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Who Will Qualify To Play Magnus Carlsen?

Who Will Qualify To Play Magnus Carlsen?

SamCopeland
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The Blitz Battle Qualifier to decide who will face Magnus Carlsen is here. Watch the event with live commentary at Chess.com/tv or Twitch.tv/chess


Round one of this 11-round, 3 0 Swiss tournament starts Tuesday, May 31 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Here's just a few of the many reasons you should be watching.

1. The winner plays Magnus Carlsen

The champion qualifies into the Blitz Battle Championship as our eighth seed, and gets to play World Champion Magnus Carlsen in round one. The chance for three hours mano a mano with Carlsen is probably a sufficient motivator for the competitors, but the match will also have $3,300 on the line with at least $1,000 guaranteed to the loser.

Pro: You get to play Magnus. Con: You have to play Magnus.

2. It's so top-heavy we have a U2700 prize

With 42 GMs, 26 IMs, and 2 FMs already registered -- and more entering all the time -- the event is chock full of top players. Some registrants who are ineligible for the U2700 prize include Wesley So, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Le Quang Liem.

Some favorites eligible for our U2700 prize include Baadur Jobava, Gawain Jones, and Georg Meier.

So probably won't mind being ineligible for an Under prize  No doubt, he has his sights exclusively on top prize!

3. Your favorite streamers will be playing

#teamscandi is sure to show up in force to support your friendly neighborhood streamer, IM John Bartholomew. Bartholomew will have plenty of opportunities to defend the honor of his beloved Scandinavian Defense at the highest level. Registrants are on notice; book up on the Scandi!

GM Eric Hansen is also in the lists representing the ChessBrahs. Hopefully, his recent eight-hour practice bout against Hikaru Nakamura helps out. As Hansen would say, need that energy boys!

4. Flags Galore

With a flat 3 0 time control, we can expect to see more flags than a United Nations meeting. The lack of increment will surely make for some seriously dangerous time scrambles.

I hope you've left enough time on your clock to shuffle your way to 50 moves in that opposite colored bishop position. Premove, premove, premove, %$*#@!

5. The Benjamins

While GM Joel Benjamin isn't signed up -- yet -- with $5,000 in total prizes available, there will be lots of Benjamins on the line. First place takes home $1,500, not bad for ~one hour of hectic 3 0 Blitz action. The prizes are laid out as follows.

  • Place prizes (1st-10th): $1,500-750-500-400-300-200-150-100-50-50
  • Best Under 2700: $500 
  • Best Under 2600: $300
  • Best Under 2500: $200

6. Grandmaster Commentary

GM Simon Williams and IM Aman Hambelton will be providing commentary on our primary English language stream at Chess.com/tv or Twitch.tv/chess

What happens when you mix English and Canadian commentary? Who knows, but we'll find out!

Warning: Prepare for cheekiness.

7. You can watch in your native tongue

In addition to our English language broadcast, we have GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Sergey Shipov providing Russian language commentary at twitch.tv/chesscom_shakhmaty and NM Kevin Bordi (popular streamer blitzstream) broadcasting in French at twitch.tv/chesscom_echecs.

8. Tiebreaks?!

Of course, the victor can eliminate any possibility of a tie with a perfect score, but should two or more players share first place, the action will only increase.

Armageddon games will be played among the tied players until only one is left standing! or seated... hopefully in a comfortable ergonomic chair... 

Are you a GM or IM who still hasn't registered?! Join now via the official club. All participants must be approved prior to the tournament so sign up ASAP!

