Millionaire Chess

Yes, Le Quang Liem eliminated Lenderman 2-0 and is in the final.

Nakamura and Yu Yangyi had two draws in 25-minute rapid and are now playing their second (faster) cycle of games to decide who reaches the final.

Neo_Ninja wrote: »

OK thanks. I just switched on today
I thought it was on later this month
The format is a bit strange. Is the final played at rapid time controls also?

https://millionairechess.com/

You have missed most of the fun but can still catch the final games.
There was a 7-round Swiss at normal time limits starting last Thursday.
The top four were going through to today's finals.

Le Quang Liem (Vietnamese GM at university in the States), Lenderman and Yu Yangyi had the best score. Nine or ten players half a point behind (including Nakamura, So, Luke McShane, Caruana) had a playoff on Sunday Afternoon (wee hours Monday our time) to decide the final place for the knockouts. Nakamura came through.

There arre separate 4-player knockouts for lower rating groups and for the sub-2200 tournaments. The remaining players had two more rounds earlier today to complete a 9-round swiss for norm chances and smaller prizes but there's been zero publicity for that.

Now Yu Yangyi and Nakamura have played a third draw and soon will play again with Nakamura as White. If that's also drawn, they have faster playoffs, rather like the recent World Cup ending in an armageddon if necessary.

The commentary (also available on chess24) is a bit annoying as they also cover the lesser knockouts. The final probably won't start until about midnight Irish time. I'm not sure but I think the time limit for the finals will be the same as for the semis.

Next game (starts very soon) 15-min each with 5-sec delay.
(That's not the same as increment.)

If drawn they have two blitz (5-mins with 2-sec delay) and finally if necessary armageddon.

I'm not going to bed until I know if Hikaru is through but I won't stay up for the final.

The big fuss was in round 7 when the McShane-Nakamura game went 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 Ng4 7 Bc1 Nf6 8 Be3 Ng4 9 Bc1 and Nakamura said he wanted to claim a draw by 3-fold repetition though the Millionaire Chess rules forbade this without controller's approval. Eventually they were allowed to do it.

They've started...

Yes it will be Nakamura in the final but he nearly blew the rook ending. Then 60...Rd1? made it much easier for White.

Winner gets 100,000 US dollars and loser in the final gets 50,000. Silly money!