Monthly Titled Tournaments and Cash Prizes to Start on Chess.com
PRESS RELEASE -- Starting October 28th, Chess.com will launch "Titled Tuesdays": Live tournaments open to titled players only, with cash prizes will be held on the last Tuesday of every month. Update: Starting March 3, the tournament moves to the FIRST Tuesday of each month.
Do you love playing in live chess? Now everyone from candidate master to grandmaster can win cash prizes in a monthly tournament on Chess.com.
Dubbed "Titled Tuesdays," these tournaments will be for titled players only, so you have to have some combination of red letters before your name: CM, NM, FM, IM, GM or WCM, WFM, WIM, WGM.
If you're a titled player who has yet to be verified, please send a message to either Patzer24 or Monitor with your name, title, FIDE or USCF ID #, FIDE url and a picture of yourself holding a sign that says "Chess.com" on it.
The last Tuesday of every month, starting October 28, $1,000 USD will be up for grabs in a live tournament. Update: Starting March 3, the tournament moves to the FIRST Tuesday of each month. Here's the format:
- 9-round Swiss
- Time control 3+2
- Starts at 11 a.m. Pacific (GMT -8), 2 p.m. Eastern (New York time), 7 p.m. London, 8 p.m. Paris.
- Prize distribution will be $500 for first, $250 for second, $125 for third, $75 for fourth, $50 for fifth
- Ties will result in prizes combined and divided by number of tied players
As always, Chess.com will employ advanced cheat-detection measures to ensure fair play.
If you're not a titled player, you can of course follow all the games by clicking on the events tab in live chess, then clicking "watch" once the tournament begins.
Who might we see competing for cash? Well here's a few players that have been playing on Chess.com just for fun in the last month, so there's a good chance you'll see them:
- GM Tamir Nabaty (Timirn): a newer player to the site; hasn't lost a blitz game on Chess.com yet.
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (Hikaru): the highest-rated player in blitz may compete if the FIDE Grand Prix schedule allows.
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (LyonBeast): hasn't played on Chess.com in a few months, but keeps late hours and needs preparation for his upcoming Death Match.
- GM Daniil Dubov (Duhless): don't let his boyish looks fool you, this teenager is 2627 FIDE.
- GM Yuri Vovk (vovcoach): a very active member who has beaten everyone on the site multiple times.
- GM Maxim Dlugy (Dlugy): former number-one blitz player in the world and has been very active playing on the site in October.
- IM Yaacov Norowitz(Yaacovn): another blitz afficianado; has about 10,000 Chess.com games under his belt; won a dramatic Death Match this summer.
- IM Marc Esserman (MEsserman): we don't know if 3+2 is too slow for him, but his bullet binges are legendary (one sesson lasted 23 hours and more than 600 games).
- Finally, IM Danny Rensch (danielrensch): maybe our own VP will be too excited to sit these events out? A little birdie told me his boss and our CEO (Erik) challenged him to win one while at the 2014 Chess.com Meetup in the Dominican Republic last week.
If you're a titled player who thought it wise to play anonymously on Chess.com, it might be time to rethink that strategy!
Look for post-event recaps of all our "Titled Tuesdays" by yours truly, with highlights of the key games and quotes from the participants.
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
- Email: Mike@chess.com
- Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
- Address: PO Box 60400 Palo Alto, CA 94306
Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to 99 countries.
