It’s that time again, Premium members: we want to know who YOU want to see competing in the next Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event.
The second Major and fourth stop on the Tour starts on March 13th and runs until March 21st. The top eight in the Tour standings after three events have already qualified.
But that leaves four more spots to fill. Two will be decided by you, two by us. Sounds fair?
You can choose from (in no particular order):
- Netherlands No.1, Anish Giri
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Former World Blitz Champ, Le Quang Liem
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China’s No.1, Ding Liren
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Chess Olympiad gold medallist, Vidit Gujrathi
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Eight-time Russian Champ, Peter Svidler
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Former world title challenger, Sergey Karjakin
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India’s No.2, Pentala Harikrishna
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Former US Champ, Sam Shankland
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Three-time World Blitz Champ, Alexander Grischuk
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Polish sensation, Jan-Krzysztof Duda
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Former World Blitz Champ, Leinier Dominguez
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German No.1, Matthias Bluebaum
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Spanish Champion, David Anton Guijarro
The top eight in the Tour who have already qualified for an invite are: Magnus Carlsen; Hikaru Nakamura; Wesley So; Ian Nepomniachtchi; Levon Aronian; Teimour Radjabov; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Daniil Dubov.
As a Major, there will be a $200,000 prize pot and a guaranteed golden ticket to the Tour Finals in September, which has a $300,000 prize pot. So for the players, this is a big deal.
Remember, voting is open only to Premium members.
If for any reason the poll winner can’t make the event, the chance will be offered to the next on the list. Voting will end on Tuesday, February 24th at 00:00 CET and the winner will be announced on the following day. The process for stage one is simple: complete this poll!