6th Blitz Death Match: Player Announcement!

Chess.com's 6th Blitz Chess Death Match will take place Sunday, June 17th at 11:30am Pacific (2:30pm Eastern) and will feature the "strongest matchup" so far in any Death Match! England's Gawain Jones (pictured right), currently ranked #93 in the world and #4 in England, will be the best player "on paper" to ever compete in this grueling session of blitz!

The deadline to request participation passed at midnight today (June 8th). The seats for the 6th Blitz Death Match were reserved for the top two FIDE Rated Players to request them by the cut off date. GM Jones was the highest ranked player to apply, and he will face off against our first "repeat customer" for Chess.com's Death Matches: GM Robert Hess.

 

The young American barely edged out Norway's #2 -- GM Ludvig Hammer. Hess came up just short against GM Shankland in our 3rd Death Match, which was by far our most closely contested match yet. You can read Sam Shankland's Blog Review here. Hess will be looking for a chance at redemption against one of England's best! The two players will be competing for $1,000 in cash, broken up in our usual fashion (explained here).

The top ten players to request participation, and their current FIDE rankings, were:

1. GM Gawain Jones -- World #93; (Country) Endgland; FIDE 2657
2. GM Robert Hess -- World #129; (Country) USA; FIDE 2635
3. GM Jon Ludvig Hammer -- World #137; (Country) Norway; FIDE 2630
4. GM Levan Aroshidze -- World #279; (Country) Georgia; FIDE 2582
5. GM Sam Shankland -- World #284; (Country) USA; FIDE 2581
6. GM Magesh Panchanathan -- World #355; (Country) India; FIDE 2564
7. GM Dejan Bojkov -- World #400; (Country) Bulgaria; FIDE 2556
8. GM Nicholas Pert -- World #478; (Country) England; FIDE 2543
9. GM Julio Sadorra -- World #606; (Country) Philippines; FIDE 2522
10. GM Melik Khachiyan -- World #1,011; (Country) USA; FIDE 2478

With several "notable Chess.com faces" on the outside of that group:

1. IM Daniel Rensch -- World #2,276; (Country) USA; FIDE 2396
2. IM Thomas Rendle -- World #2,599; (Country) England; FIDE 2383
3. FM Mikhail Perelshteyn -- World #3,503; (Country) USA; FIDE 2386
4. FM Keaton Kiewra -- World #4,524; (Country) USA; FIDE 2361

Remember you can read the rules and general guidelines for our Death Matches here. All the action will be covered by IM Daniel Rensch and IM David Pruess live on Chess.com/TV, and the show will be open to all Chess.com members! You can look for a "pre-match prediction" blog from one of Chess.com's Directors of Content (IM Rensch or IM Pruess) this week!