Mediaboss Marketing

In 2023, GM Magnus Carlsen became the first chess player to eclipse $10,000,000 in lifetime winnings just from major tournaments alonenever mind from sponsorships or royalties or helping to run a business. After winning more than $700,000 in 2023, he is the all-time leader, passing GM Viswanathan Anand.

But Carlsen wasn't the biggest money winner of 2023. That honor belonged to GM Ding Liren, victor in the 2,000,000 ($2,200,000) World Championship. Despite falling ill and not playing for most of the rest of the year, he retained his cash lead on runner-up GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, although it was a virtual tie with less than $2,000 separating them. Nepomniachtchi was also a 2023 tournament millionaire even though, unlike Ding, he had more work to do after the championship match to reach that milestone.

Note: Prizes tracked for major tournaments (generally meaning a first-place prize of $10,000 or more), except national and team events. The figures also do not include streaming revenue, coaching income, appearances fees, sponsorships, royalties, or government grants.

In addition to the world championship contenders, several usual suspects had another great year. Earning at least $250,000 were Carlsen, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Wesley So, GM Hikaru Nakamura, and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. And that's just from prizes in major tournaments, except national championships and team events. It also does not include streaming revenue, coaching income, appearances fees, sponsorships, or government grants. (Nor does it take out for travel expenses, which became an issue for the World Rapid and Blitz in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.)

After only one woman, GM Tan Zhongyi, earned six figures last year, two reached that mark this year thanks to the 500,000 ($553,000) World Championship in July, where GM Ju Wenjun defeated GM Lei Tingjie. Both of them also ended up over a quarter-million on the year.

Rounding out the top 10 after Ding, Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen, Caruana, So, Ju, Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, and Lei was GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov just ahead of GM Alireza Firouzja.

Here is the complete list of players who won $100,000 in major tournaments throughout the year, from the WR Masters in February to the FIDE World Blitz Championship that ended on December 30:

Two players reached $90,000 but couldn't quite get to six figures. They were GMs Aleksandra Goryachkina ($94,569) and Daniil Dubov ($93,739).

The United States had the most players on the six-figure winners list of any country, with five (Caruana, So, Nakamura, Aronian, and Dominguez), followed by India with four (Gukesh, Vidit, Arjun, and Praggnanandhaa).

Carlsen hitting $10,000,000 in winnings and passing Anand wasn't the only major development on the all-time list in 2023. Nepomniachtchi and Caruana hit the $3,000,000 mark, the eighth and ninth players to do so, while Ding and So became the 15th and 16th players to reach $2,000,000. Nepomniachtchi jumped into the top 10, all the way up to sixth.

Here is the complete list of all-time major event millionaires through December 31, 2023. Note: This list is not adjusted for inflation.

The number of players at $1,000,000 or more remains at 27, where it was at the time of our first article on all-time winnings from the summer of 2022. Next year might see three new members, however, with Firouzja, Duda, and Ju Wenjun all needing less than $150,000 to get there. Ju would become the first woman to reach the million-dollar mark, thanks in part to a significant increase in the prize fund for the FIDE Women's World Championship in recent years.

The $2.2 million World Championship match between Ding and Nepomniachtchi was the most lucrative of the year, while the $553,000 match between Ju and Lei ranked fourth. In between was the World Cup, in which the open field had $1,834,000 available and the women's field another $676,250. Rounding out the top five was the $460,000 Grand Swiss.

Below are all the year's major open events along with the first place prize winner and amount.

In 2024 there is both a Candidates Tournament and World Championship, giving ample opportunity for big cash money with the Champions Chess Tour, Grand Chess Tour, and World Rapid & Blitz all back on the docket as well. Who will claim the largest slice of the prize pie? Stay tuned throughout the year to find out!

Which 2023 prize winner's amount surprised you the most? The least? Who will win the most prize money in 2024? Let us know in the comments!

