Millionaire Chess was a company which organised the Millionaire Chess Open

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

. The tournament was associated with grandmaster

Maurice Ashley Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a Jamaican and American chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Ashley is well known as a commentator for high-profile chess even ...

. The 2014 iteration of the tournament featured a $1,000,000 prize fund, the largest for an

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

tournament at the time. Low participation, with 400 out of a desired 1000 partipants, and an inability to cover the costs of the competition, led to the third iteration in 2016 being the last running of the tournament.

Events

Millionaire Chess Open #1

The first Millionaire Chess Open took place from October 9–13, 2014 and was held at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The tournament consisted of six sections, Open, Under 2200, Under 2000, Under 1800, Under 1600, and Under 1400. Unrated and provisionally rated players (players with less than 26 lifetime games in any recognized rating system) were only allowed in the Open and U2200 sections. The tournament used players highest rating ever achieved starting from December 1, 2013, the date in which Millionaire #1 was announced, in order to prevent sandbagging. The winner of the Open section and recipient of the highest prize of $100,000 was Grandmaster

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster, a three-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the first World Fischer Random Chess Champion. He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 201 ...

, who defeated Grandmaster Ray Robson during the final round of Millionaire Monday. The third-place winner was

Yu Yangyi Yu Yangyi (; born 8 June 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He qualified for the Grandmaster title at 14 years, 11 months and 23 days old in 2009. He is a three-time Chinese Chess Champion and the 2014 Asian Chess Champion. He was a me ...

who defeated compatriot

Zhou Jianchao Zhou Jianchao (; born June 11, 1988) is a Chinese-American chess player. In 2006, he became China's 21st Grandmaster at the age of 17. Zhou competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009 and 2015. Career Zhou Jianchao learned to play chess at t ...

in the third place playoff. The prize fund also consisted of $40,000 for the 1st-place finishers in the U2200, U2000, U1800, and U1600 sections and $24,000 for the U1400 section.

Millionaire Chess Open #2

The second edition of the tournament took place from 8–12 October 2015 at the same location. The second edition changed the structure slightly. The U1400 and U1600 sections were merged into one and an unrated/provisional section was added. Players had to have played 50 games under a recognized rating system to play in any section other than the Open and unrated/provisional sections. Player's highest rating from December 1, 2013, and the time they registered was used to prevent sandbagging. The winner of the Open section and recipient of the highest prize of $100,000 was grandmaster

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraLê Quang Liêm Lê Quang Liêm (born 13 March 1991) is a Vietnamese chess grandmaster, the top-ranked of his country. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006. Liêm won the Asian Chess Championship in 2019 and was the World Blitz Chess Champ ...

in the final round of Millionaire Monday. The third-place winner was Yu Yangyi once more after defeating Aleksandr Lenderman in the third place playoff.

Millionaire Chess Open #3

On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the third edition of the tournament would take place from October 6–11 at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City. The winner of the Open section and recipient of the highest prize of $30,000 was grandmaster Dariusz Świercz who defeated grandmaster Gawain Jones in the final round of Millionaire Monday. This also rendered as the last event of Millionaire Chess Open.

References

{{Chess tournaments Recurring sporting events established in 2014 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2016 Invitational chess tournaments 2014 establishments in the United States 2016 disestablishments in the United States