Martinez Wins Play-in On His Birthday

On his 25th birthday, GM Jose Martinez finished first in the all-GM Play-in of the 2024 Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters. The penultimate round against GM Hikaru Nakamura was absolutely critical, as the Peruvian GM managed to draw a losing endgame down a piece, something that he said "happens once in a million times."

Division Placement is the next stage. Based on their results, 11 players move on to Division I Placement, 18 players to Division II Placement, and 40 to Division III Placement.

Day two begins on Thursday, February 1, starting at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST. 

• What's New And Who's Playing?
• Two Warmup Puzzles
• Brilliant Tactics, Miniatures, And Upsets
• Division I Placement Pairings + Division II And III

What's New And Who's Playing?

Faster games, more prizes, and four events: those are the big changes we will see in this year's edition of the strongest and most important online chess tournament.

Last year's time control of 15+3 has been truncated to 10+2, promising a faster pace in this season's battles. Rather than six events that lead to the in-person live Finals, this year there are four. Each regular season event has had its prize pool increased from $235,000 last year to $300,000—the overall prize fund for the full year is $1.7 million.

In addition, events are now eight days long. The format is mostly the same, but the same elements have been spread across more days (last year the event was spread across six days). 

Instead of presenting an immense overview of the weeklong event, these daily recaps will discuss the format of each day as we go, one stage at a time. You can find full format details here. 

Day one of the Chessable Masters was a nine-round Swiss. All grandmasters are allowed to participate for free, as well as qualified players from a tournament played the Friday before. 202 players competed in the Swiss—and they were all grandmasters.

There are some players who didn't need to participate; with their performances in the AI Cup 2023, the last CCT event, the following players are already in Division I of the Chessable Masters 2024: GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Division I winner), Magnus Carlsen (Division I runner-up), and Vladimir Fedoseev (Division II winner). 

We also didn't see four other players who already qualified, through the AI Cup, for the Division I Placement stage: GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (Division I third place), GM Anish Giri (Division I fourth place), GM Vladislav Artemiev (Division II second place), and GM Sam Sevian (Division III first place).

As for those who did participate, well, it's maybe better to ask who didn't. All the world's top-10 who weren't already qualified for the Placement stage were in—except for World Champion Ding Liren and GM Wei Yi. Both were traveling back from Tata Steel Chess 2024 and the tournament start time was at 12:00 a.m. in China.

That is, we did see GM Fabiano Caruana, Nakamura, GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Wesley So, and GM Leinier Dominguez from the top 10. We also saw several former classical world champions: GM Vladimir Kramnik, GM Ruslan Ponomariov, GM Ju Wenjun (reigning now!), and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

We can't mention everybody, so we gloss over even players such as three-time World Blitz Champion GM Alexander Grischuk. You can see all the participants yourself on the results page here. 

So, Caruana, Firouzja & Nakamura are among the players battling for places in Division I of the #ChessableMasters as the 2024 #ChessChamps begins! https://t.co/hHRPrXQo8r pic.twitter.com/yyHRkhxvoh

— chess24.com (@chess24com) January 31, 2024

Two Warmup Puzzles

Before we look at full games, let's get you started with some tactics practice.

In round one, GM Dennis Wagner nearly held Caruana to a draw but stumbled with little time on move 84. Why is 84...Bd4?? a game-losing blunder? White to move and win.

It would be a tough event for Caruana, who withdrew after scoring 3.5/8.

Also in the first round, after GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan's 17...Bc3??, Nakamura found the tactic and quickly won the game. Can you? White to move and win.

Brilliant Tactics, Miniatures, And Upsets 

GM David Howell, who will commentate on later rounds of the event, briefly joined the broadcast after round four. He pointed out that GM Aleksandar Indjic vs. GM Peter Svidler 0-1 from round two was his choice for Game of the Day. It can be summed up as a "King's Gambit" Gone Wrong (though it was a Vienna Opening), and Black found several beautiful and sacrificial resources to drive home the full point.

It's hard to argue with this being our choice, and GM Rafael Leitao analyzes it below:

Martinez was the last player on a perfect score with 6/6, before GM Wesley So finally held him to a draw in round seven.

The Peruvian GM treated the audience to a 23-move miniature in round three. Against GM Robby Kevlishvili, he played the Alapin Sicilian, considered to be a "solid" variation. This "unambitious" opening led to a one-sided attack, and 18.Bxh6! was a thunderous knock on the gates to the black king.

GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan needed just 33 moves to take down Firouzja. He played with 96.2 accuracy and found two brilliant moves in a row. Nimzowitsch wrote in My System that the passed pawn is a criminal, and White's two criminals won the game.

The most dramatic upset of the day was without a doubt the draw Martinez managed to pull off against Nakamura in the penultimate round. In an endgame down a piece, the writing was on the wall; but Nakamura, with either a mouse slip or a mental lapse, hung his own knight back. 

"Oh my god, what did I just do!" 😠

Hikaru, up a piece in the endgame, blunders the piece back and allows a draw! Jospem continues to lead ahead of the final round!#ChessChamps #ChessableMasters pic.twitter.com/A9rziZK6Ps

— chess24.com (@chess24com) January 31, 2024

Had Nakamura won the game, he would have led the tournament in the final round. The mistake was critical in securing the Swiss victory for Martinez, and Nakamura did make it to Division I Placement anyway.

In his post-tournament interview, Martinez talked about stubborn resistance in worse or lost positions, pointing out: "I think I learned that from Hikaru." As a prize for finishing first in the Swiss, he gets a bye for the first round of Division I Placement (on Thursday). 

GM David Anton Guijarro also made a last-minute leap into tied first by defeating So, with Black, in a tricky endgame:

David Anton Guijarro takes down Wesley So in the final round to jump into tied first!#ChessChamps #ChessableMasters pic.twitter.com/XKjouf8kBk

— chess24.com (@chess24com) January 31, 2024

Anton just missed out on the bye on tiebreaks, however, and will be in action in round one. There are no easy pairings in the CCT, in any division. Nakamura vs. GM Denis Lazavik will be an interesting pairing on Thursday, as they have both just played in the 2023 CCT Finals in Toronto a month ago. It's also good to see players like Svidler and GM Rauf Mamedov show that class is permanent.

Division I Placement Pairings + Division II And III

Division II:

Division III: 

The 2024 Chessable Masters is the first of its four events and determines one of the players who'll make it to the in-person CCT Finals. The event starts on January 31 at 11 a.m. ET/17:00 CET and features a $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

• • Faster And Fitter: Champions Chess Tour 2024 Returns With Chessable Masters