For the first time, the eight-player Tour Finals - the last act of the greatest season-long tournament in chess - will be played entirely in person and over the board from 9-16 December.

Toronto, Canada, will be the host city and the winner will be crowned Tour Champion 2023 and will pick up the $200,000 first prize in addition to winnings already earned. A total of $500,000 is up for grabs at the Tour Finals.

Carlsen, the world number one and reigning Tour champion, and Nakamura, the world's top chess streamer, have dominated the 2023 season so far. Their rivalry is on fire, but they are not alone.

The USA are bringing out the big guns. Solid Fabiano Caruana (current world number two and new US Champion) and Wesley So will join Nakamura in defending their nation's chess honour.

The young blood is also out for glory. Uzbek sensation GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the rising star who won this year's ChessKid Cup and finished second in the overall Tour ranking, takes his place at the top table.

He is joined by Iranian-born French GM Alireza Firouzja and the youngest in the field at 17, this year's breakout star GM Denis Lazavik. The youngster had a strong finish to the regular Tour season to book his place in the Tour final.

This year's surprise package, the 'tricky Frenchman' GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, France’s second top GM in the tournament, will be aiming to continue his stunning return to form after beating Carlsen twice to win the last event, the AI Cup.

Carlsen's hat-trick hunt

Magnus Carlsen has qualified for the Finals by winning three of the six events on the Tour: the Airthings Masters, the Aimchess Rapid, and the Julius Baer Generation Cup. So far, he has collected $125,000 in prize money. The 32-year-old Norwegian is aiming for a hat-trick of Tour victories.

Nakamura, meanwhile, finished runner-up to Carlsen in the Airthings Masters before beating Caruana to win the Chessable Masters in April, an event in which Carlsen finished third.

The Finals will begin on 9 December with an eight-player round robin. It's three days of action with the top two advancing to the knockout stage. Matches will be played in a best-of three-sets format, with each set consisting of four games, with Armageddon if necessary. All games, except Armageddon games, will be played using the 15+3 rapid chess time control and will be FIDE rated.

At the end of the round-robin, the two lowest ranked players will be eliminated. The remaining six in places 3 to 6 will compete for the two remaining semi-finals places in a double elimination 'Survival Stage' on 12 December.

The single-elimination, best-of-knockout stage will begin with the semi-finals on 13 and 14 December. The winners will face each other in the two-day Grand Final starting on 15 December. The 2023 Tour Champion will be crowned on 16 December.