Champions Chess Tour 2022
The Champions Chess Tour 2022, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, is a 9-month series of nine online chess tournaments featuring some of the world's top players, who play for a prize money pool of US$1.6 million. The tour started on February 19, 2022 and will last until November 20, 2022. Schedule. There are 9 tournaments in the tour: 6 labelled as Regular and 3 labelled as Major. Format. The format will be similar to that in the previous season, with some innovations. Qualification. Regular. Each Regular tournament will  have 16 participants. In all Regular tournaments but the first, the top 8 players from the previous tournament (Regular or Major) will be invited. The remaining spots are filled by wildcards chosen by the organizer. Major. Each Major tournament will have 8 participants: the top two players of each of the previous two Regular tournaments, the top two players in the overall tour standings, and two wildcards. The tour regulations do not specify what happens if these groups of players overlap. Time controls. Three different time controls are used in the tour: Stages. Regular. Each Regular tournament consists of a  preliminary stage with 15 rounds and a knockout stage with three rounds. In the preliminary stage, 16 players participate in a round-robin spanning four days, with each player playing one rapid game against each other player, for a total of 120 games. In contrast to the previous season, a win scores 3 points and a draw scores 1 point. The eight players with the most points advance to the next stage. Ties are resolved according to the following criteria, in that order: In the quarterfinals and semifinals, each matchup consists of four rapid games played on a single day , with one point for a win and half a point for a draw. Ties are resolved by a playoff consisting of two blitz games. If these also end in a tie, an Armageddon game is played; if this ends in a draw, the Black player wins the round. The player who ranked higher in the preliminary stage gets to pick a colour. The final consists of two matches of four rapid games each, played on successive days. Each match is scored separately. A tie (if each player wins one match or both matches are tied) is resolved as in the  other knockout rounds. There is no match for third place. Major. Each Major tournament will be a round-robin tournament among eight players, without a knockout stage. Each pair of players plays a match of four rapid games as in the knockout stage of Regular tournaments, including blitz and Armageddon tie-breaks if necessary. If the match is decided in the rapid games, the winner gets 3 match points; if it is decided in tie-breaks, the winner gets 2 match points and the loser 1 match point. Ties in the total match points at the end of the tournament  are resolved according to the following criteria, in that order: Tour points and prize money. There is no longer a distinction between tour points and prize money as in the previous season. The player who accumulates the most prize money over the course of the tour wins the tour. The winner is awarded an additional $50,000. Regular. The total prize pool for a Regular tournament is $150,000, of which $60,000 are distributed as follows: In other words, $2,000 are awarded for reaching the quarterfinals, $4,000 for winning a quarterfinal, $9,000 for winning a semifinal  and $10,000 for winning a final. The remaining $90,000 can be won in the preliminary stage, with $250 being awarded per point, that is, $750 for a win and $250 for a draw. The remaining $250 in case of a draw accumulate in a bonus pot that starts out with $20,000 and is used for performance awards at the end of the season. Major. The total prize pool for a Major tournament is $210,000, with $2,500 being awarded for each match point. A player with less than 2 match points nevertheless  receives $5,000, but only the prize money earned with match points is included in the tour standings. Results. Tour rankings. Prize money is shown in thousands of US dollars. An asterisk denotes a Major tournament. The bonus pot, which started off with $20,000, has grown to $40,000 due to 80 draws in preliminary stages. Tournaments. Airthings Masters. This initial tournament started on February 19 and ended on February 26. Charity Cup. This tournament started on March 19 and ended on March 26. Oslo Esports Cup. This tournament started on April 22 and ended on April 28. For  each match, the table shows the match points gained, with the match result in parentheses.