$56,100 Prize Fund For 2018 Pro Chess League

The 2018 season of the Professional Rapid Online (PRO) Chess League will offer more than $56,000 in prizes to its players, the league announced today.

The successful online chess league is back for the 2018 season and will feature a mix of the world's best players from around the globe, forming teams competing for cash and the ultimate in chess glory.

With the addition of a $5,000 all-star competition in a viewer-friendly format to conclude the season, the PRO Chess League's prize fund has grown to $56,100, offering cash to professionals in a wide variety of categories, offering exciting action to fans and large incentives to chess players around the world to compete and win in the league.

Scheduled for June 20, this new all-star contest will include four stars from each division: three decided by the league, and one determined by fan vote. All stars compete for their team prizes—and who wouldn't love to see the world's best players like Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand on the same team? Competing against players like Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So?

For league play, the first-place team prize is $20,000, with $16,000 more allotted to second through fourth place. Another $5,000 will go to the league season's three most valuable players, in addition to the all-star competition after league play concludes.

The prize list includes $1,000 to the top female player and end-of-season prizes in a cascading series of rating categories.

Some prizes will be given out to multiple winners as the season progresses, with weekly best-game and best move prizes, and a series of "super Saturday" competitions, run four times during the year.

Not all of the prizes will be determined on the chessboard. The league has allocated a generous $2,700 in social media prizes, to be given out three times per season, $900 each award. The social media prizes will include $200 for first and $100 for second places for Best Overall Social Media and Fan Engagement, Best Live Stream, and Best Blog/Video Match Recap.

A full breakdown of the 2018 PRO Chess League prizes is below.

2018 PRO Chess League Prizes: $56,100 total. 

• 1st Place Team: $20,000
• 2nd Place Team: $10,000
• 3rd Place Team: $4,000
• 4th Place Team: $2,000
• MVP Gold: $2,500
• MVP Silver: $1,500
• MVP Bronze: $1,000
• Top Female Prize: $1,000
• Top U2600: $300
• Top U2500: $250
• Top U2400: $200
• Top U2300: $150
• Top U2200: $100
• Best Move Prizes: $1,200 ($100 x 12 weeks)
• Best Game Prizes: $1,200 ($100 x 12 weeks)
• Social Media Prizes: $2,700 ($900 x 3 times per season)
• Super Saturday Prizes: $2,000 ($500 x 4 competitions)
• All Star competition: $5,000
• Finals Weekend MVP, sponsored by Twitch: $1,000

Are you a chess player looking to join a team? Apply to be picked up as a free agent here!

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