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Three more “majors” will take place between May and August before the tour culminates in a grand final, which will take place between August 9-20.
With much of live sport in hiatus because of the coronavirus, the opportunity to establish chess as a mainstream sport is a key reason behind the tour’s launch, says Carlsen.
“The Invitational was a lot of fun and we heard great feedback from the players, our broadcast partners and the viewers,” the 29-year-old Carlsen said in a statement.
“While physical chess tournaments and sports are still either canceled or postponed, bringing an entire chess tour online is what I feel is right for chess now.”
The tour will look to build on the success of the Invitational, which broke online viewer records for chess.
It was the first online chess tournament to be broadcast on TV, going out on Spanish, German, Russian, Norwegian and Czech television.
The top four players from the previous competition will automatically qualify for the next “major.”
The grand final will be contested between the winners of the individual tournaments.
Eight new players will also participate: Wesley So, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Levon Aronian, Wei Yi, Daniil Dubov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and Yu Yangyi.
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