The competition will consist of four "super-tournaments" culminating in a Grand Final in August with the preceding competitions becoming the new majors for online chess.

Named the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour after the Norwegian, it follows on from the Magnus Carlsen Invitational which broke all viewership records for online chess and will now be treated as the first leg of the Tour.

With the first leg formally completed, Carlsen won against Japan's Hikaru Nakamura in the final and will look to stay out in front in the next leg, the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, scheduled for May 19 to June 13.

After that comes the Online Chess Masters from June 20 to July 5, followed by the final major, Legends of Chess from July 21 to August 5, with the Tour Final taking place from August 9 to 20.

Carlsen said: "The Invitational was a lot of fun and we heard great feedback from the players, our broadcast partners, and the viewers.

"While physical chess tournaments and sports are still either cancelled or postponed, bringing an entire chess tour online is what I feel is right for chess now."

The Invitational was the first online chess tournament to be broadcast on television, going out in Spain, Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic as well as being covered live in Norway on the nation's biggest commercial channel, TV 2.

Four players from the Invitational will return for the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge with those being Carlsen, Nakamura, China's Ding Liren and Iran's Alireza Firouzja.

Eight new players will also take part in the competition that starts on Tuesday with those being Wesley So, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Levon Aronian, Wei Yi, Daniil Dubov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Yu Yangyi.