FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

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Mick Norris
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FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Wed May 19, 2021 4:41 pm

Part of the Champions Chess Tour

Chess Mind
The next big online event starts on Sunday - the FTX Crypto Cup as part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. As the name hints, the prize fund will be in Bitcoin; whether that's good or bad is beyond me, but aside from Alan Pichot everyone else in the lineup will be fine, based on their chess earnings and their earning power, even if Bitcoin goes the way of Enron and Bernie Madoff. Here's the rest of the field:

Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Peter Svidler, Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Alireza Firouzja.

The event runs from the 23rd to the 31st of this month, and follows the usual formate: three days of preliminaries reducing the field to eight players (from 16) who will play a series of knockout matches. There will be two days of quarterfinals, two days of semis, and a two-day final. Each round's k.o. matches consists of a pair of best-of-four mini-matches, one mini-match per day. The mini-matches don't have tiebreaks, and are scored overall as if they were a single game. (Thus if player 1 wins the first day 3-0 and loses 2.5-1.5 on the second day, the overall score is 1-1.) If it's 1-1 after the mini-matches, the players have a two-game blitz playoff, followed by an Armageddon game if necessary.
Carlsen white v Nepomniachtchi in round 2 on Sunday
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Leonard Barden
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Leonard Barden » Wed May 19, 2021 5:48 pm

Mick Norris wrote:
Wed May 19, 2021 4:41 pm
Part of the Champions Chess Tour

Chess Mind
The next big online event starts on Sunday - the FTX Crypto Cup as part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. As the name hints, the prize fund will be in Bitcoin; whether that's good or bad is beyond me, but aside from Alan Pichot everyone else in the lineup will be fine, based on their chess earnings and their earning power, even if Bitcoin goes the way of Enron and Bernie Madoff. Here's the rest of the field:

Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Peter Svidler, Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Alireza Firouzja.


The event runs from the 23rd to the 31st of this month, and follows the usual formate: three days of preliminaries reducing the field to eight players (from 16) who will play a series of knockout matches. There will be two days of quarterfinals, two days of semis, and a two-day final. Each round's k.o. matches consists of a pair of best-of-four mini-matches, one mini-match per day. The mini-matches don't have tiebreaks, and are scored overall as if they were a single game. (Thus if player 1 wins the first day 3-0 and loses 2.5-1.5 on the second day, the overall score is 1-1.) If it's 1-1 after the mini-matches, the players have a two-game blitz playoff, followed by an Armageddon game if necessary.
Carlsen white v Nepomniachtchi in round 2 on Sunday
The first sentence above in (my) bold is seriously factually false, seriously so because of Bitcoin's extreme volatility today. Only $100,000 of the prize fund is in Bitcoin, the other $220,000 in dollars as normal.

Both the press release and articles in other sources are unambiguously correct, Chess Mind seems unique in getting it wrong.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed May 19, 2021 8:29 pm

Overheating the planet for fun and profit, yay.

Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Sat May 22, 2021 9:50 am

Makes a change to chess sponsorship from the likes of Gazprom :roll:

TWIC
The FTX Crypto Cup is part of the online Champions Chess Tour and takes place 23rd to 31st May 2021. This is the last Major - that is an event where the winner qualifies directly for the tour final in late September - although there are 3 more standard events and the leading players in the tour standings will qualify for the finals too. The top 10 players in the world all compete making this the strongest event on the tour so far. 16 players in the preliminaries will play a round robin to produce 8 qualifiers for the second knockout stage
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Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Sun May 23, 2021 10:23 pm

Giri in the lead after day 1
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Steven DuCharme
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Steven DuCharme » Mon May 24, 2021 4:56 pm

In Radjabov v. Shak today i think 10.Bxd5 was worth a shot
I float like a pawn island and sting like an ignored knight :mrgreen:

Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Tue May 25, 2021 7:43 am

TWIC day 1 and day 2
Round 10 Standings: 1st Caruana 6.5pts, 2nd Radjabov 6.5pts, 3rd Nakamura 6.5pts, 4th Giri 6pts, 5th So 6pts, 6th Svidler 5.5pts, 7th Carlsen 5.5pts, 8th MVL 5.5pts, 9th Ding 5.5pts, 10th Mamedyarov 5pts, 11th Nepomniachtchi 4.5pts, 12th Aronian 4.5pts, 13th Firouzja 4pts, 14th Dubov 4pts, 15th Grischuk 3pts, 16th Pichot 1.5pts.
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LawrenceCooper
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by LawrenceCooper » Tue May 25, 2021 10:22 pm

After the end of the preliminary rounds:

Caruana 10.5
Giri, Nakamura, MVL, So 9.5
Carlsen & Radjabov 8.5
Nepo & Aronian 8

which means Caruana v Nepo, Giri v Radjabov, Nakamura v Carlsen & MVL v So.

Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Wed May 26, 2021 7:43 am

TWIC day 3
Having played no events on the tour so far and with only three left after this Caruana will probably have to win this event to reach the tour finals
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Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Thu May 27, 2021 9:33 am

TWIC day 4
The second set and any tie-breaks take place Thursday 27th May starting at 4pm
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Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Fri May 28, 2021 8:38 am

TWIC day 5
Semifinals Friday 28th May 2021 4pm: Carlsen-Radjabov and Nepomniachtchi-So
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Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Fri May 28, 2021 10:09 pm

TWIC day 6
The first set of the semifinals of the FTX Crypto Chess tournament saw Wesley So take the lead against Ian Nepomniachtchi by winning the final game of a day after he seemed on the back foot for most of it. Magnus Carlsen took the lead against Teimour Radjabov by winning a fine game three only for Radjabov to strike back straight away in game four so that set ended up tied
Anyone watched any of this and can give any impressions of how well or otherwise everyone is playing?
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LawrenceCooper
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by LawrenceCooper » Sat May 29, 2021 2:02 pm

Mick Norris wrote:
Fri May 28, 2021 10:09 pm
TWIC day 6
The first set of the semifinals of the FTX Crypto Chess tournament saw Wesley So take the lead against Ian Nepomniachtchi by winning the final game of a day after he seemed on the back foot for most of it. Magnus Carlsen took the lead against Teimour Radjabov by winning a fine game three only for Radjabov to strike back straight away in game four so that set ended up tied
Anyone watched any of this and can give any impressions of how well or otherwise everyone is playing?
https://championschesstour.com/mosquito ... XhpKu87kYI

NickFaulks
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by NickFaulks » Sun May 30, 2021 4:17 pm

Radjabov and Nepo obviously watched today's Paehtz-Muzychuk game from the Women's Grand Prix.
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Mick Norris
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Re: FTX Crypto Cup 23 to 31 May 2021

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:52 am

TWIC final report
Magnus Carlsen won the FTX Crypto Chess Cup beating Wesley So in an Armageddon tie-break. This win means that Carlsen will appear in the Meltwater tour final in September
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