Ultimate Sensei | Season 1 Week 1 Recap + Power Rankings

Week 1 is officially in the books for the debut season of Ultimate Sensei! If you missed the first episode, where the players faced off in a rapid tournament before getting drafted by the Senseis, you can find the full show here:

Since teams were formed in the first episode, Senseis have already begun coaching their students:

GM Neiksans - Dual Lesson w/ ChessCoachNet & Michael
Blitz Session w/ Michael
GM Perelshteyn - Lesson w/ Jesse
Lesson w/ Rebecca
IM Pruess - Dual Lesson w/ KimmyLiu & ChessGainz
Dual Lesson w/ KimmyLiu & ChessGainz 2
Dual Lesson w/ KimmyLiu & ChessGainz 3
IM Astaneh - First stream scheduled for Oct 5

Ultimate Sensei Week 1 Power Rankings

After every episode we will be publishing the power rankings, listing the judges favorites to win it all.

Season 1 Judges include Lead Commentator GM Jesse Kraai, Season 1 Commissioner IM Kostya Kavutskiy, and Show Host NM Sam Copeland.

The final rankings are based on the average score given to each participant by the judges:

And here's how each of the judges ranked the players individually, based on the initial draft tournament:

Overall the judges were impressed with MFabian's opening preparation and Kimmy's skill in blitz scrambles, while felt the rest of the players had some clear weaknesses in their play to work on.  It will be interesting to see how much these players improve over the next few weeks, and how these rankings might shift by the end! 

BLITZ BATTLE

Coming up this Saturday, October 10 will be the Ultimate Sensei Blitz Battle, a 12-round event starting at 9 AM PT.

Prizes:
1^st - $200
2^nd - $100

Format:

• 6-round double round-robin (12 games total)
• Teammates won't play against each other
• 1^st place finisher will secure the #1 seed in the Rapid Knockout Final
• 2^nd place finisher will secure the #3 seed in the Rapid Knockout Final

Tiebreak:

In case two or more players finish with the same score at the end of the blitz event, a Classical Armageddon game (90 minutes for White vs. 60 minutes for Black + draw odds, with 10-second increment starting from move 60) will be played to determine the final standings. Should be exciting!

Ultimate Sensei is an all-new reality coaching show currently taking place on Twitch, where 8 students will be pushed to improve their chess as much as possible over the course of 6 weeks. For full info, details, and schedule for the show, check out the season preview article here: https://www.chess.com/blog/ChessDojo/ultimate-sensei-season-1-premiers-9-26.