World's top 8 chess players heading to Dubai for second WR Masters

Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)

Followers of the international stars in chess are bracing for a triple delight of high-ticket events, including one scheduled to be held in Dubai. Eight of the world's best players will be heading to the UAE at a location venue yet unknown, although the dates are finalised for October 31 to November 3.

Titled WR Masters, it is part of three, and counting, events being spearheaded by rich chess enthusiast and billionaire Wadim Rosenstein. WR, as he is famously known, is based out of Dusseldorf, Germany.

After the first set of four names and the format of the classic event were announced, the full line-up of eight names headed to Dubai now reads as in the order of their FIDE rating points: Ian Nepomniachtchi, R Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Maxine Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexander Grischuk and Yu Yangyi. 

Magnus Carlsen will be missing out on the event, although the players will get their performances recognised on the FIDE Circuit, the world body's rating system. 

There will be one match on the opening day, but the remaining days will see two classical games a day. The time control is a bit unusual with 60 minutes for 30 moves, then 30 minutes for 20 moves, and another 30 minutes until the end of the game. There will be no increment, so every player will have equal amount of time in each four-hour contest.

The event, with prize money also unknown, will be preceded by a 16-player WR Masters Cup in London two weeks before (October 14-18). Former world champion Vishwanathan Anand and current women's world champion Ju Wenjun will be taking part there. Both events will have the same time format.

The WR Masters in Dubai will be the second staging of the tournament after the inaugural edition was held in February last year with 10 players in Rosenstein's home town in Germany. That ended in a play-off between Nepomniachtchi, Gukesh Dommaraju, now the youngest Candidates Tournament winner, and Levon Aronian, the eventual winner.

Meanwhile, the players will be competing for points on the FIDE circuit in the two events other than the High Roller, and potentially a spot in the 2026 Candidates Tournament that decides the next world championship challenger.

And the Dubai event will offer the most points due to the stronger quality of the field. The London topper could earn 25.85 points based on current rating, but a sole winner in Dubai will earn 27.5 points.

The UAE leg will be followed by an interestingly new buy-in tournament similar to the game of poker on November 21 in Dusseldorf. Four players have been confirmed to put in a million dollars each for the WR Chess Masters High Roller event.

Nepomniachtchi is the common name in all three competitions. Others to find investors and put up the $1m stake are world No.2 Fabiano Caruana, Hans Niemann and the world No.1 youth player Nodirbek Abdusattorov. 

The winner and runner-up in that will rake in $2m and $1.5m as their spoils respectively. Third place will get $400,000 and last place will get nothing. Rosenstein will pocket $100,000 as his organising fee.

With varied events adding more zing on the world calendar, and Rosenstein using the WR Masters to promote the game in other parts of the world, the UAE will see a second such event of quality international flavour for a successive year. 

Last year, a franchise team-based Global Chess League kicked off with the inaugural season hosted in June at the Le Meredien hotel, Dubai, with six teams. This year's venue for the league is not yet official, but it could be London, according to sources.