Vladimir Kramnik (Russia)

Sergey Karjakin (Russia)

Daniil Dubov (Russia)

Teimur Rajabov (Azerbaijan)

Ian Nepomniastchy (Russia)

Boris Gelfand (Israel)

Ernesto Inarkeiv (Russia)

Wei Yi (China)

Armageddon is the first ever chess tournament produced for prime time television. Grandmasters are playing ultra-fast chess, the blitz, and the Armageddon tie-breaks, the setting is visually captivating, and the spectators are able to see who is winning in real-time and even follow the players heart rates (Vladimir Kramnik’s heart rate went up to 140 during an especially tense moment in Game 1).
Armageddon is structured as a series of Matches, each consisting of two blitz games (each of the players has both White and Black), and an Armageddon tie-breaker in case of an even score.
Blitz games are 3 minutes for each player with 2 seconds added for each move. Armageddon is a tie-breaker format where White has 5 minutes while Black has 4 minutes but wins in case of a draw. 2-seconds increment goes into effect after Move 60.
Typical for double-elimination, if a player loses one Match, he moves to the “losers-bracket” and faces other players in that bracket. If he wins all Matches, he faces the winner of the ‘Winners’ bracket in the final. If he loses one more match in the ‘losers’ bracket, he is eliminated from the Series.
There is a 5-minute break between the Blitz games and 8 minute-break before an Armageddon (if needed).
Players and the arbiter are located in the bespoke pavilion and are filmed with virtual reality technology. Walls and part of the decor are designed to display advantage, time trouble and other information for spectators, but this information is not visible to the players and will not interfere with their play.