The American Chess Cup 2024 kicks off and takes place from 12-21 March at the World Chess Hall of Fame, with a prize pool of $400,000!
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The American Chess Cup 2024 – Players
The American Chess Cup traditionally gathers some of the best America’s chess players. The field of the Open event is headlined by GM Fabiano Caruana and the complete list of players is shown below:
- GM Fabiano Caruana (2804)
- GM Wesley So (2757)
- GM Leinier Dominguez (2752)
- GM Levon Aronian (2725)
- GM Sam Shankland (2674)
- GM Ray Robson (2696)
- GM Sam Sevian (2697)
- GM Grigoriy Oparin (2664)
Hikaru Nakamura who won the event last year is not in the field, and neither is Hans Niemann as it could have been assumed after Saint Louis Chess Club’s announcement.
Round 1 pairings can be found here
The American Women’s Chess Cup 2024 – Players
Eight-time US Women’s Champion GM Irina Krush is the top-seeded in the Women’s event. The lineup is:
- GM Irina Krush (2421)
- IM Alice Lee (2379)
- WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (2370)
- IM Anna Zatonskih (2347)
- IM Paikidze (2319)
- WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (2311)
- WGM Jennifer Yu (2283)
- FM Zoey Tang (2280)
Round 1 pairings can be found here.
The American Chess Cup 2024 – System of Play
The American Chess Cup features two sections: Open and Women’s, and both events will be played as 8-player double elimination knock-out tournaments. The first round starts on March 12th, 2024, and each round consists of four games followed by a playoff match (if needed). Players will be seeded and pairing numbers assigned 1-8 based on their March FIDE Classical rating. If two players have the same classical rating, they will be listed alphabetically.
The players will be paired 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 in the first round, and players with higher rating will have white pieces in games 1 and 4. The winner of the match proceeds his competition in the Championship bracket, while the player who lost the match goes to the elimination bracket. If a player loses the second match, he/she will be eliminated from the event.
The matches in the Championship bracket consist of two classical and two rapid games. The time control for classical games is 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment, and the rapid time control is 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment. If the playoffs are needed, players will play a two-game blitz match with time control of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment. If the playoff match ends in a tie, the players shall repeat the process until a winner is determined.
The final match 14 will see the encounter between the Winner of the Championship bracket and the Winner of the Elimination bracket. If the match results in one lost match per player, the two players shall contest a four-game rapid match (Match 15) followed by playoffs if necessary.
The American Chess Cup 2024 – Prize fund
The total prize fund of the event is $400,000 with $250,000 reserved for the Open competition and $150,000 for the Women’s Championship. The Winner of the Open championship will win the money prize of $75,000, and the Winner of the Women’s event will win $40,000.
The distribution of prizes is shown below:
The American Chess Cup Blitz 2024
The American Cup Blitz championship will be played as a 7-round swiss tournament with 25-50 participants selected as follows:
- 6 players eliminated from the American Chess Cup 2024 Open section
- 6 players eliminated from the American Women’s Chess Cup 2024
- 5-10 titled players (GM, IM, WGM, WIM, FM or NM) from the Saint Louis University
- 5-10 titled players (GM, IM, WGM, WIM, FM or NM) from Webster University
- 5-10 titled players (GM, IM, WGM, WIM, FM or NM) from the University of Missouri
- Other players approved by the Chief Organizer
The total prize fund of the event is $21,700, with $5,000 reserved for the Winner of the event. The distribution of prizes is shown below.
