gets to pick the color for the first game, the color for the first blitz tiebreaker game, and the color for the Armageddon.[5]
Results
Preliminary round
| Name | ELO | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Magnus Carlsen | 2862 | - | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6.5 |
| 02 | Wesley So | 2770 | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 6.5 |
| 03 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2736 | 0 | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6.5 |
| 04 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2784 | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 6 |
| 05 | Teimour Radjabov | 2765 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6 |
| 06 | Levon Aronian | 2781 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 5.5 |
| 07 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2784 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 5 |
| 08 | Daniil Dubov | 2702 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 09 | Pentala Harikrishna | 2732 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | 0 | ½ | 5 |
| 10 | Alexander Grischuk | 2777 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | - | ½ | ½ | 5 |
| 11 | Anish Giri | 2764 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | - | ½ | 4.5 |
| 12 | David Antón Guijarro | 2675 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | - | 4.5 |
Play-offs
Note: Scores are shown as matches won/drawn, where 1 point is awarded for a 4-game match won, and 0.5 for a 4-game match drawn.
| Quarterfinal (December 29-30) | Semifinal (Dec 30 - Jan 1) | Final (January 2-3) | ||||||||
| Carlsen | 0.5 | |||||||||
| Dubov | 1.5 | |||||||||
| Dubov | 0 | |||||||||
| Radjabov* | 2 | |||||||||
| Radjabov** | 2 | |||||||||
| Nepomniachtchi | 1 | |||||||||
| Radjabov* | 2 | |||||||||
| Aronian | 0 | |||||||||
| Nakamura | 0 | |||||||||
| Aronian* | 2 | |||||||||
| Aronian* | 2 | |||||||||
| Vachier-Lagrave | 0 | 3rd place (January 2-3) | ||||||||
| Vachier-Lagrave** | 2 | |||||||||
| So | 1 | |||||||||
| Dubov | 0.5 | |||||||||
| Vachier-Lagrave | 1.5 | |||||||||
*These players reached two points in the second match after winning the first, winning the matchup.
**These players advance on the Armageddon.
References
- "Radjabov Wins Airthings Masters". chess.com. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
- "Champions Chess Tour Regulations". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
- "Standard Top 100 Players". fide.com. Retrieved 2020-12-29.
- "Champions Chess Tour Regulations". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
- "Champions Chess Tour Regulations". championschesstour.com. Retrieved 2020-12-28.