The Next Big Event Starts on Sunday (Updated)
The FTX Road to Miami, on the Meltwater Chess Tour
More details here. As the Meltwater tour has been around for a while now, many of you know the basic format: it’s a two-stage, 16 player, rapid event. A round robin cuts the field to eight players, who then engage in a series of two-day knockout matches until there’s a winner. (UPDATE: Only the final match goes two days. This year, the Tour changed the quarter-final and semi-final matches to a one day, single-set match. Thanks to Philip Goh for the correction.)
As always with the Meltwater tour, the field includes many of the world’s absolute elite. This time around, Candidates Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Richard Rapport headline the field, along with Lenier Dominguez, Levon Aronian, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Four days to go.
With Lev missing out on the Candidates I’ll be rooting for him in this event.
Hopefully I’ll get to see him play a WCh match before he retires!
Only the final match takes place over two days - the quarterfinals and semis are both one-day matches.