Participants by May 30th, 1p.m. Pacific

1 Username Blitz Title Name Surname Country
2 LexySexy 2829 GM Baadur Jobava Georgia
3 gmwesley_so 2807 GM Wesley So United States
4 Tamirn 2752 GM Tamir Nabaty Israel
5 LiemLe 2707 GM Liem Le Vietnam
6 Noukii 2706 GM Yannick Gozzoli France
7 GeorgMeier 2697 GM Georg Meier Sweden
8 platy3 2679 GM Alan Pichot Argentina
9 arturovich 2664 IM Aleksander Moskalenko Russia
10 Indianlad 2652 GM Mr Unknown Mystery India
11 arturchix 2647 GM Arturs Neiksans Latvia
12 R-Ponomariov 2638 GM Ruslan Ponomariov Spain
13 Alexander_Donchenko 2628 GM Alexander Donchenko Germany
14 Tesla37 2623 GM Sergei Movsesian Armenia
15 LuckyTiger 2619 GM Valeriy Aveskulov Ukraine
16 jcibarra 2617 GM Jose Ibarra Granada
17 penguingm1 2616 IM Andrew Tang United States
18 QuestToGM 2616 IM Akshat Chandra United States
19 gm_aag 2613 GM Alexander Galkin Russia
20 MinhGTrAn 2609 IM Minh Tran Vietnam
21 Yaacovn 2605 IM Yaacov Norowitz United States
22 Dlugy 2605 GM Maxim Dlugy United States
23 Imre91 2600 GM Imre Balog Hungary
24 Sanan_Sjugirov 2600 GM Sanan Sjugirov Russia
25 severomorskij 2598 GM Aleksandr Ukraine
26 wonderfultime 2595 IM Minh Le Vietnam
27 Kacparov 2587 IM Kacper Drozdowski Poland
28 maciek_92 2586 IM Maciej Klekowski Poland
29 Beca95 2581 GM Aleksandar Indjic Serbia
30 Janosik 2580 GM Falko Bindrich Germany
31 igorkovalenko 2578 GM Igor Kovalenko Latvia
32 Keranke 2574 IM Vladimir Seliverstov Russia
33 Genghis_K 2571 GM Federico Perez Ponsa Argentina
34 Dr-Bassem 2570 GM Bassem Amin Egypt
35 ChadaevNikolay 2565 GM Nikolay Chadaev Russia
36 dretch 2563 GM Conrad Holt United States
37 VerdeNotte 2559 GM Gawain Jones England
38 Matibar 2559 GM Mateusz Bartel Poland
39 daro94 2551 GM Dariusz Swiercz Poland
40 A-Fier 2549 GM Alex Fier Brazil
41 JackSnipe 2546 GM Netherlands
42 SabinoBrunello 2542 GM Sabino Brunello Italy
43 RLH2 2538 GM Robert Hess II United States
44 matiniannikita 2537 IM Nikita Matinian Russia
45 Boryboy 2530 IM France
46 Trade09 2527 GM Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian Brazil
47 vovkcoach 2520 GM Yuri Vovk Ukraine
48 Fins0905 2519 IM John Bartholomew United States
49 IMDbx 2519 IM Nikita Meskovs Latvia
50 erichansen 2516 GM Eric Hansen Canada
51 adypady02 2513 NM Chess Player United States
52 VishnuPrasanna 2506 GM Vishnu Prasanna India
53 gmjoey1 2506 GM Rogelio Antonio Philippines
54 AndreyOstrovskiy 2494 IM Andrey Ostrovskiy Germany
55 smurfo 2488 GM David Smerdon Australia
56 Spas_Kozhuharov 2480 IM Spas Kozhuharov Bulgaria
57 Inopov 2480 GM Chess Pacman Philippines
58 CemilCan 2473 IM Turkey
59 VSERGUEI 2460 GM Sergey Volkov Russia
60 komandoras123 2456 IM Titas Stremavičius Lithuania
61 VMikhalevski 2447 GM Victor Mikhalevski Israel
62 Frolyanov_D 2447 GM Dmitry Frolyanov Russia
63 Gergo85 2443 GM Gergo Antal Hungary
64 kubrick28 2439 GM Robert Hungaski United States
65 petrpalachev 2430 FM Petr Palachev Russia
66 khekhm 2424 IM Toms Kantans Latvia
67 yian123 2419 IM United States
68 joppie2 2417 GM Jorden van Foreest Netherlands
69 Greg_Shahade 2416 IM Greg Shahade United States
70 IM_dmitrij 2406 IM Dmitrij Kollars Germany
71 viktorskliarov 2405 FM Viktor Skliarov Ukraine
72 Dinamo81 2399 IM Ardelean George Catalin Romania
73 AleksandrNevski 2393 GM International
74 Zufi1811 2385 IM Miroslav Zufic Croatia
75 Iuri_Shkuro 2382 GM Iuri Shkuro Ukraine
76 Emryss 2381 IM Daniel Sadzikowski Poland
77 Shankland 2330 GM Sam Shankland United States
78 danir29 2323 GM Dani Raznikov United States
79 dforcen 2297 GM Daniel Forcen Spain
80 LawrenceTrent 2293 IM Lawrence Trent United Kingdom
81 IMRosen 2284 IM Eric Rosen United States
82 GM_Huschenbeth 2262 GM Niclas Huschenbeth United States
83 Tabamsey 2257 IM Christian Seel Germany
84 lachesisQ 2239 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi Russia
85 Kallatroh 2170 IM Finland
86 Malev212 2160 GM Jaan Ehlvest United States
87 David_Klein 2158 GM David Klein Netherlands
88 krishna16in 2133 IM Crg Krishna India
89 AMatros 2127 IM Alexander Matros United States
SamCopeland
NM Sam Copeland

I'm the Head of Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2015, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.

You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.

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