Watch The Second Week of the World 4 Player Chess Solo Championship Finals Next Sunday!
Starting May 17, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern (14:00 UTC/ 07:00 PST), a battle began between four players for the second World Solo Championship of Four Player Chess, a Chess.com variant where each game is contested by four sets of pieces. These contestants are fighting for a single prize of $1000 USD.
- Watch the Four Player Chess championship this Sunday, May 24, live on Twitch.tv/chess at 7 a.m. PST / 10 a.m. EST. The match may continue on Sunday, May 31 at the same time.
- New to Four Player Chess? Read our guide to the game for rules and strategy, and then jump in to play.
The four finalists won their way through a field of 16 in earlier play to reach the finals. The championship will be determined by 3 sessions of play in a best-of-9 format. The first player to reach 2.25 points will be declared the champion. The current schedule for this Championship Final:
Games 1-3: Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PST)
Games 4-6: Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PST)
Games 7-9 (if needed): Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 14:00 UTC (07:00 PST)
Streamers: Wouter Bik @Bikfoot and FM / WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian @annamaja7. The Tournament Director, Luke Romanko @e4bc4qh5qf7 provided commentary in collaboration with these two streamers. The same faces will be seen the following Sunday, May 24th at 14:00 UTC and again on May 31st at 14:00 UTC if the match is not finished.
Bik and Kazarian are popular and highly respected chess.com streamers and commentators. Romanko is a volunteer administrator/moderator of the four player chess community with extensive experience in variations of each type of 4 player chess game. These three chess personalities will comment on all the World 4 Player Chess Championship action while explaining the rules and basic strategies to the audience.
A game of Anonymous Solo Four Player Chess (from the last game of Round 3 in the First Solo Championship).
The battlefield features four new Solo Finalists:
[1] Maria Mercedes "Mercy" Quino Ixtepan ( @merceq1 )
[3] Arseny Vasily Kuzmin ( @Arseny_Vasily )
[4] Lars Johan Brodtkorb ( @icystun )
[15] Tien Dat Do ( @4kaks )
Our #1 seed @merceq1 , from Mexico, is our first ever female finalist in a World 4 Player Chess Championship final! She qualified through a Championship Qualifier, winning the qualifier against @icystun 2-1. She really loves the game and started as the favorite to win the second World Solo Championship.
Our #3 seed @Arseny_Vasily , from Russia, qualified for the championship through obtaining a high position in the Leaderboard and won the longest preliminary match ever seen in the Solo World Championship with some of the longest-ever games played. Kuzmin is rated above 2000 FIDE and is on the way to receive a FIDE title.
Our #4 seed @icystun, from Norway, qualified for the championship through outstanding performance in rated Solo games. This is Brodtkorb's second W4PCC final as he is a Reigning Champion for this year's Team Championship. Brodtkorb is the only player to have qualified for all four World Championships. Brodtkorb is the only undefeated player the Championship Preliminaries. Brodtkorb is not only an accomplished chess player nearing a Fide Master title, he is one of Norway's best sailors.
Our #15 seed @4kaks, from Vietnam, qualified for the championship as a direct substitution for a player that withdrew at the start of the preliminaries. Do defeated the 2019 Solo World Champion 2-1 in the preliminaries.
After nearly 4 hours of action, three games have been played on the 17th, and three contestants each have one point.
Game 1 winner: @4kaks
Game 2 winner: @icystun
Game 3 winner: @Arseny_Vasily
Unlike in Teams, Free-For-All/Solo players have varying strategies from aggressive to conservative to opportunistic to a mix of them. The championship games are anonymous but the players will guess who each other are based on play and sometimes change their strategies to camouflage and/or hide their identities. No one will want a single player to run away with a victory, so elite play from all will make this match interesting!
Championship Format:
- 2 minutes + 15 second delay; Anonymous, standard 8th rank promotion as 1-point queen with en-passant and dead-king-walk features.
- Winner of each game earns a score of 1; 2nd-4th place earn 0. Ties for first will be split equally. The game will be decided in 9 or less games; the first player to reach 2.25 wins will be declared the 2020 World Solo Champion.
- After each game, players will rematch each other (until after the third game of the day) and the matchmaker will pick randomly.
- If two or more players reach or exceed “2.25” at the same time, the higher score wins. If their score is the exact same, the player with higher score in the next most recent game will be declared the 2020 World Solo Champion. If all four players draw during all 9 games, the winner goes to whoever moved last before the draw, second to whoever moved second to last, etc.
- The second World Solo Champion will earn a prize of $1000 USD.
More Information:
- 2020 World Solo Four Player Chess Championship Information / Results (must join club to read):
- Four Player Championship Rules
Watch, Learn and Play:
