P. Harikrishna part of elite field in Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament

Grandmaster P. Harikrishna will be part of an elite field in the USD 250,000 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz online chess tournament from September 15 to 19.

The line-up includes Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura, among others.

The 10-player all-play-all league event will be played on the same format as the one seen in the Grand Chess Tour (GCT). The first three days will see rapid action (25 minutes plus a 25-second increment per move) for three rounds each day. On the last two days, nine rounds of blitz will be seen each day, the time control being five minutes plus a three-second increment per move.

Carlsen v Kasparov

This event will be preceded by a 10-player USD 150,000 Champions Showdown Chess960 where Carlsen and a retired Garry Kasparov will come face to face across a chess board for the first since 2004. This event is scheduled from September 11 to 13.

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In Chess960, unlike traditional chess, king, queen, rooks, bishops and knights are placed semi-randomly on the back-rank. The pawns retain their conventional spots on the starting ranks.