The London Chess Classic Starts Tuesday (Tomorrow/Today), Starring Caruana

Way back when, before the World Championship, there was the Grand Chess Tour. Four players qualified for the final of this year's new format, and starting Tuesday they'll fight for the title in a knockout format. Here's how it works.

The final four consists of Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Fabiano Caruana, in order of their qualifying scores. As usual in a knockout event, 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3, so it's a battle of the Americans (Nakamura vs. Caruana) and of the friends (Aronian and MVL). They will play a pair of classical games - one each on Tuesday and Wednesday, scored on a 6-3-0 basis. On Thursday they'll play two rapid games, scored 4-2-0, followed by four blitz games that count on a 2-1-0 basis. (If that's insufficient, there will be another pair of blitz games followed by Armageddon.)

For Caruana, there are (at least) two things to play for. There's victory in the Grand Chess Tour, and there's the possibility of finishing the year as the world's #1 player by rating. (It's possible he could achieve the latter even if he doesn't achieve the former.) We'll see how it goes tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time in London; 9 a.m. ET. The tournament website is here.

Other events are going on alongside the main event, and there were some exhibition games beforehand as well. A report on the goings-on, together with a preview of the final four, can be read here.