Four Americans will star in the Opera Euro Rapid, which kicks off Saturday as the third event in the $1.5 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.
US Champion GM Wesley So returns to the 16-player lineup alongside GM Hikaru Nakamura, with the two becoming regulars in the online series of top-level events organized by World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen and his Play Magnus Group. Making their first appearance in the Champions Tour are GMs Sam Shankland and Leinier Dominguez-Perez.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be playing in the upcoming Opera Euro Rapid,” Shankland said. “Obviously online rapid play is not the same as classical chess and cannot replace it. But in this era, it’s all we have.”
The Champions Tour began last November, promising ten total events spread across the 2021 calendar, including a $300,000 tour finale scheduled for September. Each tournament follows the same format, including all rapid games through a three-day round-robin preliminary stage for all 16 GMs, followed by an 8-player knockout bracket to determine a winner.
Both So and Nakamura were in the initial field of GMs that made up the tour’s kickoff event, the Skilling Open in November, and their performances have earned them automatic invitations to each successive tournament. So defeated Nakamura in the semifinals, then went on to win the Skilling Open by besting Carlsen in the finals on the world champion’s 30th birthday. In the tour’s second event, the Airthings Masters in December, both Americans were knocked out in the bracket quarterfinals – though placing in the top-8 bracket earned the auto-invitation to the Opera Euro Rapid.
Dominguez and Shankland were selected as wildcards, part of the fresh crop of new faces that get rotated in with each new Champions Tour event.
“Historically, I've never been nearly as good at rapid or blitz – especially online – as I am at classical, but recently I've been doing a lot of work to try to reverse that trend,” Shankland said.
As America’s No. 6 player and 44th in the world in classical chess, Shankland has been active in several high-level online events during the pandemic, appearing in the 2020 US Chess Championship as well as the Ayelen Invitational, a warmup event to the Skilling Open. Shankland won the Ayelen by a full point over an 8-player field that included GMs Vasyl Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand.
Dominguez, too, played in the Ayelen and finished second behind Shankland. The Cuban-born super-GM also appeared in the 2020 US Chess Championship and placed fourth. He is currently ranked third in the U.S. and 14th in the world in classical chess, and even stronger – sixth in the world – in rapid.
“After winning the Ayelen Invitational a full point ahead of Gelfand, Ivanchuk, and Dominguez, I'm confident that I have improved and hope I can continue to show good form against the best players in the world,” Shankland said. “I’m delighted to finally be invited to one of the absolute premier events of online chess during the lockdown.”
The Opera Euro Rapid begins its round-robin preliminary with the first five rounds planned for Saturday starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern. The first-round marquee features So versus Carlsen and, later in the day, Shankland draws the World Champion in the fourth round, while Dominguez gets his shot in the fifth.
All tournament information, including live play with commentary, may be viewed at the official Champions Chess Tour website.
Categories
Archives
- November 2024 (3)
- October 2024 (35)
- September 2024 (23)
- August 2024 (27)
- July 2024 (44)
- June 2024 (27)
- May 2024 (32)
- April 2024 (51)
- March 2024 (34)
- February 2024 (25)
- January 2024 (26)
- December 2023 (29)
- November 2023 (26)
- October 2023 (37)
- September 2023 (27)
- August 2023 (37)
- July 2023 (47)
- June 2023 (33)
- May 2023 (37)
- April 2023 (45)
- March 2023 (37)
- February 2023 (28)
- January 2023 (31)
- December 2022 (23)
- November 2022 (32)
- October 2022 (31)
- September 2022 (19)
- August 2022 (39)
- July 2022 (32)
- June 2022 (35)
- May 2022 (21)
- April 2022 (31)
- March 2022 (33)
- February 2022 (21)
- January 2022 (27)
- December 2021 (36)
- November 2021 (34)
- October 2021 (25)
- September 2021 (25)
- August 2021 (41)
- July 2021 (36)
- June 2021 (29)
- May 2021 (29)
- April 2021 (31)
- March 2021 (33)
- February 2021 (28)
- January 2021 (29)
- December 2020 (38)
- November 2020 (40)
- October 2020 (41)
- September 2020 (35)
- August 2020 (38)
- July 2020 (36)
- June 2020 (46)
- May 2020 (42)
- April 2020 (37)
- March 2020 (60)
- February 2020 (38)
- January 2020 (45)
- December 2019 (35)
- November 2019 (35)
- October 2019 (42)
- September 2019 (45)
- August 2019 (56)
- July 2019 (44)
- June 2019 (35)
- May 2019 (40)
- April 2019 (48)
- March 2019 (61)
- February 2019 (39)
- January 2019 (30)
- December 2018 (29)
- November 2018 (51)
- October 2018 (45)
- September 2018 (29)
- August 2018 (49)
- July 2018 (35)
- June 2018 (31)
- May 2018 (39)
- April 2018 (31)
- March 2018 (26)
- February 2018 (33)
- January 2018 (30)
- December 2017 (26)
- November 2017 (24)
- October 2017 (30)
- September 2017 (30)
- August 2017 (31)
- July 2017 (28)
- June 2017 (32)
- May 2017 (26)
- April 2017 (37)
- March 2017 (28)
- February 2017 (30)
- January 2017 (27)
- December 2016 (29)
- November 2016 (24)
- October 2016 (32)
- September 2016 (31)
- August 2016 (27)
- July 2016 (24)
- June 2016 (26)
- May 2016 (19)
- April 2016 (30)
- March 2016 (36)
- February 2016 (28)
- January 2016 (32)
- December 2015 (26)
- November 2015 (23)
- October 2015 (16)
- September 2015 (28)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (6)
- June 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- April 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (1)
- December 2014 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- October 1991 (1)
- August 1989 (1)
- January 1988 (1)
- December 1983 (1)