The 2025 Queen's Cup

"When you play chess the idea is to make good moves, not quick ones!" — Jeremy Silman.

Members of the NSPCL, I hope you've had a fantastic week so far. This weekend, we bring to you the 2025 3rd Annual Edition of the Queen's Cup - our very own Rapid and Blitz tournament.

As always, we'll start slowly, but not staggered, with the classic live chess pace of Rapid 10|0, and then progressively reduce the duration of the time control to Blitz 3|1.

Format

The Queen's Cup features the members of the league battling it out for the Autumn Minor in a tournament consisting of four arenas.

Rapid Routes 1 & 2

These essentially function as the qualifying lobbies for the finale.

In each Rapid Route, the top 2 players advance to the Blitz Royale, whereas the 3rd-6th placed players make the Blitz Play-Offs.

Players may participate in both lobbies, provided they haven't already qualified. In other words, if you qualify from lobby one (place top 6), you cannot play in lobby two.

The Blitz Play-offs

Up next is this stage, which will feature eight (8) players.

The top 4 finishers in the arena will advance to the Blitz Royale Finale.

The Blitz Royale Finale

Finally, all eight (8) players who have made it this far will seek to outsmart each other to become the 2025 Champion of the Queen's Cup!

Note on Play-Offs and Finale

We will also be using a sub-system for the play-offs and finale arenas. In short, the next highest (available) placing player will replace anyone who's not available. We'll use the chess.com arena rankings to do this.

Reigning Champion

sodumb is the reigning Queen's Cup champion and will look to return to form and make it two in a row this weekend!

ApatheticMitosis was the inaugural winner of the Autumn Minor in 2023!

Tournament Schedule

Rapid Route #1

1st & 2nd make it straight to the Blitz Royale finale, while 3rd through 6th advance to the Blitz Playoffs

Time Control: 10|0

Link: https://www.chess.com/play/arena/4480645?clubId=426965,

Relative Time: Saturday 4 October 2025 at 14:00 UTC, 10:00 ET

Rapid Route #2

1st & 2nd make it straight to the Blitz Royale finale, while 3rd through 6th advance to the Blitz Playoffs

Time Control: 10|0

Link: https://www.chess.com/play/arena/4480647?clubId=426965,

Relative Time: Saturday 4 October 2025 at 18:00 UTC, 14:00 ET

Blitz Playoffs

1st through 4th will qualify for the Blitz Royale finale

Time Control: 3|1,

Relative Time: Sunday 5 October 2025 at 15:00 UTC, 11:00 ET

Blitz Royale

The finale, determining the finishing positions of the remaining 8 players

Time Control: 3|1,

Relative Time: Sunday 5 October 2025 at 17:00 UTC, 13:00 ET

We hope to see you all this weekend! If you don't, we nonetheless hope you have a great one!