Vidit, Adhiban, Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi will feature in Goldmoney Asian Rapid

by Shahid Ahmed - 25/06/2021

The last major event before the FIDE World Cup, Goldmoney Asian Rapid starts on Saturday 26th June. It will feature four Indian players - Vidit Gujrathi, Baskaran Adhiban, D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. Former women's world champion Hou Yifan will be the first woman to take part in a Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event. The tournament will witness only four players from the previous event and the remaining twelve players earned their spot via Qualifiers, Wildcards and public vote. It will undoubtedly be an exciting event. Catch Round 1 action starting tomorrow from 4:30 p.m. IST. The start timing has been changed to facilitate the Asian players, which is another fantastic change. Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Hou Yifan becomes the first woman to play in this tour

Goldmoney Asian Rapid will feature the highest number of Indian players in a single Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event. They are - Vidit, Adhiban, Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. While Vidit got the Wildcard, Arjun and Adhiban earned their place via the Indian Qualifier and Gukesh secured his place by winning the recently concluded Gelfand Challenge. That's not all, for the first time a woman will feature in this event - former women's world champion and current world no.1 among women - Hou Yifan.

Vidit, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh and Adhiban - make this the first Champions Chess Tour event to feature the highest number of Indian players | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

The tournament poster | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Goldmoney Asian Rapid will feature 50% Asian chess players among the 16-player lineup | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Pairings and Schedule

The Goldmoney Asian Rapid starts on Saturday, June 26th and will conclude on Sunday, July 4th. Once again there’s a 3-day preliminary round-robin stage of rapid chess (15+10), before the top eight players advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is exactly like the previous events in this tour, where each match is played over two days, with four rapid games each day. If the match score is tied 1-1 after the second day, the players will then play two 5+3 blitz games followed by, if needed - Armageddon.

Goldmoney Asian Rapid schedule | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Schedule | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

All games will start from 4:30 p.m. IST between 26th June and 4th July 2021.

Goldmoney Asian Rapid Participants

The lineup includes four players from the previous event of Champions Chess Tour, FTX Crypto Cup which was won by Magnus Carlsen. Alireza Firouzja makes his return to the tour as a Wildcard entrant for the first time since New in Chess Classic. The other Wildcard participants are - Vidit Gujrathi, Ding Liren, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vladimir Artemiev, Salem Saleh and Hou Yifan. Artemiev, Salem and Yifan are new invites. In fact, Hou Yifan will be the first woman to take part in this tour. Arjun Erigaisi and Adhiban through Indian Qualifier. Gukesh D won the Gelfand Challenge few days ago. Daniil Dubov and Peter Svidler won the public vote by the Premium members.

The participants of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Tour standings and Prizes

Magnus Carlsen maintained his lead in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour with 271 points, followed by Wesley So at the second spot with 203 points and Teimour Radjabov at the third position with 133 points. Ian Nepomniachtchi overtook Anish Giri and moved to fourth place with 115 points. Anish Giri is the only other player above 100 points, at the fifth position with 111 points.

Tour Standings after FTX Crypto Cup | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Total $100,000 prize fund is up for grabs | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

The prize fund for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is $1,640,000. Total prize fund in this final Regular event is $100,000 with the first prize being $30,000.

What are the participants up to lately?

Anish Giri in his humorous self tweeted the Round 1 pairings. Can you guess the players behind those aliases?

Jan Krzysztof-Duda congratulated Sam Shankland for winning the recently concluded Prague Masters and shared a photo of his 'Best Game of the fifth round' prize

'The Beast' Adhiban is ready

Arjun Erigaisi is looking forward to making the most of his opportunity