See more here:
The Biggest Chess Prizewinners In 2023 - Chess.com

Victory in the first Titled Tuesday tournaments of 2024, held January 2, went to two familiar faces. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the early event with 9.5 points and slightly better tiebreakers than GM Magnus Carlsen. Then, GM Hikaru Nakamura scored 10 points to win the late event, but he also needed tiebreaks to win out over GM Alexey Sarana.

With 660 participants, it was the busiest single Titled Tuesday tournament of the double-tournament era, which began in February of 2022. The $100,000 Titled Cup is already bringing out the best players for what was already a strong Tuesday tradition for many top players. Soon, fans will also be able to participate by means of the Chess Prophet fantasy gamethat was recently announced.

Jumping out to the lead was GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who won his first eight games of the new year, the last of them coming out of an odd-looking opening in a game against GM Raunak Sadhwani that ended suddenly.

Mamedyarov only scored one point in the final three rounds, however, and ended up in third place. After two draws, he was surpassed by Carlsen in the final round when Carlsen won their game.

That should probably have been enough for Carlsen to win the entire tournament, but an earlier hiccup in round five caused him to miss a game. And so when Vachier-Lagrave defeated Raunak in the final round, it was the Frenchman who ended up in first place by one tiebreak point over the Norwegian.

January 2 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Because of the server issues that led not only to Carlsen missing his fifth round game but several other players losing rounds, the early tournament did not count toward the Titled Cup, although other prizes were awarded as normal. Next week's early tournament will have doubled prizes.

Ultimately, Vachier-Lagrave won $1,000 for first, Carlsen $750 for second, and Mamedyarov $350 for third. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda came in fourth for $200, Nakamura fifth for $100, and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk won the $100 women's prize.

The late tournament consistently has smaller fields, and that held true this week, but the 552 late players still far exceed normal participation. That didn't stop Nakamura from winning yet another Titled Tuesday.

Nakamura and GM Fabiano Caruana were the last players on a perfect score, reaching 7/7 before making a draw with each other in round eight. Both won again in round nine before they were finally separated in round 10 after Sarana defeated Caruana.

The resulting scenario with one round to go was Nakamura and Sarana tied for first on nine points, with Caruana, GM Matthias Bluebaum, GM Grigoriy Oparin, and GM David Paravyan just behind on 8.5 points.

Nakamura and Sarana did not play each other, however, as they had already faced off in round sixwhich is where Sarana had lost his only point of the tournament.

And so Nakamura instead played Paravyan, Sarana faced Oparin, and Caruana took on Bluebaum. Caruana won his game and had the best tiebreaks of anyone in the tournament, but he needed help from both Paravyan and Oparin to win the tournament.

It didn't happen. In one game, Oparin fell into a brutal discovered check trying to activate his king.

In the other, Paravyan fell behind on the clock and was also losing on the board when he ran out of time. Nakamura's tiebreak advantage earned him the tournament victory over Sarana.

January 2 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $1,000 and jumped out to the early Titled Cup lead. His total for the day was $1,100. Sarana earned $750 in second place and Caruana $350 in outright third. GMs Vahap Sanal and Teimour Radjabov rounded out the top five for $200 and $100, respectively. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina won the $100 women's prize.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).

Read more:
Nakamura Begins 2024 With Another Win, Leads Titled Cup - Chess.com

Welcome to 2024. This year's first monthly Chess.com update focuses on handy new features, catches you up on the latest news, and previews some exciting events ahead.

Here's what this update covers:

Product & Engineering

There are two great new features to help you learn from all of your brilliant (and less-than-brilliant) moves in 2023, as well as challenging bots and thousands of additional puzzles.

If you are in tech and would like to join our team, we're hiring!

2023 concluded with fireworks in the Champions Chess Tour Finals, as well as dominant displays in the FIDE World Rapid and FIDE World Blitz tournaments. Stay tuned for major events in 2024.

This month's community-based highlights include democracy in action, exciting contests coming up soon, and a fabulous fundraising effort.

