The first day of the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest has concluded. Magnus Carlsen won the Blitz Tiebreaker by scoring 7/9 points. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took second place with 6.5 points.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov finished 22nd and scored 2.5/9 points. Abdusattorov lost 5 games and dropped 41.5 Blitz points. Wesley So took 15th place and lost 15.7 points. Wesley lost to Vincent Keymer, Vaishali Rameshbabu, and Levon Aronian.

The Blitz Tiebreaker results are:

Place Player Score TB
1. 🇳🇴 GM Magnus Carlsen 7 36.5
2. 🇫🇷 GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 6.5 31.5
3. 🇺🇸 GM Levon Aronian 6 28.0
4. 🇺🇸 GM Hans Moke Niemann 5.5 27.5
5. 🇫🇷 GM Alireza Firouzja 5.5 26.5
6. 🇮🇳 GM Arjun Erigaisi 5.5 25.0
7. 🇭🇺 GM Richard Rapport 5.5 23.5
8. 🇺🇸 GM Fabiano Caruana 5.5 22.75
9. 🇷🇺 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 5 24.75
10. 🇳🇱 GM Anish Giri 5 23.75
11. 🇩🇪 GM Vincent Keymer 4.5 17.5
12. 🇵🇱 GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda 4.5 16.5
13. 🇮🇳 GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 4.5 15.5
14. 🇦🇲 GM Haik Martirosyan 4.5 15.25
15. 🇺🇸 GM Wesley So 4.5 13.75
16. 🇷🇺 GM Vladislav Artemiev 4 18.0
17. 🇮🇳 GM Vaishali Rameshbabu 4 17.75
18. 🇺🇸 GM Abhimanyu Mishra 4 14.25
19. 🇻🇳 GM Liem Le 4 11.5
20. 🇺🇸 GM Andrew Z Hong 3.5 9.0
21. 🇦🇿 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 3.5 7.5
22. 🇺🇿 GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2.5 7.0
23. 🇳🇱 GM Jorden van Foreest 2.5 5.75
24. 🇰🇿 GM Bibisara Assaubayeva 0.5 2.0

The Blitz Tiebreaker results determine the tiebreakers in the event of a tie during the Group stage. The Group stage of the tournament begins tomorrow at 2:00 PM UTC.

The event features a 5-day Group stage and a 4-day Knockout. In the Group stage, each player will play everyone else twice. The time control for every match is the Fast Classic 45+30. The top scorer from each group advances to the Knockout.

The Knockout will last 4 days. The Semifinals will be played in the first 2 days. The third-place match and the Final will take place on the last 2 days. The Knockout features 3 formats for every match. Players will play 4 Blitz 3+2 games, then 2 Rapid 15+10 games, and will finish with 1 Fast Classic 45+30 game.

The Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot takes place from November 10 to 20, at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The tournament serves as the pilot event for the new Total Chess World Championship Tour. The top 2 players from the overall tour standings will qualify for the 2028 Candidates Tournament.

Credit: Total Chess / Maria Emelianova