Anand set for Legends of Chess tourney; meets Svidler in opener

Indian ace Viswanathan Anand will open his campaign at chess24 Legends of Chess tournament against Russia's Peter Svidler. Indian ace is making his maiden appearance in Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour as is Svidler, an eight-time Russian champion and World Cup winner. round-robin games, beginning from Tuesday, are best-of-four game contests to be played online.

Anand set for Legends of Chess tourney

"I am looking forward to returning to chessboard and particularly excited to participate in this inter-generational challenge," former world champion said.

Anand will subsequently take on world number one Magnus Carlsen, Vlimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Peter Leko, Ian Nepomnaichtchi, Boris Gelfand, Ding Liren and Vasyl Ivanchuk. tournament, which runs till August 5 will see Anand return to action after reaching home from Germany where he was stuck for over three months.  He featured in Online Nations Cup during his stay in Germany.

Carlsen, Liren, Nepomniachtchi and Giri, semifinalists at Chessable Masters (part of Magnus Carlsen Tour), received an automatic invite for event, and will be up against six legends aged 40-52, who have been at top of world chess at various points in ir career. Legends of Chess is part of Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. winner will qualify for USD 300,000 Grand Final scheduled from August 9 to 20. Thus far, Carlsen with two titles and Russian Daniil Dubov (one title) have me cut. If Legends event throws up a new champion, n fourth spot could go to Hikaru Nakamura, who hes points tally for non-winners for now.

semifinals will be played over best-of-three sets. Each set comprises four rapid games (15 minutes plus 10-second increment per move for each player). If score remains 2-2, two blitz games will be played (five minutes plus three-second increment). If tie persists, n an Armageddon game will be played. Here, a player with white pieces has five minutes against four to his rival. In case of a draw, black is awarded match. 

Image credits: PTI