A well-rested Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura will join the $100,000 Opera Euro Rapid, the third leg of the Champions Chess Tour, starting on February 6.
They will be competing against world champion Magnus Carlsen, world No. 3 Ding Liren, No. 4 Ian Nepomniachtchi, No. 5 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, No. 6 Levon Aronian, No. 7 Alexander Grischuk, and No. 10 Teimour Radjabov, winner of the Airthings Masters, the CCT second leg, early this month.
So, the reigning United States champion, won the inaugural Skilling Open at the expense of Carlsen and is listed among the favorites for the $30,000 top purse with rapid chess exponent and fellow Team USA mainstay Nakamura.
Carlsen is entered in the ongoing over the board Tata Steel Chess Masters with Vachier-LaGrave and Anish Giri of the Netherlands, leaving the Norwegian with little time to relax and refocus on online chess.
The Cavite-born So, the Philippines’ top board player before switching to the US federation, did well last year, earning a total of P11.8 million in tournaments to rank 12th among the world’s top esports earners. Carlsen was No. 1 with earnings of P24.5M, followed by Nakamura with P15.6M.
Completing the cast of Opera Euro Rapid, which will end February 14, are Indian Vidit Gujrathi, American Sam Shankland, Cuban-American Leinier Dominguez, and German No. 1 Matthias Bluebanum.
Shankland, the 2018 US champion, Dominguez, and Bluebanum are first -timers in the $1.5 million CCT.
After the three-day round-robin play, the top 8 will advance to the knockout stages. – Rappler.com
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