2025 Chess.com Spell Chess Championship: Official Discussion Thread

The 2025 Spell Chess Championship is the next installment of this year's Chess.com Community Championships, taking place August 14-15, featuring a $2,500 prize fund and supernatural chaos as players work their magic on their way to victory.

The Spell Chess variant adds a new layer of complexity to chess. Born from Chess.com's partnership with Clash of Clans, Spell Chess allows players to cast spells to aid in their battle. The spells help players bend the rules of chess to create tactical shots that come out of nowhere—sometimes even catching players like GM Hikaru Nakamura by surprise:

The event is open to all players and features eight qualifier arenas, all taking place on August 14. Each arena will last 75 minutes and feature a 3+2 time control, with the winner advancing to the Final.

The winner of each arena will qualify for the Final on August 15, a double-elimination knockout tournament with a 3+2 time control. From there, only the best wizard or witch can emerge as the 2025 Chess.com Spell Chess Champion!

As usual, our Fair Play team will be monitoring the arenas to ensure the event is free from any dark magic (that is, engine usage). We may require participants to join a video call for fair play checks. Players who join the fair play call must set up two cameras from different angles in the room. Non-compliance will result in a player's removal from the event.

Join The Qualifiers!

Watch the live broadcast on our ChessTV, Twitch and YouTube channels.
Find all relevant info on our Events Page. Below a quick summary.

• Variant - Spell Chess
• Prize Fund - $2,500
• Qualifiers Format - 75 min arenas, 3+2 blitz, rated. Winner advances to Knockout Final
• Qualifiers Date - August 14, eight total arenas. Full Schedule
• Finals Format - 8 Players double-elimination knockout, 3+2 blitz, rated. Matches are Best of 4, if tied players contest 1+2 games until there's a winner.
• Finals Date & Time - August 15 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CEST
• Location - Online

Spell chess is hard

2nd

i join

Hey ! Are there somes ressources to learn spell chess ? Thank you so much !

i want to ask that is the money will given in form of chek or direct money in the spell chess compition 2025

i want to joint it

Nuh uh

That only time when activating your King might be a bad idea... lol.

Sounds fun, I might watch it.

Fantastic question @LordOfSystem!

Found this video by IM Wingardium Levyrozman himself:

And two guides:

• Quick Guide to Spell Chess by @JarlCarlander
• 5 Tips To Help You Win Your First Spell Chess Game, by my amazing colleague @PedroPinhata

Good games are expected

Good

Hello! Really low points at puzzles, but when I have a mistake, It TAJES 37 POINTS! STUPID :[]

Spell chess is hard

....

At the bottom-left, hit "Choose your difficulty" then pick Hard. This'll launch tougher puzzles which in turn are higher rated as well, mitigating the effect of losing many pts when losing up to a certain extent. There are a few other settings as well.

Can Chess.com add a commentator to he commentator team who has played Spell Chess and has a rating of at least 2000? I heard Dina and Canty will be commentating, but they both have ratings <1500, which will render their commentary predictably irrelevant.

 :scream

How to join

There's often special guests with a variant knowledge graal.