What do chess and international football have in common, how important are instincts in becoming a champion, and does Magnus know Hikaru's birthday? Find out below.

December saw several major new courses released on Chessable, including a reinterpretation of one of the all-time greats. All of the courses linked below have free previews full of chess wisdom.

ChessKids just keeps getting better and better. The future stars of chess are shining brightly already! Get to know these names because you'll be seeing a lot more of them over the coming years.

New year, new stats. Going forward, we're including the number of rating points refunded to users who lost games to opponents who violated our Fair Play rules.

Fair Play stats for December:

It may have been the holiday season, but Chess.com support never sleeps. (Okay, they do, that's a basic biological need, but they're still very diligent.)

Fun fact: the team fielded approximately 1.2 million replies in 2023; that's twice as much as in 2022!

Thank you for being part of our amazing community, and we hope that this year brings you plenty of chess success. Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Missed an update? You'll find last month's edition here.

See the original post:
New Year, New Features, New Superstars - Chess.com

Chess.com is excited to announce our 2024 events calendar!

2023 has been a year full of groundbreaking formats and marquee tournaments. Recently, the 2023 Speed Chess Championship once again brought together GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura to write another chapter in their rivalry. This week, the Champions Chess Tour AI Cup 2023 determined who will fly to Toronto for the live Finals this December.

As we wrap up another year of high-speed tactics and strategic masterpieces, we look ahead to future seasons of top-level competition. Please review the schedule below and mark your calendars for a thrilling new year.

Below, you can see the schedule in chronological order:

2024 promises to be another exhilarating year for chess, with all the events that both the fans and players look forward to. Thanks to a calendar packed with a multitude of tournaments, the chess community is poised to witness grandmasters and emerging talents showcasing their prowess.

"2023 was an incredible year with the new Champions Chess Tour, the return of the Pro Chess League, a star-studded Bullet Chess Championship, and another Magnus vs. Hikaru showdown in the Speed Chess Championship," said Michael Brancato, Vice President of Esports at Chess.com. "More titled players than ever are playing in our events, and we're excited to continue delivering the best opportunities in online chess for players and fans in 2024," he added.

We're excited to continue delivering the best opportunities in online chess for players and fans in 2024.

Michael Brancato

The scheduled dates above are subject to change pending unforeseen circumstances. To see the upcoming tournaments in 2024, please see this page.

Excerpt from:
Announcing The 2024 Chess Events Calendar - Chess.com

GM Magnus Carlsen scored six consecutive wins in rounds 14-19 setting the tone of the second and final day at the 2023 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship. It helped him capture the lead and win his seventh title after draws in the final two rounds with a score of 16 points after 21 games. He has thus won double gold at Samarkand, Uzbekistan, after his win in the 2023 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship a couple of days ago.

Carlsen's competition seemed to slow down in the final two rounds, as GMs Daniil Dubov and Vladislav Artemiev also scored draws in the final two games, settling in for the second and third places with 15.5 and 15 points respectively.

GM Valentina Gunina seemed to lose steam compared to day one in the middle rounds of the day in the Women's tournament, which made the championship a well-contested affair on the final day. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk gave her a run for the title, but Gunina powered on with extra effort in the final two rounds to defeat heavyweights GMs Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk and capture the title with a score of 14 points after 17 rounds. Kosteniuk finished a close second on 13.5, while GM Zhu Jiner finished third on 12.5 points.

The second day started with a few of the heavyweights climbing back to the top boards of the tournament. Among them, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave created the biggest of the bangs when he defeated Carlsen, fresh off the blocks in the very first game of the day. Vachier-Lagrave showcased one of his strongest skills, his endgame play, to defeat probably the best-ever endgame player in the history of the gameand that with an exchange sacrifice.

And showing that even the mighty need their own ways of coping with setbacks, Carlsen needed a break to deal with it too.

Along with Vachier-Lagrave, another heavyweight to climb back to the top boards was GM Levon Aronian who blazed a trail with a six-win streak in rounds 10-15. However, it ended suddenly with an unexpected mishap on the top board in the 16th round.

