Wesley So competes in world's first bitcoin chess tourney

Grandmaster Wesley So aims to reclaim the overall lead from world champion Magnus Carlsen in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour when they see action in the FTX Crypto Cup set May 23 to 31.

The reigning Fischer-Random king and two-time United States champion succumbed to Armenia’s Levon Aronian in the quarterfinals of the New in Chess Classic last month that allowed Carlsen, who eventually topped the event, to leapfrog to the top with 185 points and $95,000 earnings.

The Cavite-born, 27-year-old So, who now represents the United States, slipped to second with 145 points and $85,000 earnings.

To do that, So would need to find a way to regain the same form he showed in topping the Skilling Open in November last year and the Opera Euro Rapid in February.

But Carlsen is standing on the way to So’s bid as the Norwegian, the current classical champion, was coming off his first leg victory in the Tour.

Also posing as big threats are Aronian, World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, World Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Ding Liren of China.

Russia’s Alexander Grischuk, Daniil Dubov and Peter Svidler, FIDE’s Iran-born Alireza Firouzja, the Netherlands’ Anish Giri, Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Argentina’s Alan Pichot are also joining.

The star-studded event, which has all the top 10 players, stakes a record prize pot for an online tournament of $320,000 with $100,000 of that serving as a bonus paid in crypto.

Preliminaries will be from May 23 to 25, followed by the two-day quarterfinals. Semifinals will be May 28 to 29, and finals will be May 30 to 31.