Carlsen vs. Covid19

This could be called the super tournament Magnus Carlsen Invitational, since it constitutes a real challenge to Covid-19 in these times of global pandemic.

When everyone is (or should be) at home, the sport is virtually paralyzed globally, and chess is no exception. However, the non-face-to-face modality has been used in this discipline since the time of traditional mail, which is still used, and that wanted to take advantage of the best chess player of recent times to give fans a high level fight.

Yes, the event started this April 18 and will run until May 3 presents a luxury payroll, led by the Norwegian genius himself, who will be seconded by the American Fabiano Caruana, runner-up of the planet, the Chinese Liren Ding (third in the world ranking), the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi (4), the French Maxime Vachier Lagrave (5), the Dutch Anish Giri (10) and the American Hikaru Nakamura (16), in addition to the Iranian Alireza Firouzja, who has drawn attention from the experts for his projection, with only 16 years old.

The contest, which with a total prize of $ 250,000 is also the best paid in online history, will be held through a direct crossing system of four 15-minute games per player, plus an additional 10 seconds per move. In case of a tie, there will be an extra game in the Armageddon modality - white will have five minutes and black four, which, in case of ending in a draw, will give the victory to whoever played with the dark chess.

Once these first seven rounds have been completed by the all-against-all system, in which each win adds three points, and the one achieved via Armageddon two for the winner and one for the loser, then the four best placed will face in a second phase with semifinals, and then the grand finale, by the same system used before.

All movements will be analyzed by algorithms capable of detecting the least trace of artificial intelligence, players are prohibited from getting up from their seats during games, and they will be constantly filmed in 360 degrees by three cameras.

Excellent proposal to keep the chess flame alive, as the last official competition was the candidate tournament, which was held in Yekaterinburg (Russia), but had to be suspended without reaching the end due to the coronavirus.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff