The Qatar Masters 2023 has created quite the stir, thanks to a massive prize pool and some star names confirming their participation. What makes the third edition of this event even more newsworthy is that it is returning after a gap of eight years.
It helps that the prize fund will be $108K, likely making it it one of the stronger open Chess tournaments of the year. The player list not too shabby either, with the legendary Magnus Carlsen having confirmed his presence in January and World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura's participation confirmed earlier today on X (formerly Twitter) by chief organizer Mohamed Al-Mudahka, also the President of the Qatar Chess Federation.
History of the Qatar Masters and details on 2023 edition
The Qatar Masters, an open chess tournament, is organized by the Qatar Chess Association in Doha. The first iteration was conducted from November 25, 2014, to December 5, 2014, while the second one was held from December 20, 2015, to December 29, 2015.
We extend a warm welcome to @GMHikaru as he joins the Qatar Masters! The list of players is truly heating up????! pic.twitter.com/MzatJQtw8g
— Mohamed Al-Mudahka (@almodiahki) August 31, 2023
The inaugural competition was open to players with Elo ratings of 2300 or above. The prize money was $100K, with $25K going to the winner, with separate rewards for the best female and best Arabic players, which were $5K and $3.5K, respectively.
Yu Yangyi, the then 20-year-old Chinese chess prodigy, emerged as the champion after scoring 7.5 out of nine points, while Anish Giri finished second and Vladimir Kramnik was third after both notched 7 points.
The 2015 edition was bigger and stronger, with an interesting tweak being the time control for each game. It was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes added for the rest of the game, with increment of 30 seconds per move following, starting from move one. Tiebreaks had a two-game blitz match with time control of five minutes and three-second increments per move starting from the first one.
Magnus Carlsen was the victor, hitting seven points out of nine and defeating defending champion Yu Yangyi in the tiebreak. Five players ended in third, including Sergey Karjakin, Sanan Sjugirov, Ni Hua, and Vassily Ivanchuk, but Vladimir Kramnik eventually won that honor.
Again, there were awards for the best female players ($500 to $8K), the best Arabic players ($1K to $2.5K), the top two junior players, and special prizes in various rating groups. Magnus Carlsen pocketed $27K, runner-up Yu Yangyi took home $16K, and Vladimir Kramnik earned $12K.
The Qatar Masters 2023 will be the third iteration of this series, and the format remains the same. It is scheduled to run from October 10, 2023, to October 20, 2023, and will be conducted as per the Swiss System, which includes nine rounds and Playoff matches where necessary.
Once again, the best female, junior, and Arabic players will get trophies and prize money reflecting their finishing positions. Moreover, there will be a surefire winner at this Chess competition; in case of a tie for first place, a Playoff to judge the winner will be held.
Whose confirmed their participation so far?
So far, the big names to be confirmed are Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, with registrations still open. We will update this space as more players are confirmed to be playing.
