Fill Out Your Bracket To Win Prizes

The sports network ESPN estimates that 70 million college basketball brackets will be filled out this week in the United States alone.

You can get in on the fun by joining the official Chess.com college basketball bracket contest. Play along with Chess.com staff, and take your shot to win some great membership prizes, too.

Simply sign up for our free bracket group (Yahoo account required), and fill our your college basketball picks.

Earn bragging rights by outpointing Chess.com staff members in the group. If your teams perform well, you can win a free Chess.com premium membership.

How To Play:

1. Sign up for the Chess.com group before Thursday.

It's free and requires a Yahoo account. 

2. Name your bracket entry.

Be sure to include your Chess.com username in your bracket name.

3. Submit your picks before the tournament starts on Thursday.

Pick the winners of all 63 tournament games and don't forget the final-score tiebreak. 

Scoring:

Each round is worth 32 total points. The tournament has six rounds, so the perfect score is 192.

Here is the scoring breakdown round by round:

• Round of 64 -- 1 point per win (32 games)
• Round of 32 -- 2 points per win (16 games)
• Round of 16 -- 4 points per win (8 games)
• Round of 8 -- 8 points per win (4 games)
• Round of 4 -- 16 points per win (2 games)
• Championship game -- 32 points per win (1 game)
• Tiebreak: championship game final score.

Prizes:

The (non-staff) members with the best scores after the tournament ends will win Chess.com membership prizes.

• First prize: one year diamond membership
• Second prize: one year platinum membership
• Third prize: one year gold membership
• Fourth prize: three month diamond membership
• Fifth prize: three month platinum membership

Who Is Playing:

Along with your fellow Chess.com members, you can try to outfox some Chess.com staff members too.

Here's a list of who's who in the group:

• Chess.com editor Pete
• Chess.com video editor Michael
• Chess.com PHP developer Ivan
• Chess.com PHP developer Michael
• Chess.com Android developer Alexey
• Chess.com director of engineering Jon
• Chess.com director of content Mike
• Chess.com co-founder Jay
• Chess.com vice president of content and professional relations Danny

Check Your Standings:

After the tournament starts, follow along for the next three weeks by checking the group standings. 

We will contact the prize winners at the end of the tournament.

Check Out Last Year's Bracket:

Watch IM Daniel Rensch, GM Robert Hess, FM Robby Adamson, and IM Greg Shahade pick last year's bracket.

Which team do you think will win the championship? And which staff member are you looking forward to outscoring?

Let us know in the comments and on Facebook.

Good luck, and have fun!