Ready To Make A Big Boom? Play In The Atomic Chess Championship On March 27!

Dear Variant Fans,

Get ready to make a big impact with your captures! Our 2025 Chess.com Community Championships event series continues, and this month, the Atomic Chess Championship is scheduled for March 27-28. 

Atomic Chess is not for the faint of heart. In this variant, every capture triggers an explosion that destroys anything in all adjacent squares—except for pawns, which, like cockroaches, are surprisingly sturdy against atomic radiation. Head over to the variant server to play and practice before the event starts!

As usual, the two-day event will have eight qualifiers on Day 1 and the knockout Final on Day 2.

Qualifiers on March 27

• There are eight arena qualifiers. Check out the qualifiers' schedule.
• The first qualifier starts at 9 a.m. ET / 14:00 CET / 6:30 p.m. IST; the last at 7:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 (+1)CET / 5 a.m. (+1) IST. Registrations open one hour before each arena starts.
• Each qualifier is a 75-minute arena.
• The time control is 3+0.
• The winner of each arena qualifies for the Final.
• Players already qualified for the final cannot play in subsequent qualifiers.

The qualifiers are open to everyone! Check out the qualifiers' schedule and click Join in any of the qualifiers to participate.

Knockout Final on March 28

• Eight-player double-elimination knockout.
• The time control is 3+0.
• Each match consists of four games.
• If the match ends in a tie, players contest 3+0 games until there's a winner.