How To Watch Today's Speed Chess Championship Open Qualifer

Speed Chess Championship season is in full swing now as the open qualifier starts Tuesday, July 10 at 12 p.m. Pacific time (3 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. UTC).

The winner of the qualifier tournament will join 15 of the world's top chess players in a bracket for the main championship event. Matches in the main bracket begin later this month.

Follow the qualifier action live at Chess.com/TV and Twitch.tv/chess.

Titled players rated 2500 or more (Chess.com blitz) may join the tournament at https://www.chess.com/live#t=977032 before the event on Tuesday. 

The following viewing options will be available:

• Twitch.tv/chess: the official broadcast with IM Daniel Rensch and GM Robert Hess—watch here to see the Twitch chat.
• Chess.com/TV: watch here to see the Chess.com chat.

In what is expected to be one of the strongest online tournaments ever held, Chess.com will crown its 16th Speed Chess Championship contender on Tuesday. Full chess-master commentary of the event will be provided on stream by IM Daniel Rensch and GM Robert Hess.

The Speed Chess Championship qualifier is open to any titled player with a Chess.com blitz rating of 2500 or more. The 10-round Swiss tournament will be conducted at the standard Speed Chess time control of 3 minutes plus 1 second increment. A prize pool of $3,500 is at stake along with the valuable Speed Chess qualification. 

When the tournament ends, all 16 Speed Chess Championship participants will be seeded 1-16 by their Chess.com blitz ratings. The official Speed Chess bracket with matchups will be released on Wednesday, July 11. 

The tournament format:

• Swiss tournament: 10 rounds, 3+1 blitz.
• Standard Chess.com tournament tiebreaks used only for the qualifier spot. No tiebreaks used for cash prizes; cash prizes split equally by point total.
• Must be titled and rated 2500 or more in Chess.com blitz to enter.
• Open to all who meet eligibility requirements, including those players invited to main bracket. If an invited player wins a qualifying spot, he gets the cash prize, and the qualification goes down to the next eligible finisher.
• At tournament end, one winner will join the main Speed Chess bracket, which will be immediately seeded 1-16 by current Chess.com blitz rating.

The $3,500 prize pool:

1. Qualify for SCC + $1,000
2. $1,000
3. $500
4. $400
5. $300
6. $200
7. $100

The following 15 players are already in the main Speed Chess bracket:

• Fabiano Caruana — world number 2 at time of invitation.

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• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov — world number 3 at time of invitation.

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• Hikaru Nakamura — world number 10 at time of invitation.

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• Wesley So — world number 8 at time of invitation.

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• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — world number 6 at time of invitation.

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• Ian Nepomniachtchi — world number 16 at time of invitation.

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• Levon Aronian — world number 12 at time of invitation.
  

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• Wei Yi — world number 22 at time of invitation.

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• Anish Giri — world number 9 at time of invitation.

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• Alexander Grischuk — world number 11 at time of invitation.
  

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• Sergey Karjakin — world number 7 at time of invitation.

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• Hou Yifan — women's world number 1 at time of invitation.

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• Jan-Krzysztof Duda — world number 21 at time of invitation.

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• Vidit Gujrath — world number 31 at time of invitation.

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• Leinier Dominguez Perez — world number 21 at time of qualification.

Who will join them? Tune in Tuesday to find out.

You can find all the information on the 2018 Speed Chess Championship here, including rules, format, players, and complete schedule. 

Let us know your tournament predictions in the comments or on Facebook.