Still to his credit, Aronian climbed back in the standings to set up the final round clash against Carlsen on the top board, which ended in a draw.

Second-seeded GM Fabiano Caruana was another to stage an impressive comeback, after his brutal no-draw first day of eight wins and four losses. He almost made it for a fight for the medalsexcept for an unfortunate loss against Dubov.

In the women's section, it was GM Koneru Humpy who made the best comeback of the day, scoring six points out of seven games in rounds 9-15. But among them was a crucial game against Gunina, where Humpy missed a smooth win.

White's63.Rf3?? is a blunder, and Humpy could have won here easily with 63...Qg1+ when the next 64...Qg4+ picks up the white rook. The game ended in a draw in 114 moves. Humpy's Waterloo was against Kosteniuk in the 16th and penultimate round, when she lost a 219-move (!) marathon.

After his loss against Vachier-Lagrave in the 13th round and a stroll by the lake, Carlsen returned to the tournament hall to start a six-game winning streak. The most beautiful among them was his short tactical delight against GM Alexey Sarana. The tactical melee starting with12.Rxb7 and followed up with15.Nxe6 created an aesthetically beautiful attack. Though Carlsen didn't continue the game optimally, he was rewarded with a blunder in the final seconds.

Carlsen's tearing six-game streak concluded with his hitting a score of 15 points in 19 games, ending as the sole leader. This elicited quite a valid reaction on X.

Another remarkable story involves Dubov, who refused to be bogged down by the happenings of the previous day and scored a heavy 6.5 points in 8 games to reach 14.5 points and second place just behind Carlsen. Apart from the above win against Caruana, Dubov's other brilliance was against GM Yu Yangyi.

Strangely, Dubov didn't attempt to fight for the title in the final two rounds, preferring two quick draws against GMs Baadur Jobava and Dmitry Andreikin. He finished second with 15.5 points. Theoretically, his score can be equal to Carlsen's if one discounts the half-point penalty from the previous day.

Artemiev finished a creditable third with 15 points. He benefitted from the above oversight by Aronian in addition to his simple but beautiful win against GM Peter Svidler.

Dubov's partner-in-mishap from the previous day, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, suffered an unusual oversight in the last round, much to the shock of the commenting GM Viswanathan Anand. It was hilarious to hear the former world champion shout, "Bishop d8, bishop d8..." a total of six times, before bellowing, "Ian! Bishop d8." Sometimes, commentating can be stressful too.

The much-expected quest to the Candidates 2024 through the FIDE circuit by performing well at this tournament did not end in any success for GM Anish Giri or GM Arjun Erigaisi. This means that GM Gukesh Dommaraju is now confirmed to take the seat, joining fellow Indian GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabuand Vidit Gujrathi.

2023 World Blitz Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

Leading the tournament with 9.5 after the first 10 rounds, Gunina had established a two-point lead over the trailing pack of players that included Kosteniuk. However, scoring just 2.5 points in the next five games to reach 12 points shrunk her lead to just half a point after the 15th round. Gunina had also tasted her only defeat of the tournament in the 15th round against Zhu. Kosteniuk had scored four points in these five games.

However, Gunina's wins over Ju and Anna Muzychuk in the final two rounds settled the title in her favor, the latter being singled out for praise by commentator GM Peter Leko: "Gunina is playing a positional masterpiece in the last round." Our Game of the Day has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.

What does the title mean for the champion? Gunina admitted: "When you put me on a chessboard and you tell me to train or play, I feel much better because I don't think about my illness and how hard it is.... Again, I need to mention how proud I am of myself; it is really hard."

2023 Women's World Blitz Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full standings here.)

The FIDE World Blitz Championship was an over-the-board event to determine the FIDE World Blitz open and women's champions. The event ran December 29-30 with a $500,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage

Here is the original post:
Carlsen Wins 7th World Blitz Chess Title - Chess.com