Arena Kings: All The Information
Arena Kings is a weekly event where streamers play in blitz arenas for their share of a $1,500 prize fund. Arenas run every Wednesday starting at 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST/9:30 p.m. IST and last two hours. While only streamers can win prizes, every Chess.com member can play in the event.
Format
Arena Kings runs weekly two-hour arenas every Wednesday. While any Chess.com member can play in the arenas, only streamers can compete for prizes. Most weeks feature 3+0 blitz arenas, with occasional format changes (bullet, Chess960, etc.). Standard Chess.com arena rules and tiebreakers apply.
You can find the event's official rulebook here.
Prizes
The weekly prize* for Arena Kings is $1,500. The prize distribution is as follows:
- 1st: $400
- 2nd: $250
- 3rd: $200
- 4th: $150
- 5th: $100
- 6th-10th: one-month diamond membership awarded to the account of their choice
- U2000 (x3): $100 (awarded to the top three who did not receive other awards)
- Top woman: $100
* Prizes are not cumulative. Cash prizes take priority over membership prizes.
Prize winners will receive an email with further instructions on claiming winnings, please make sure the email on your account is up to date! Check via your settings.
Schedule
Arena Kings runs every Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m. PT/18:00 CEST and ending at 11 a.m. PT/20:00 CEST.
Note that Arenas will start an hour earlier (17:00) for countries in the Central European Timezone on November 2 due to Daylight Saving. Arenas will start one hour earlier for countries that don't observe Daylight Saving from November 9 onward.
Streaming And Identification Requirements
Arena Kings is open to all Chess.com members. To be prize eligible participants must meet the following criteria:
For YouTube:
- Must fill out the form here: Arena Kings YouTube Eligibility Form
- This must be done each event to be prize eligible. Forms submitted after 20 minutes into that weeks arena will not be accepted.
For Kick and Twitch
- Players must be easily identifiable on Twitch and/or Kick by listing their streams in the "Chess" category.
- The streamer must connect their Twitch account to Chess.com.
For all platforms, in order to be prize-eligible:
- "!arenakings" Must be in the stream title
- Anonymous players cannot earn prizes. All accounts must be labeled with the player's real name.
- All streamers must play using accounts that properly reflect their playing strength as measured by rating. All forms of rating manipulation are against site rules.
- The player must stream their games with their board and themselves visible on stream, and their video and audio must be clear.
- The player must stream at least 100 minutes of the event.
- The player must save their VODs for a minimum of 14 days publicly.
- Verbal commentary and chat engagement are required. We are specifically discouraging players from streaming simply to be eligible for prizes while not providing any streaming "value."
- No short or unnatural draws without playing an authentic game of chess are permitted. We expect players to abide by the spirit of the competition and play normally at all times. A draw may be offered before time expires in your final game to, 'beat the buzzer' but only if this game was played in the authentic manner we expect throughout the whole of the tournament, and beyond a minimum of 30 moves.
How To Participate
Head to our Tournaments tab on our Play page to participate in any of the arenas. Note that you can only join an arena one hour within its starting time.
